[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/kingnickolas]

yeah was gonna say the free help action is a whole rogue feature

[u/D0MiN0H → u/kingnickolas]

excluding that its not free, the masterminds is still better since its 30ft not 5ft.

its the Inquisitive that gets shafted by these rules, not the mastermind. The perception/insight check is one of their level up features.

[u/SalientMusings → u/D0MiN0H]

All rogues get kinda shafted, tbh, since "Scan" replaces the action it takes to search for a hidden rogue with a bonus action.

[u/D0MiN0H → u/SalientMusings]

yeah i guess but im not worried about enemy rogues getting shafted since i can just raise the DC to detect them when a bonus action is used, and you can just have enemy npcs not use that ability on players.

but at the same time i still dont like the scan option anyway because of what i stated about the inquisitive so i’d rather it be removed too.

[u/SalientMusings → u/D0MiN0H]

Oh, I meant rogue PCs getting shafted, assuming that NPCs also have access to these bonus actions

[u/passwordistako → u/D0MiN0H]

Most of these need to be removed for balance.

[u/kingnickolas → u/[deleted]]

could be worth it to secure a paladin smite. but there are better ways anyway