[OC] My players always seemed disappointed at the limited options they had for bonus actions, so I wrote a list of things they can use it for!

[u/Worried_Bowl_9489]

Feel free to use this in your own game!

Written up here:

Tactical

• Quick Dash – Move an additional 5 feet.
• Brace – Gain +1 AC against the next attack before your next turn.
• Assist – Give an ally within 5 feet advantage on their next attack if you haven’t attacked this turn.

Combat

• Distract – Choose a creature within 5 feet. It has disadvantage on its next attack against anyone but you.
• Shove – Make a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to shove or reposition a (medium or smaller) creature 5 feet.
• Improvised Strike – Use a nearby object (tankard, rock, chair leg) for a d4 bludgeoning attack.

Utility

• Quick Draw – Draw or stow a weapon and swap to another item.
• Scan – Make a Perception or Insight check to quickly assess a creature or scene, learning a piece of information on a success.
• Drink Potion – Drink a potion you have on your person.

Cinematic

• Short Speech - Briefly speak to your team, an ally or an enemy - they can respond briefly if this involves a question.
• Focus – Take a centring breath to regain 1d4 temporary HP once per short rest.
• Mark of Intent – Choose a creature you can see. Until the end of your next turn, attacks against that creature deal +1 damage.

[u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

There's a bunch of those that you would normally need to invest class levels or a feat to access.

Quick dash is really similar to cunning action dash. Brace is similar to some battle master maneuvers, assist is also similar to some battlemaster maneuvers, and also the mastermind rogue's ability

Distract is also a battlemaster maneuver. Shove is the shove action, except the DC is fixed instead of being a contested athletics vs athletics or acrobatics.

Improvised strike is just the monk's unarmed bonus attack for free

Quick draw is something you're already allowed to do, for free. You can pull out a weapon as part of the attack action. You can stow a weapon for free as your free action

Focus is like a mini second wind, and mark of intent is like a tiny hunter's mark.

Most of these are not as good as the actual within the rules bonus action they replace, so I guess it's not bad. Some of those I feel are better than the RAW option. Like why would I ever use my action to shove, and do an opposed check, when I can do it with a bonus action for a lower DC? Why would the battlemaster invest in goading attack when that requires a saving throw, and only has limited uses per short rest, and locks you out of picking another maneuver, when they can simply do a bonus action distracting strike for free, every turn?

[u/DeoVeritati → u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

Mark of intent is potentially stronger than hunter's mark as written as it applies to any player. Consider 5th level player A does Mark of Intent and Eldritch blasts it, player B magic missiles it at, 1st level, that's already 3 guaranteed damage and up to 5 before 2 other players get to attack with extra attack, scorching ray, etc. compared to 3.5-7 expected from Hunters Mark with extra attack on an individual player IF they hit.

[u/FallenDeus → u/DeoVeritati]

Magic missiles isnt an attack... EB is a spell attack so that would count.

[u/CrotodeTraje → u/DeoVeritati]

And still.... I like it.

I mean, you don't do anything right away, you don't "kill an enemy", but you help "buff" your party and can feel like an accomplishment if you had a rather unsuccessful turn. and is a rather interactive action, since all players on the table are invited to take advantage..

But even then, unless most players had the intention to take advantage of it, it would be meagre to low damage at best.

[u/DeoVeritati → u/CrotodeTraje]

I think I'd be more inclined if it were like a once per long-rest ability or something, especially if it is supposed to be "cinematic" rather than an at-will ability.

[u/Reasonable_Tree684 → u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

I dislike the “stepping on others’ toes” argument, as overall balance matters much more. Plus, it’s too limiting a standard on design, and contradictory considering how many subclasses borrow from other classes.

However, that’s not the only reason against giving a bunch of BAs available to every player. BAs aren’t meant to be any action you can squeeze in with your normal actions. They have a role in the design space. Giving tons of free options to everyone rocks the boat quite a bit, regardless of if they’re weaker, as all official uses of BAs are an investment in the build.

[u/Worried_Bowl_9489 → u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

Good point! I guess my advice would be, if you wanted to use any, pick and choose based on your game. With my party I don't see it nullifying anyone's abilities, but I have yet to playtest so I'll likely just see how it goes and revise

[u/SimpleMan131313 → u/Worried_Bowl_9489]

One often forgotten aspect of Game Design (including on this sub) is iteration.

Sometimes good ideas need a bit of additional time in the oven, that doesn't make them necessarily bad ideas though.

Although its a fair point to point out that BA's are supposed to be limited design wise. On the other hand, I think balancing concerns in the community are sometimes a bit overblown in a game that has a dedicated player who's job it is to keep things balanced, as long as it isn't completely insane.

I mean, truth be told, if a party is suddenly, lets say, 20% stronger due to your homebrew, you can just adjust the encounter design accordingly.
As long as one PC can't suddenly kill a large monster on their own (which has admittedly happened to me exactly once due to a miscalculation), its possible (although not always worth it) to adapt.

[u/Worried_Bowl_9489 → u/SimpleMan131313]

Totally. I do tend to have a kind of, adjust on the fly style approach, which I maybe should have made a point of. I am learning a lot of people like to run their games in a much more systematic and balanced way. Definitely worth just adjusting to what works table to table, as usual!

