So they would still be subject to the One Thing At a Time rule, same as any other action
Of course, this interpretation also means you can't take a reaction in the middle of your own action, i.e. counterspelling a counterspell to your own initial cast
I would say that this is a case of specific v general. Spells like Counterspell and Shield have specified timings for when they can be used and thus they can be used then. But the One Thing at a Time rule would prevent you to do a Bonus Action inside an Action just because you wants to.
But I could see it being a possibility that they intended to allow BA's between attacks (along with movement) but I'm not at all sure, it would be nice if they could errata the rules to provide some clarity or at least put out an updated SAC that answers the questions that the 2024 rules have created.
Off the top of my head, I can't think of bonus actions that can be used during an attack action. The attack action explicitly allows movement between attacks and Disengage (as a Bonus Action from Cunning Action) modifies your movement for the rest of the turn. So Disengage, attack, move, second attack works but attack, disengage, move, second attack doesn't.
Smite spells are BA's that are cast directly after an attack. If they can't be cast during the Attack Action then a Paladin having the Extra Attack feature becomes an issue.
Shining Smite for reference. Yeah, that's a good example and I think your argument about specific overruling the general solves it well, even more so than with Counterspell and Shield.
Eventually it would be great if a revised Sage Advice Compendium was published to clarify debated topics such as One Thing at a Time, Nick, Hide, True Strike etc.
I pray to Tyr, god of law, every day for this to become a real thing.
And Barbarian: Rage of the Wild also has a feature letting you take two Actions as part of a Bonus Action.
So definitely doable when specifically allowed at least.
Great Weapon Master: Immediately after you score a Critical Hit with a Melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points with one, you can make one attack with the same weapon as a Bonus Action.
Polearm Master: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. The weapon deals Bludgeoning damage, and the weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4.
Rage of the Wilds: When you activate your Rage, you can take the Disengage and Dash actions as part of that Bonus Action. While your Rage is active, you can take a Bonus Action to take both of those actions.
I think they intended Bonus Action timing to be futther limitations so that otherwise you choose when to take a Bonus Action during your turn unless the Bonus Action’s timing is specified.
Things like the Incapacitated condition or the Action glossary also distinctively refers to them so i believe One Thing at a Time refers to the main action only.
There is also Great Weapon Master and Polearm Master feats that allow it
Polearm Master: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. The weapon deals Bludgeoning damage, and the weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4.
Disagree on Polearm Master at least, which says you take the Bonus Action after an Attack action in which you used one of the triggering weapons -- not in between attacks within the Attack action
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Disagree on Polearm Master at least, which says you take the Bonus Action after an Attack action in which you used one of the triggering weapons -- not in between attacks within the Attack action
Polearm Master is usable immediately after you take the Attack action and attack....so if you can make multiple attacks as part of the Attack action, you should be able to use it immediately after the first one.
My take on this is that the specific rules for bonus actions take precedence over the general rules for actions:
Actions in general:
"One Thing at a Time
The game uses actions to govern how much you can do at one time. You can take only one action at a time. This principle is most important in combat, as explained in “Combat” later in this chapter.
Actions can come up in other situations, too: in a social interaction, you can try to Influence a creature or use the Search action to read the creature’s body language, but you can’t do both at the same time. And when you’re exploring a dungeon, you can’t simultaneously use the Search action to look for traps and use the Help action to aid another character who’s trying to open a stuck door (with the Utilize action)."
Note that ALL of the examples cited refer to taking multiple Actions simultaneously.
Rules specifically for Bonus Actions:
"Bonus Actions
Various class features, spells, and other abilities let you take an additional action on your turn called a Bonus Action. The Cunning Action feature, for example, allows a Rogue to take a Bonus Action. You can take a Bonus Action only when a special ability, a spell, or another feature of the game states that you can do something as a Bonus Action. You otherwise don’t have a Bonus Action to take.
You can take only one Bonus Action on your turn, so you must choose which Bonus Action to use if you have more than one available.
You choose when to take a Bonus Action during your turn unless the Bonus Action’s timing is specified. Anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a Bonus Action."
The specific rules for bonus actions specify that they can be taken at ANY time during your turn unless the bonus action's timing is specified. This specific rule applies to BONUS actions and over rides any general rules stated for actions.
