Dungeons and Dragons

11056 readers

454 users here now

A community for discussion of all things Dungeons and Dragons! This is the catch all community for anything relating to Dungeons and Dragons, though we encourage you to see out our Networked Communities listed below!

/c/DnD Network Communities

Other DnD and related Communities to follow*

DnD/RPG Podcasts

*Please Follow the rules of these individual communities, not all of them are strictly DnD related, but may be of interest to DnD Fans

Rules (Subject to Change)

Be a Decent Human Being
Credit OC content (self or otherwise)
Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article

Format: [Source Name] Article Title

Posts must have something to do with Dungeons and Dragons
No Piracy, this includes links to torrent sites, hosted content, streaming content, etc. Please see this post for details
Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
No NSFW content
Abide by the rules of lemmy.world

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world

owenfromcanada@lemmy.world

How do you feel about the rules regarding bonus action spells, and why? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by DonnieDarkmode@lemm.ee to c/dnd@lemmy.world

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I’m feeling a bit torn myself. I understand the thinking behind the vanilla rules; it helps balance out some of the spellcasters’ power, especially at higher levels. But my understanding of balance in 5e is that it’s to balance the players against each other, to avoid having 1 or 2 players be so clearly better at so much that it naturally pulls the limelight away from the rest of the party and causes people to lose interest their own character.

I think totally unrestricted spellcasting carries the potential for imbalance, but doesn’t guarantee that outcome, and if I’m not making my spellcasters manage their resources then I’m doing something wrong. Something like Matt Mercer’s house rule “spells of 2nd level or lower” would also be a good compromise because it allows the utility of things like Misty Step, or for a Gish to summon a shadow blade etc.

What do y’all do at your tables, and why?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] MaroonMage@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Which rules about bonus action spells are you referring to?

[–] Spuddaccino@reddthat.com 16 points 1 year ago (10 children)

When you cast a leveled spell using a bonus action, the only other spells you can cast with your action on that turn is a cantrip.

I, personally, think it's confusing and doesn't really add much in the way of balance to the game. Let the wizard burn all his spells twice as fast and be useless for the rest of the adventuring day. If your adventures have meaningful consequences for taking too long clearing a dungeon, it'll work itself out.

[–] evilgiraffe666@ttrpg.network 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Even this isn't exactly correct - that would allow you to cast reaction spells on your turn, but the rules do not.

When you cast a ~~leveled~~ spell using a bonus action, the only other spells you can cast on that turn is a cantrip, with your action.

The difference is you can't cast more leveled spells at all, and you can't cast any spells including cantrips if they don't use an action. That last part doesn't usually matter, unless you have multiple bonus actions, or reaction cantrips (which appeared in the playtest of next edition).

Edited to reduce misinformation, left the wrong in place so corrections make sense

load more comments (9 replies)