But you can cast a regular Lightning Bolt with an action, and Action Surge to cast a second Lightning Bolt with a second action. Just skip the Quickened metamagic and the cantrip on any round where you plan to Action Surge, and the core of your maximizing lightning damage trick is fine. Your Channel Divinity doesn't take an action, but does only effect one spell not all spells cast that turn, so you'll need to use it each time.
Why shouldn't l Quicken the first one and cast a cantrip? If l'm understanding it correctly, you seem to be saying that the bonus action casting of lightning bolt (Which would allow the cantrip use) will stop me from being able to use the action surge to cast another lightning bolt, but the official sage advice l linked to in my most resent edit says (to my understanding at least) that you can cast a slotted spell as your action surge if you already cast a BA slot + cantrip.
No, that is not what Sage Advice says. The Sage Advice that says you can cast a second non-cantrip spell with Action Surge doesn't mention bonus actions at all.
Everything about your build is legal, you'll just be MAD. You need Wis 13 Cha 13 Str/Dex 13 to even make the character, so even if you solve the AC problem with heavy armor, your Con will be trash.
What do you mean by "MAD"? I've never heard that term before. As for the stats, I hope to either roll well, or use point buy+ racial bonus+ ASI to reach it, plus being a glass cannon isn't necessarily bad.
MAD is "multi-ability dependent" (or some variation that means the same thing). Broadly, it means you have to invest your ability score increases across a lot of different abilities, so you're not going to be as strong in any single one.
If you quicken Lightning Bolt or use any other spell with a casting time of one bonus action the only other spells you can cast that turn are cantrips with a casting time of one action. That includes an additional action granted by Action Surge and reactions. However, if you cast Lightning Bolt without quickening it you can then use Action Surge to cast Lightning Bolt again and cast a reaction spell if applicable.
The distinction is the use of a spell with the casting time of one bonus action.
Here's as many examples of spellcasting turns that I can think of. This is probably not helpful as a guide, but might be useful to check your math against I guess, as you work through some hypotheticals. I will use Lightning Bolt to represent leveled spells using Actions or Bonus Actions, Fire Bolt to represent cantrip spells using Actions or Bonus Actions, and Counterspell to represent any spell using a Reaction. THE ORDER ACTIONS ARE TAKEN IS UNIMPORTANT in all of these examples, it doesn't matter whether the action precedes the bonus action, or bonus action precedes the action, or where the second action falls, or where the reaction falls, etc etc. All that matters really is: if Bonus Action used to cast any type of spell? Then ONLY CANTRIPS USING ACTION(S), no matter before or after!"
OK:
Casting spells with Actions is OK: Casting either Lightning Bolt (a leveled spell) or Fire Bolt (a cantrip spell) with an Action.
Casting spells with Bonus Actions is OK, if you've got a way to do that: Using Quickened Spell metamagic to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt as a Bonus Action.
Casting two spells with two Actions is OK, if you've got two Actions somehow like Action Surge: Casting either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with an Action. Then Action Surge to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt a second time with a second Action.
Casting a spell with an Action, and another spell with a Reaction, is OK: Casting either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with an Action. Then cast Counterspell with a Reaction when someone tries to counter your spell.
Casting two spells with two Actions, and a spell with a Reaction, is OK: Casting either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with an Action. Then cast Counterspell with a Reaction when someone tries to counter your spell. Then Action Surge to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with a second Action.
Casting a spell with a Bonus Action, and a cantrip with an Action, is OK: Casting Fire Bolt (a cantrip) with an Action. Then, using Quickened Spell metamagic to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with a Bonus Action.
ARGUABLY OK:
Casting a spell with a Bonus Action, and two cantrips with two Actions is ARGUABLY OK: Casting Fire Bolt (a cantrip) with an Action. Then, using Quickened Spell metamagic to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with a Bonus Action. Then Action Surge to cast Fire Bolt (a cantrip) with a second Action.