Similarly for reactions: The reaction rules include specifics of reaction timing that take precedence over the general rules for actions.
"Reactions
Certain special abilities, spells, and situations allow you to take a special action called a Reaction. A Reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on your turn or on someone else’s. The Opportunity Attack, described later in this chapter, is the most common type of Reaction.
When you take a Reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn. If the reaction interrupts another creature’s turn, that creature can continue its turn right after the Reaction.
In terms of timing, a Reaction takes place immediately after its trigger unless the Reaction’s description says otherwise."
Finally, the specific beats general rule was hard to find in the 2024 source materials but it is hiding in the DMG2024
"Exceptions Supersede General Rules. General rules govern each part of the game, but the game also includes class features, spells, magic items, monster abilities, and other elements that can contradict a general rule. When an exception and a general rule disagree, the exception wins. For example, it’s a general rule that melee weapon attacks use the attacking character’s Strength modifier. But if a feature says that a character can make melee weapon attacks using Charisma, that exception supersedes the general rule."
So, as previously, the exceptions to the general "One Thing at a Time" rule provided in the specific rules for bonus actions and reactions supersedes the general rule. This allows bonus actions and reactions to be taken during an Action if such is appropriate (eg paladin smite spells, use of cunning action, casting a bonus action spell (e.g. shield of faith or healing word) between two attacks of an Attack action etc).
I think that RAW completely supports that point of view just based on the specific rules for bonus actions and reaction taking precedence over the general "One thing at a time rule".
However, I can see a different DM deciding to interpret it differently, if they choose, by making the general "One thing at a time rule" take precedence over the later rules and then ruling the bonus actions that don't make sense at any other time except during a different Action as exceptions.
Personally, I've never considered the Attack action with additional attacks as "atomic". The rules specifically call out movement between these attacks as permitted. It doesn't make logical sense to me that a fighter/cleric for example could not make an attack ... move 15' to bring a target within range - cast healing word - then move another 15' to make their second attack or a fighter/rogue with extra attack, make their first attack and then want to use their bonus action to dash to make their second attack but be prevented because they did not decide to use their bonus action to dash before making their first attack. I find this disrupts the narrative and flow of character actions with extraneous game mechanics timing ... "Sorry, you can't do that since you didn't declare it before your first attack" .. "But I didn't know what I was going to do next because I didn't know they were going down" .. "You can dash now as a bonus action if you like but I'm sorry you won't get your second attack in that case". Honestly, to me, that is a case of game mechanics interfering with the narrative flow of the game in a cumbersome way that I don't think was intended ... especially when the rules can be read without requiring that interpretation.
--------------
In terms of the OP example, regarding making an attack with the Nick property -
"Mastery Properties
Each weapon has a mastery property, which is usable only by a character who has a feature, such as Weapon Mastery, that unlocks the property for the character. The properties are defined below."
"Nick
When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action. You can make this extra attack only once per turn."
"Light
When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon, and you don’t add your ability modifier to the extra attack’s damage unless that modifier is negative. For example, you can attack with a Shortsword in one hand and a Dagger in the other using the Attack action and a Bonus Action, but you don’t add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the damage roll of the Bonus Action unless that modifier is negative."
The Nick mastery property is an exception to the other mastery properties because it does not state that the mastery property applies to the attack with this weapon. I think this is intentional but also an oversight.
Some folks interpret this to mean that you don't even need to make an attack with a weapon with the nick property in order to receive the benefit. Personally, I think the intent was to allow a creature to make an attack with a weapon with the nick property and then make the two weapon fighting attack with any other qualifying light weapon. So attack with a scimitar or dagger to activate nick and then make the two weapon fighting attack with a shortsword, hand crossbow or any other qualifying light weapon.
In this case, related to the OPs question, they could make an attack with a dagger, move and then make the nick enabled two weapon fighting attack as part of the Attack action using a hand crossbow. This would be allowed since Nick does not state that the two weapon fighting attack needs to be made with a Nick weapon - only that the bonus action attack allowed by the use of the light property can be made as part of the attack action.
I think that interpretation is also fully consistent with RAW but there are quite a few variations floating around so as always the question comes down to ask your DM.
