Dungeons & Dragons to Finally Let Players Drink Potions as a Bonus Action in One D&D [IGN]

As reported by Comic Book, a video from D&D game designers Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins walked fans through some changes to the Player’s Handbook, which will be refreshed for the first time in more than a decade in 2024, including the long-requested ability to have a cheeky heal as a Bonus Action.

Crawford specifically said that health potions can be used as a Bonus Action in One D&D — which arrives beginning September 17, 2024 with the Player’s Handbook but won’t launch fully until the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual arrive on November 12, 2024 and February 18, 2025 respectively — but it’s unclear if the rule change will apply to other potions too.

As a health potion can theoretically be drank at the same speed as any other kind of potion, however, it would certainly make sense for the Bonus Action rule to affect all of the magic smoothies. The current 5th Edition of D&D forces players to use a potion as a full Action, meaning players miss a turn of doing potentially more interesting things if they need to heal.

Using potions as a Bonus Action has long been a popular mechanic in players’ homebrew or home rules though, and even Baldur’s Gate 3, the hit D&D video game which follows most of 5th Edition’s rules, let players drink them as a Bonus Action.

The release of the updated rules, meaning the transition from 5th Edition to One D&D, comes alongside the tabletop role-playing game’s 50th anniversary. Publisher Wizards of the Coast announced the biggest miniature booster set ever to celebrate, and has been slowly but surely sharing tidbits of information about the new set of core rulebooks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.