NOT OK:
Casting a spell with a Bonus Action, and a leveled spell with an Action, is NOT OK: Casting Lightning Bolt (a leveled spell) with an Action. Then using Quickened Spell metamagic to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with a Bonus Action.
Casting a spell with a Bonus Action, and a cantrip with an Action, and a leveled spell with a Second Action, is NOT OK: Casting Fire Bolt (a cantrip) with an Action. Then using Quickened Spell metamagic to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with a Bonus Action. Then Action Surge to cast Lightning Bolt with a second Action.
Casting a spell with a Bonus Action, and a spell with a Reaction, is NOT OK: Casting Counterspell with a Reaction. Then using Quickened Spell metamagic to cast either Lightning Bolt or Fire Bolt with a Bonus Action.
Here's as many examples of spellcasting turns that I can think of.
<snip>
Yea that seems to be correct. The only one I might argue with is the "Arguably OK" one as I don't see anything arguably about it, should just put it in the "OK" category instead.
What's "arguable" about it is that Chapter 10 says "a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action," not "cantrips with a casting time of 1 action." Different folks disagree over whether that's just a style and grammar issue, or a hard requirement that you can only cast one action cantrip.
What's "arguable" about it is that Chapter 10 says "a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action," not "cantrips with a casting time of 1 action." Different folks disagree over whether that's just a style and grammar issue, or a hard requirement that you can only cast one action cantrip.
To be clearer, the full sentence is "You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action". The concept of a singular spell is first introduced by the word 'another' and the word 'a' agrees with that singular nature. The sentence would never use a plural after the word another. If you want to discuss the grammatical meaning of that sentence fragment, it requires the full context.
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No, that is not what Sage Advice says. The Sage Advice that says you can cast a second non-cantrip spell with Action Surge doesn't mention bonus actions at all.
MAD is "multi-ability dependent" (or some variation that means the same thing). Broadly, it means you have to invest your ability score increases across a lot of different abilities, so you're not going to be as strong in any single one.
If you quicken Lightning Bolt or use any other spell with a casting time of one bonus action the only other spells you can cast that turn are cantrips with a casting time of one action. That includes an additional action granted by Action Surge and reactions.
However, if you cast Lightning Bolt without quickening it you can then use Action Surge to cast Lightning Bolt again and cast a reaction spell if applicable.
The distinction is the use of a spell with the casting time of one bonus action.
Here's as many examples of spellcasting turns that I can think of. This is probably not helpful as a guide, but might be useful to check your math against I guess, as you work through some hypotheticals. I will use Lightning Bolt to represent leveled spells using Actions or Bonus Actions, Fire Bolt to represent cantrip spells using Actions or Bonus Actions, and Counterspell to represent any spell using a Reaction. THE ORDER ACTIONS ARE TAKEN IS UNIMPORTANT in all of these examples, it doesn't matter whether the action precedes the bonus action, or bonus action precedes the action, or where the second action falls, or where the reaction falls, etc etc. All that matters really is: if Bonus Action used to cast any type of spell? Then ONLY CANTRIPS USING ACTION(S), no matter before or after!"
OK:
ARGUABLY OK:
NOT OK:
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Yea that seems to be correct. The only one I might argue with is the "Arguably OK" one as I don't see anything arguably about it, should just put it in the "OK" category instead.
What's "arguable" about it is that Chapter 10 says "a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action," not "cantrips with a casting time of 1 action." Different folks disagree over whether that's just a style and grammar issue, or a hard requirement that you can only cast one action cantrip.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Wow, very informative. Thanks. (Not sarcasm, legit thanks) Kinda sad my (full) plan won't work though (unless the dm allows it to)
To be clearer, the full sentence is "You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action". The concept of a singular spell is first introduced by the word 'another' and the word 'a' agrees with that singular nature. The sentence would never use a plural after the word another. If you want to discuss the grammatical meaning of that sentence fragment, it requires the full context.