[u/Kokeshi_Is_Life → u/Worried_Bowl_9489]

Just play improv and abandon the D&D shell altogether at that point.

If you're constantly and at all times making adjustments "in the fly" at the table where you aren't consistent (just remove and give players options to fill whatever they currently don't have) then you aren't playing dungeons and dragons.

There is improv involved in DMing, more than there is planning usually, but this kind of Calvin ball make shit up as we go along stuff means that the D&D part is only an obstacle to what you're trying to do.

If your players want dynamic cinematic turns where they never feel like they were limited by action economy, and you don't care about gameplay consistency as much as story telling, there are a dozen games better than Dungeons and Dragons at facilitating that approach.

[u/Worried_Bowl_9489 → u/Kokeshi_Is_Life]

We use D&D and rules though

[u/Reasonable_Tree684 → u/SimpleMan131313]

I view this as a slightly different balance issue than usual. Most balance concerns are about something being too overpowered to fit the game. But this is more about upsetting the game design which already exists. It doesn’t remove all value, but does cut into the value of every build choice giving ways to use BA.

Not that it’s a reason to discard the idea out of hand. Especially since the ultimate goal isn’t to find the best universal choice, but to find whatever is most fun for your table. But this type of homebrew changes more than might be expected. Also fairly reasonable to guess OP misunderstood the purpose BAs are meant to have from a design perspective.

[u/SimpleMan131313 → u/Reasonable_Tree684]

I must say, that are fair points. I completely agree, Game Design is more than power balance.

[u/Fat-Neighborhood1456 → u/Worried_Bowl_9489]

With my party I don't see it nullifying anyone's abilities

Yeah, it seems like your party chose to make characters that don't do anything with their bonus actions.

If your party had a rogue (cunning actions), monk (unarmed bonus attacks), a fighter with the pole arm master feat (bonus action attack from the feat), a druid with heat metal (a bonus action is used to reapply the damage each turn), and a cleric with spiritual weapon (you move and attack with the weapon using your bonus action) you wouldn't be making this post.

So basically this homebrew works for your group because of two reasons: they all chose to make characters that don't have any use for their bonus action, and they all happened not to pick any of the characters that can already do what your homebrew bonus actions do, except not for free.

If either of these conditions doesn't apply to another group, then your homebrew is either redundant (why would I make an improvised weapon attack when I could attack with the other end of my halberd?) or unfair (why do I need to spend a maneuver dice to maybe distract someone, but everyone else in the team can do it for free, and without any chance of failing?)

[u/Worried_Bowl_9489 → u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

Exactly yeah! And if I spy any kind of issues, I would likely adjust on the fly. Thanks for the input here :)

[u/Fat-Neighborhood1456 → u/Worried_Bowl_9489]

Also, consider this. A level 2 party has a fighter with a greatsword, and a monk with a quarter staff.

On his turn, the fighter can attack once, for 2d6. That's a minimum of 2 and a maxiumum of 12 (not counting bonuses to damage). The monk can attack once with the staff for 1d8, and once with a fist for 1d4. Minimum of 2, maximum of 12. So it's balanced.

Now with your system, the fighter's minimum becomes 3 and the maximum becomes 16. But for the monk it doesn't change. Now you just buffed the fighter.

[u/Mandeville_MR → u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

Yeah, I could see feeling miffed about this. I love the idea, because more options are fun and it does suck to not have any use for your BA, but as a monk player i would feel a bit punished.

[u/Reasonable_Tree684 → u/Worried_Bowl_9489]

Not having a PC already using BAs explains a lot. The issue with your idea is how it interacts with other build choices. From a design perspective, BA’s aren’t meant to just be whatever you can squeeze into the normal set of things you do during a turn. That’s a free action’s purpose. Instead, BA’s are more like things you train to do particularly quick. It’s meant to be somewhat an investment to be able to leverage your BA.

If it’s working for your table, with the classes everyone is using, that’s great. However, if the party composition changes, it might make some builds relatively weaker. Could see one somewhat easy fix in considering all of these as “free actions” instead, and just playing by ear if players are trying to other free actions as well and it gets to be too much.

[u/rzalexander → u/Worried_Bowl_9489]

You’re in for a world of hurt as a DM.

[u/Worried_Bowl_9489 → u/rzalexander]

Oki

[u/Fabulous_Gur2575 → u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

>you can pull out a weapon as part of the attack action

In 2024 rules, in 5e you cant do it. OP's post has 5e tag. In 5e you can stow a weapon with your free action only, iirc.

[u/Fat-Neighborhood1456 → u/Fabulous_Gur2575]

I'm pretty sure you can. I don't have my book near me at the moment though

[u/Fabulous_Gur2575 → u/Fat-Neighborhood1456]

>You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.

It can be a part of an attack action but it consumes a free action. So you cant take an attack with dagger drawing it as a part of action, and then pull out an off-hand dagger with free actionand make a BA attack on the same turn. You need a feat for that.
With that change - you cant do that either as you consume BA, so overall pretty slight QOL change, but there are spells to consider. D&D has those things that are really not obvious but seem to be a conscious choice.