Now that the rules from the Dungeons and Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook are out in the wild, eagle-eyed fans have spotted that many, many class features now rely on bonus actions – so much so that it might be the defining feature of the new edition, at least when it comes to optimizing characters.
In Wargamer’s DnD 2024 Player’s Handbook review, we noted that DnD 2024 is fundamentally the same game as 5th edition (for better and for worse, depending on your tastes), but with a “complex web of small changes”. One change for many DnD classes is that features and abilities that previously required a full action now use a bonus action instead (and a few bonus actions have been downgraded to free actions).
While this generally gives players more actions each combat, if a class has multiple key features that all use a bonus action, you’re going to have to pick one to use each turn. Classes with loads of good bonus actions will benefit less from DnD feats and DnD races that provide bonus action abilities; conversely, classes with fewer native bonus actions will benefit more from bonus action options from other sources.
DnD fan RowanAbbottTurbo has shared a handy document on the r/OneDnD subreddit summarizing every bonus action option available to each of the new core classes. It opens with a handy TLDR that explains how likely each class is to have its bonus action slot free each turn in combat. It’s worth checking out; in some classes, the choice of subclass can drastically restrict how much freedom you have when using your bonus action.
As an example of a class with a lot of freedom, the DnD 2024 Barbarian only really needs to spend one bonus action at the start of combat to enter a rage. It gains a smattering of bonus action class features that provide utility or movement as it levels up, but these have limited uses per long rest.
In contrast, the DnD 2024 Rogue‘s bonus actions will usually be accounted for by a class feature. From level two the Rogue can use its bonus action to Dash, Disengage, or Hide; from level three it can take Steady Aim for automatic advantage on an attack; and the Psy-Knife, Arcane Trickster, and Thief Rogue subclasses all get additional ways to use a Bonus Action at level three.
With no shortage of options to use its bonus action each turn, the Rogue has much less reason to use a feature like the DnD Aasimar’s Celestial Revelation or the Bonus Action attack from the Dual Wielder feat than the Barbarian does. RowanAbbottTurbo identifies three classes, and four subclasses in other classes, that all have little reason to pick feats, races, or magic items that provide additional bonus action options.
It’s still too early to say whether this will be drastic enough that some classes feel railroaded into particular builds. And of course, there are the other two core books yet to arrive on the DnD release schedule before we can really say what this edition is like. We’ll be sure to let you know our thoughts – to make sure you don’t miss them, follow Wargamer on Google News.
Source: Wargamer
