Arcane Cascade as first action in new round?

[Sliska Zafir]

The requirement is: Your most recent action was to Cast a Spell or Spellstrike.

As long as you haven't take a reaction (which would be your most recent action), it appears, RAW, that if you had finished your last round by casting a 2 action spell, that you could use that as the qualifier for Arcane Cascade in the new round.

[The Raven Black]

Yes by RAW. In fact, if your reaction was casting a spell (say, Call to arms), it works too.

[breithauptclan]

It is one of the big debates whether 'your last action' carries across rounds or not. There are good arguments for both cases. The technicality of it, as The Raven Black points out, is that it is indeed your last action taken. It does add quite a bit more bookkeeping that has to be kept though. Not suitable for some players or larger groups. So for those reasons, the GM may not want to allow such things.

[Sliska Zafir]

There really shouldn't be any debate though. The writing is very clearly defined. Those making up nebulous notions about whether your previous action wasn't actually your previous action certainly have no merit, with the way it's currently worded. I don't think you can reasonably nerf it without needing errata. It's just too clearly worded.

[breithauptclan]

I'm sure your confidence in your understanding of the rules as written will be of great use when you are GM'ing for a group of seven of 10 year old kids that have the attention span of a gnat.

[Squiggit]

"Quite a bit more bookkeeping" feels like an overstatement, but it's definitely something that's been contentious.

Certain abilities don't work properly if you don't allow it which makes me think it's intended.

[graystone]

Squiggit wrote:

"Quite a bit more bookkeeping" feels like an overstatement, but it's definitely something that's been contentious.

Certain abilities don't work properly if you don't allow it which makes me think it's intended.

Reload makes it seem like it's up to the DM if things cross over from round to round: "If an item takes 2 or more actions to reload, the GM determines whether they must be performed together as an activity, or you can spend some of those actions during one turn and the rest during your next turn."

On the flip side SoM has spells that have greater effects if you cast them over multiple rounds like Elemental Annihilation Wave.

[CaffeinatedNinja]

I agree you can use it the next turn.

Now, the other interesting thing is the word "actions."
In 2e, the term "Actions" refers to both the entire group of actions (free actions, reactions, and actions) and just actions (the three you get every round.)

This can make things confusing. For instance here, if the term refers to ALL actions, then using a reaction between turns means you can't start with arcane cascade, but you could use it off of a reaction spell.

Read the other way, a reaction wouldn't interupt it (because it isn't one of the three actions you get each turn) but a reaction spell couldn't feed it either.

[breithauptclan]

Also be aware of how this ruling affects Bespell Weapon.

If you don't count actions from previous turn, then Bespell Weapon is fairly weak. A wizard could add additional damage to one or maybe two weapon attacks. A multiclass character could get two or three with something like flurry of blows that allows multiple attacks in one action after a two action spell.

If you do allow actions from previous rounds to count, then Bespell Weapon becomes really powerful for a multiclass martial character. A flurry ranger probably being the most extreme example. Cast a spell on the previous round, then bespell weapon and have your full 3 actions on your turn to pound damage with. This borders on too good to be true in my opinion. Not quite enough to say that it is definitely not the intended ruling though.