I am a returner from AD&D / D&D 3 / 3.5 but pretty new to playing D&D5e.
I am currently playing a fighter and yesterday in my Pen and Paper group we had a discussion about Second Wind.
It states:
You have a limited well of stamina that you can draw on to protect yourself from harm. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your fighter level. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.
My group members and DM concluded that this means it is only available during combat, as there are no turn outside combat and that the source to be able to do that is also only pure will that is based on the fury of combat.
I for myself was always thinking that it can be used anytime - as long as I follow the rule to use it only once per short rest - as it is a bonus action and actions and bonus actions can be used anytime out of combat, except for fighting itself.
It can be used anytime. It just needs more specific wording when used in combat.
Let your group know that if what they are arguing is true, then VERY FEW spells and abilities could be used out of combat including those that are geared towards use out of combat.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Yeah, iirc back in the day in older versions of D&D the game used to actually categorize spells and other abilities into "camp only" or "combat only" or "both". That is not a thing in 5e -- all spells can be cast at any time in or out of combat. Some spells will specify certain prerequisites or conditions or valid targets or something that must exist in order to attempt the casting of that spell. Other spells have a long casting time which make it unreasonable to attempt to cast during combat but there is no actual rule against attempting to do so. The same is true for feats, class features, special abilities and so on. The wording used in the OP does not imply that the feature cannot be used outside of combat but as mentioned the restriction for how often it can be used before recharging with a rest is applicable no matter when the feature is used.
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Hi guys,
I am a returner from AD&D / D&D 3 / 3.5 but pretty new to playing D&D5e.
I am currently playing a fighter and yesterday in my Pen and Paper group we had a discussion about Second Wind.
It states:
My group members and DM concluded that this means it is only available during combat, as there are no turn outside combat and that the source to be able to do that is also only pure will that is based on the fury of combat.
I for myself was always thinking that it can be used anytime - as long as I follow the rule to use it only once per short rest - as it is a bonus action and actions and bonus actions can be used anytime out of combat, except for fighting itself.
Could you help me what is correct here?
best regards
It can be used anytime. It just needs more specific wording when used in combat.
Let your group know that if what they are arguing is true, then VERY FEW spells and abilities could be used out of combat including those that are geared towards use out of combat.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Thanks for the clarification
Yeah, iirc back in the day in older versions of D&D the game used to actually categorize spells and other abilities into "camp only" or "combat only" or "both". That is not a thing in 5e -- all spells can be cast at any time in or out of combat. Some spells will specify certain prerequisites or conditions or valid targets or something that must exist in order to attempt the casting of that spell. Other spells have a long casting time which make it unreasonable to attempt to cast during combat but there is no actual rule against attempting to do so. The same is true for feats, class features, special abilities and so on. The wording used in the OP does not imply that the feature cannot be used outside of combat but as mentioned the restriction for how often it can be used before recharging with a rest is applicable no matter when the feature is used.