Disagree on Polearm Master at least, which says you take the Bonus Action after an Attack action in which you used one of the triggering weapons -- not in between attacks within the Attack action
Polearm Master is usable immediately after you take the Attack action and attack....so if you can make multiple attacks as part of the Attack action, you should be able to use it immediately after the first one.
No, it's usable immediately after an Attack action in which you made a certain kind of attack
By your interpretation, if you took the Attack action but didn't make your first attack with one of the listed weapons for whatever reason, you wouldn't get to make the Bonus Action attack because it wasn't 'immediately after you took the Attack action'
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Not sure if intended, but a strict reading of Pole Strike's Bonus Action timing even seems to limit t you to make it at this very moment and not after moving or making Extra Attacks for exemple.
No, it's usable immediately after an Attack action in which you made a certain kind of attack
By your interpretation, if you took the Attack action but didn't make your first attack with one of the listed weapons for whatever reason, you wouldn't get to make the Bonus Action attack because it wasn't 'immediately after you took the Attack action'
Indeed, because if the take the Attack action and attack with anything other than a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you don’t have a Bonus Action to take.
Now if as a Fighter L5 you take the Attack action, attack with a Longsword and attack with a Spear, then immediately after the last one you would now have a Bonus Action to take.
Bonus Action: You can take a Bonus Action only when a special ability, a spell, or another feature of the game states that you can do something as a Bonus Action. You otherwise don’t have a Bonus Action to take.
No, it's usable immediately after an Attack action in which you made a certain kind of attack
By your interpretation, if you took the Attack action but didn't make your first attack with one of the listed weapons for whatever reason, you wouldn't get to make the Bonus Action attack because it wasn't 'immediately after you took the Attack action'
Indeed, because if the take the Attack action and attack with anything other than a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you don’t have a Bonus Action to take.
You misunderstand. Your interpretation requires the polearm attack to be the first attack within the action
If an Eldritch Knight casts a cantrip first and then attacks with their polearm, they get no Bonus Action attack at all, because the polearm attack did not come immediately after they took the Attack action
Your interpretation has "Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with [list of weapons]" as the trigger for the Bonus Action. That forces the triggering attack to come first
Mine has "Immediately after you take the Attack action" as the trigger. "...and attack with [list of weapons]" just tells you what sort of Attack action qualifies. Once the Attack action is completed, you get the Bonus Action attack just so long as at some point in that Attack action, you made an attack with one of the listed weapons
It would need to say "Immediately after you make an attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties as part of the Attack action, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon" to work the way you seem to want it to work
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
You misunderstand. Your interpretation requires the polearm attack to be the first attack within the action
If an Eldritch Knight casts a cantrip first and then attacks with their polearm, they get no Bonus Action attack at all, because the polearm attack did not come immediately after they took the Attack action
The ''Immediately'' is not after you take the Attack action alone, but after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties. This is the timing that enables you to take a Bonus Action. the Eldritch Knight in your example should be able to Pole Strike immediately after taking the Attack action and attacking with the polearm.
If you read the phrase in it's entirety, you can see that it's immediately after you do X and Y, you can use Z.
The ''Immediately'' is not after you take the Attack action alone...
That's not how grammar works
You can certainly play it like that, but that's not what it says, or how the sentence is constructed. RAW, it doesn't do what you want it to do
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Grammatically, am i the only one reading it that way?
Polearm Master: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon
Grammatically, am i the only one reading it that way?
Polearm Master: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon
No, you're right about what it means grammatically. A clearer way to word it would be "Immediately after you make an attack with a quarterstaff (etc.) as part of the Attack action", which is how they've worded things like this in a few other places.
And Barbarian: Rage of the Wild also has a feature letting you take two Actions as part of a Bonus Action.
So definitely doable when specifically allowed at least.
Great Weapon Master: Immediately after you score a Critical Hit with a Melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points with one, you can make one attack with the same weapon as a Bonus Action.
Polearm Master: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. The weapon deals Bludgeoning damage, and the weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4.
Rage of the Wilds: When you activate your Rage, you can take the Disengage and Dash actions as part of that Bonus Action. While your Rage is active, you can take a Bonus Action to take both of those actions.
