What are bonus actions? - General Discussion - D&D Beyond General - D&D Beyond Forums (2024)

In combat, you can take one action, one bonus action, and move. These do not need to be done in a specific order. A bonus action is going to be anything described as a “bonus action” in its text or spell timing - for example, Hunter’s Mark, the Ranger spell,lists Bonus Action as its casting time.

So, to provide an example a Ranger could cast hunters mark using their bonus action, then use their regular action to make an attack.

As a note, each edition of D&D is very different from one another - you cannot easily look at rules from one edition and try and extrapolate information about a different edition.

Bonus actions can be thought of as "quick things."

Look at Rogue's Cunning Action for example. A rogue can hide, disengage, or dash as a bonus action.

Normally these are actions.

You get both an action and a bonus action on your turn. Attacking is a action most of the time. So the benefit for a rogue is that they can dash in and still attack. Whereas a non-rogue is going to have to choose to use their action either to dash or to attack, not both.

Depending on what in particular you're looking to do, there can also be additional rules.

For example when using two-weapon fighting you can (for example) use your action to attack with a dagger and your bonus action to attack with a second dagger. But your bonus action attack won't have additional damage from STR/DEX, just the base 1d4 of a dagger.

Or when casting a bonus action spell you're limiting on what spells, if any, you cast with your action to being only a cantrip.

Are there any specific things you've come across that you have questions on? That may be more effective than trying to get a general topic of bonus actions.

During a single Round, you usually get a single turn and a reaction. A single turn usually includes a Move, an Action, and possibly a Bonus Action. Bonus actions are limited - they cannot just be another regular action. Typical things that can be done as a bonus action are using Two Weapon Fighting, class abilities, and spells that cost you a bonus action rather than a turn. What you can do with the Bonus Action depends on the particular abilties/spells, etc.

Note, there are certain common exceptions to this - such as Fighter's Action Surge, the spell Haste, and the Rogue subclass Thief Ability Thieves Reflexes.

Legendary Monsters make it even more complicated with Legendary Actions, Lair Actions, Regional Effects, and other such complications.

Especially given the state of D&D internet these days, I'd always start with this Basic Rules document for clarification rather than googling for a rule explanation. The rules writing is actually pretty succinct and misinterpretations or imprecise explanations abound in Google Searches.