I am a paladin and many spell require "bonus action." Is this something I need to get before I can use the spell? For example, do I need to somehow aquire the ability to do a bonus action before I can cast that spell?
Hi, I wound up going on a Tumblr hiatus unexpectedly and because it wasn’t planned, I didn’t put any kind AFK notice up, so I’ve got no idea how old these questions are.
But since part of the point of this blog is that other people might have the same question, I’m going to answer them anyway.
No, you don’t need to acquire a bonus action. Every character, every single round on their turn, can take one and only one bonus action. Unless you’re under a condition that restricts this, you’ve always got that one bonus action.
The reason so many of your Paladin spells take a bonus action is because they’re intended to work together with the Fight action, which is how you attack. So you’ve got a spell like searing smite, you cast that using your bonus action, then you take the Fight action to attack just like you normally would to actually make the attack that searing smite will affect.
Hope that helps!