Examples like those are why I think Bonus Actions should follow roughly this approach:
If "the Bonus Action’s timing is specified", you must follow that timing. The examples you provided fall into this category.
If the timing is not specified, you have the freedom to choose, because the rule says: "You choose when to take a Bonus Action during your turn [...]".
Grammatically, am i the only one reading it that way?
Polearm Master: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon
I read it the same way you do.
The next sentence is equivalent in my head:
Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff [...] you can Immediately use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon
The word "Immediately" is relevant because other rules use terms like "later on" such as the Dual Wielder feat or the Light property.
Grammatically, am i the only one reading it that way?
Polearm Master: Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon
No, you're right about what it means grammatically. A clearer way to word it would be "Immediately after you make an attack with a quarterstaff (etc.) as part of the Attack action", which is how they've worded things like this in a few other places.
That's not "clearer", that's the way it would need to be phrased for the RAW to work the way you think it should work
If you tie 'take the Attack action' and 'make an attack with a listed weapon' together as the trigger, you need to do them together. Taking the Attack action, doing something else, then making an appropriate attack breaks the sequence and doesn't activate the ability, because the trigger was never met. First you took the Attack action, but didn't make the right kind of attack. Then you made the right kind of attack, but it wasn't after taking the Attack action, it was after casting a cantrip or making an attack with a different type of weapon or whatever
'make an attack with a listed weapon' isn't part of the trigger, it's a qualifier for the trigger. Not all Attack actions work as triggers for PAM, only ones that contain certain kinds of attacks
Again, there may be some minor weapon mastery shenanigans you could get up to using the PAM BA whenever but that's about it, so I hardly think it's game breaking to play it that way. But RAW, it's not what the feature says
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Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
( only way to attack with weapon is to use the Attack Action, so no need to reference it anyway.)
That is very much not true. There are lots of other ways to attack with weapons — such as opportunity attacks, True Strike, and of course the bonus action attack we're talking about — which is why that language is there.
I would say that this is a case of specific v general. Spells like Counterspell and Shield have specified timings for when they can be used and thus they can be used then. But the One Thing at a Time rule would prevent you to do a Bonus Action inside an Action just because you wants to.
But I could see it being a possibility that they intended to allow BA's between attacks (along with movement) but I'm not at all sure, it would be nice if they could errata the rules to provide some clarity or at least put out an updated SAC that answers the questions that the 2024 rules have created.
Shining Smite for reference. Yeah, that's a good example and I think your argument about specific overruling the general solves it well, even more so than with Counterspell and Shield.
How to add Tooltips.
Trust me when I say that post and the following ones with the conversation with you and David42 were the ones I revisited today while posting here.
I pray to Tyr, god of law, every day for this to become a real thing.
Besides Divine Smite, Shining Smite, Blinding Smite, Staggering Smite and Banishing Smite, There is also Great Weapon Master and Polearm Master feats that allow it
And Barbarian: Rage of the Wild also has a feature letting you take two Actions as part of a Bonus Action.
So definitely doable when specifically allowed at least.
I think they intended Bonus Action timing to be futther limitations so that otherwise you choose when to take a Bonus Action during your turn unless the Bonus Action’s timing is specified.
Things like the Incapacitated condition or the Action glossary also distinctively refers to them so i believe One Thing at a Time refers to the main action only.
Disagree on Polearm Master at least, which says you take the Bonus Action after an Attack action in which you used one of the triggering weapons -- not in between attacks within the Attack action
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Polearm Master is usable immediately after you take the Attack action and attack....so if you can make multiple attacks as part of the Attack action, you should be able to use it immediately after the first one.
My take on this is that the specific rules for bonus actions take precedence over the general rules for actions:
Actions in general:
"One Thing at a Time
The game uses actions to govern how much you can do at one time. You can take only one action at a time. This principle is most important in combat, as explained in “Combat” later in this chapter.
Actions can come up in other situations, too: in a social interaction, you can try to Influence a creature or use the Search action to read the creature’s body language, but you can’t do both at the same time. And when you’re exploring a dungeon, you can’t simultaneously use the Search action to look for traps and use the Help action to aid another character who’s trying to open a stuck door (with the Utilize action)."
Note that ALL of the examples cited refer to taking multiple Actions simultaneously.
Rules specifically for Bonus Actions:
"Bonus Actions
Various class features, spells, and other abilities let you take an additional action on your turn called a Bonus Action. The Cunning Action feature, for example, allows a Rogue to take a Bonus Action. You can take a Bonus Action only when a special ability, a spell, or another feature of the game states that you can do something as a Bonus Action. You otherwise don’t have a Bonus Action to take.
You can take only one Bonus Action on your turn, so you must choose which Bonus Action to use if you have more than one available.
You choose when to take a Bonus Action during your turn unless the Bonus Action’s timing is specified. Anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a Bonus Action."
The specific rules for bonus actions specify that they can be taken at ANY time during your turn unless the bonus action's timing is specified. This specific rule applies to BONUS actions and over rides any general rules stated for actions.
Similarly for reactions: The reaction rules include specifics of reaction timing that take precedence over the general rules for actions.
"Reactions
Certain special abilities, spells, and situations allow you to take a special action called a Reaction. A Reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on your turn or on someone else’s. The Opportunity Attack, described later in this chapter, is the most common type of Reaction.
When you take a Reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn. If the reaction interrupts another creature’s turn, that creature can continue its turn right after the Reaction.
In terms of timing, a Reaction takes place immediately after its trigger unless the Reaction’s description says otherwise."
Finally, the specific beats general rule was hard to find in the 2024 source materials but it is hiding in the DMG2024
"Exceptions Supersede General Rules. General rules govern each part of the game, but the game also includes class features, spells, magic items, monster abilities, and other elements that can contradict a general rule. When an exception and a general rule disagree, the exception wins. For example, it’s a general rule that melee weapon attacks use the attacking character’s Strength modifier. But if a feature says that a character can make melee weapon attacks using Charisma, that exception supersedes the general rule."
So, as previously, the exceptions to the general "One Thing at a Time" rule provided in the specific rules for bonus actions and reactions supersedes the general rule. This allows bonus actions and reactions to be taken during an Action if such is appropriate (eg paladin smite spells, use of cunning action, casting a bonus action spell (e.g. shield of faith or healing word) between two attacks of an Attack action etc).
I think that RAW completely supports that point of view just based on the specific rules for bonus actions and reaction taking precedence over the general "One thing at a time rule".
However, I can see a different DM deciding to interpret it differently, if they choose, by making the general "One thing at a time rule" take precedence over the later rules and then ruling the bonus actions that don't make sense at any other time except during a different Action as exceptions.
Personally, I've never considered the Attack action with additional attacks as "atomic". The rules specifically call out movement between these attacks as permitted. It doesn't make logical sense to me that a fighter/cleric for example could not make an attack ... move 15' to bring a target within range - cast healing word - then move another 15' to make their second attack or a fighter/rogue with extra attack, make their first attack and then want to use their bonus action to dash to make their second attack but be prevented because they did not decide to use their bonus action to dash before making their first attack. I find this disrupts the narrative and flow of character actions with extraneous game mechanics timing ... "Sorry, you can't do that since you didn't declare it before your first attack" .. "But I didn't know what I was going to do next because I didn't know they were going down" .. "You can dash now as a bonus action if you like but I'm sorry you won't get your second attack in that case". Honestly, to me, that is a case of game mechanics interfering with the narrative flow of the game in a cumbersome way that I don't think was intended ... especially when the rules can be read without requiring that interpretation.
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In terms of the OP example, regarding making an attack with the Nick property -
"Mastery Properties
Each weapon has a mastery property, which is usable only by a character who has a feature, such as Weapon Mastery, that unlocks the property for the character. The properties are defined below."
"Nick
When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action instead of as a Bonus Action. You can make this extra attack only once per turn."
"Light
When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon, and you don’t add your ability modifier to the extra attack’s damage unless that modifier is negative. For example, you can attack with a Shortsword in one hand and a Dagger in the other using the Attack action and a Bonus Action, but you don’t add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the damage roll of the Bonus Action unless that modifier is negative."
The Nick mastery property is an exception to the other mastery properties because it does not state that the mastery property applies to the attack with this weapon. I think this is intentional but also an oversight.
Some folks interpret this to mean that you don't even need to make an attack with a weapon with the nick property in order to receive the benefit. Personally, I think the intent was to allow a creature to make an attack with a weapon with the nick property and then make the two weapon fighting attack with any other qualifying light weapon. So attack with a scimitar or dagger to activate nick and then make the two weapon fighting attack with a shortsword, hand crossbow or any other qualifying light weapon.
In this case, related to the OPs question, they could make an attack with a dagger, move and then make the nick enabled two weapon fighting attack as part of the Attack action using a hand crossbow. This would be allowed since Nick does not state that the two weapon fighting attack needs to be made with a Nick weapon - only that the bonus action attack allowed by the use of the light property can be made as part of the attack action.
I think that interpretation is also fully consistent with RAW but there are quite a few variations floating around so as always the question comes down to ask your DM.
No, it's usable immediately after an Attack action in which you made a certain kind of attack
By your interpretation, if you took the Attack action but didn't make your first attack with one of the listed weapons for whatever reason, you wouldn't get to make the Bonus Action attack because it wasn't 'immediately after you took the Attack action'
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Not sure if intended, but a strict reading of Pole Strike's Bonus Action timing even seems to limit t you to make it at this very moment and not after moving or making Extra Attacks for exemple.
Indeed, because if the take the Attack action and attack with anything other than a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you don’t have a Bonus Action to take.
Now if as a Fighter L5 you take the Attack action, attack with a Longsword and attack with a Spear, then immediately after the last one you would now have a Bonus Action to take.
You misunderstand. Your interpretation requires the polearm attack to be the first attack within the action
If an Eldritch Knight casts a cantrip first and then attacks with their polearm, they get no Bonus Action attack at all, because the polearm attack did not come immediately after they took the Attack action
Your interpretation has "Immediately after you take the Attack action and attack with [list of weapons]" as the trigger for the Bonus Action. That forces the triggering attack to come first
Mine has "Immediately after you take the Attack action" as the trigger. "...and attack with [list of weapons]" just tells you what sort of Attack action qualifies. Once the Attack action is completed, you get the Bonus Action attack just so long as at some point in that Attack action, you made an attack with one of the listed weapons
It would need to say "Immediately after you make an attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties as part of the Attack action, you can use a Bonus Action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon" to work the way you seem to want it to work
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The ''Immediately'' is not after you take the Attack action alone, but after you take the Attack action and attack with a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties. This is the timing that enables you to take a Bonus Action. the Eldritch Knight in your example should be able to Pole Strike immediately after taking the Attack action and attacking with the polearm.
If you read the phrase in it's entirety, you can see that it's immediately after you do X and Y, you can use Z.
That's not how grammar works
You can certainly play it like that, but that's not what it says, or how the sentence is constructed. RAW, it doesn't do what you want it to do
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Grammatically, am i the only one reading it that way?
No, you're right about what it means grammatically. A clearer way to word it would be "Immediately after you make an attack with a quarterstaff (etc.) as part of the Attack action", which is how they've worded things like this in a few other places.
pronouns: he/she/they
Examples like those are why I think Bonus Actions should follow roughly this approach:
I read it the same way you do.
The next sentence is equivalent in my head:
The word "Immediately" is relevant because other rules use terms like "later on" such as the Dual Wielder feat or the Light property.
That's not "clearer", that's the way it would need to be phrased for the RAW to work the way you think it should work
If you tie 'take the Attack action' and 'make an attack with a listed weapon' together as the trigger, you need to do them together. Taking the Attack action, doing something else, then making an appropriate attack breaks the sequence and doesn't activate the ability, because the trigger was never met. First you took the Attack action, but didn't make the right kind of attack. Then you made the right kind of attack, but it wasn't after taking the Attack action, it was after casting a cantrip or making an attack with a different type of weapon or whatever
'make an attack with a listed weapon' isn't part of the trigger, it's a qualifier for the trigger. Not all Attack actions work as triggers for PAM, only ones that contain certain kinds of attacks
Again, there may be some minor weapon mastery shenanigans you could get up to using the PAM BA whenever but that's about it, so I hardly think it's game breaking to play it that way. But RAW, it's not what the feature says
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
That is very much not true. There are lots of other ways to attack with weapons — such as opportunity attacks, True Strike, and of course the bonus action attack we're talking about — which is why that language is there.
pronouns: he/she/they