The 2024 rules give your turn twelve named actions. Seven are old friends: Attack, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Help, Hide and Ready. Five are new or renamed: Influence, Study, Search, Utilize and Magic. They cover the things players did all along (talk someone round, remember a fact, look for a trap, pull a lever, cast a spell), and now each one has a name, a skill list and a page in the free System Reference Document 5.2.1 [1].
Arthur wants every word checked against the page. Tia wants to know why talking to a lich feels so different from talking to a goblin. This post covers both: each action as written, what changed from 2014, the odds, and what psychology says about asking, remembering and doing one thing at a time.
The five actions, word for word
From SRD 5.2.1, "Playing the Game" (Actions table, pp. 9-10) and "Rules Glossary" [1]:
| Action | What it does | Skills | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Influence | "Make a Charisma (Deception, Intimidation, Performance, or Persuasion) or Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to alter a creature's attitude." | Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion, Animal Handling | 184 |
| Study | "Make an Intelligence (Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, or Religion) check." | Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion | 189 |
| Search | "Make a Wisdom (Insight, Medicine, Perception, or Survival) check." | Insight, Medicine, Perception, Survival | 187 |
| Utilize | "Use a nonmagical object." | none | 191 |
| Magic | "Cast a spell, use a magic item, or use a magical feature." | none | 185 |
Notice the pattern. Every Charisma skill (plus Animal Handling) lives under Influence. Every Intelligence skill lives under Study. Every Wisdom skill except Animal Handling lives under Search. The 2024 book sorted the skill list into three verbs: ask, think, look.
What changed from 2014
Checked line by line against SRD 5.1 [2]:
- Influence and Study are new. SRD 5.1 has no action by either name. Social checks and knowledge checks happened, but nothing said what they cost on your turn.
- Search changed ability. The 2014 Search action: "the GM might have you make a Wisdom (Perception) check or an Intelligence (Investigation) check" (p. 94) [2]. The 2024 Search is a Wisdom check only [1]. Investigation moved to Study, where it covers "traps, ciphers, riddles, and gadgetry" (p. 189) [1]. So spotting the trap is Search; working out how it fires is Study.
- Use an Object became Utilize. Same job, new name. Both editions give you one free object interaction on your turn, during your move or action, and the action for anything more (SRD 5.1 p. 91; SRD 5.2.1 p. 12) [1][2].
- Cast a Spell became Magic, and it grew. In 2014, activating a magic item "isn't a function of the Use an Item action, so a feature such as the rogue's Fast Hands can't be used to activate the item" (p. 207) [2]. In 2024 the Thief's Fast Hands reads: "Take the Utilize action, or take the Magic action to use a magic item that requires that action" (p. 64) [1]. The thief can now fire a wand as a Bonus Action. Your DM may want a moment.
- Potions got faster, and left both actions. 2014: "Drinking or administering a potion takes an action" (p. 68) [2]. 2024: "As a Bonus Action, you can drink it or administer it to another creature within 5 feet of yourself" (Potion of Healing, p. 99) [1]. Drink and swing on the same turn.
One more rule matters for all five, the "One Thing at a Time" box: "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" (p. 10) [1].
Influence: the GM decides first, then you roll
Influence is the most interesting of the five, because the dice come second. The glossary entry (p. 184) [1] has the GM sort your request into three bins:
- Willing. It already wants this. No roll; "the monster fulfills your request in a way it prefers."
- Unwilling. It's "repugnant to the monster or counter to its alignment." No roll; it says no.
- Hesitant. Now you roll. The DC is 15 or the creature's Intelligence score, whichever is higher. Friendly gives you Advantage, Hostile gives you Disadvantage (pp. 182-183). Fail, and "you must wait 24 hours (or a duration set by the GM) before urging it in the same way again."
That Intelligence rule is where the maths gets fun. Most creatures sit at DC 15. A lich does not. Odds for a hesitant creature, level 1-4 character with Charisma 16 and proficiency (+5), exact over all 20 faces [3]:
| Creature (SRD 5.2.1) | Int | DC | Hostile | Indifferent | Friendly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goblin Warrior | 10 | 15 | 30% | 55% | 80% |
| Mimic | 11 | 15 | 30% | 55% | 80% |
| Adult Red Dragon | 16 | 16 | 25% | 50% | 75% |
| Lich | 21 | 21 | 6% | 25% | 44% |
At level 9-12 with Charisma 20 (+9), the same Indifferent lich goes from 25% to 45%, and a Friendly one to 70% [3]. Six levels of growth, and the undead archmage is still a coin flip.
The lich has Intelligence 21. It has heard every speech you're about to give, and several you haven't written yet.
We ran the cat version of this table, with Awaken and a city of talking cats, in our Obojima post. Same lesson there: the creature's attitude moves the odds more than your bonus does.
Study and Search: think or look
Study is "an Intelligence check to study your memory, a book, a clue, or another source of knowledge and call to mind an important piece of information about it" (p. 189) [1]. The Areas of Knowledge table tells you which skill fits which creature:
| Skill | Creatures it knows |
|---|---|
| Arcana | Aberrations, Constructs, Elementals, Fey, Monstrosities |
| History | Giants, Humanoids |
| Nature | Beasts, Dragons, Oozes, Plants |
| Religion | Celestials, Fiends, Undead |
So "what do I know about this dragon?" is Nature, not Arcana. That surprises people.
Search is "a Wisdom check to discern something that isn't obvious" (p. 187) [1]:
| Skill | Thing to detect |
|---|---|
| Insight | Creature's state of mind |
| Medicine | Creature's ailment or cause of death |
| Perception | Concealed creature or object |
| Survival | Tracks or food |
Reading a liar's face is Search (Insight), not a free sense. And in exploration the book adds a rule every DM should say out loud: "If you describe your character searching nowhere near a hidden object, a Wisdom (Perception) check won't reveal the object, no matter the check's total" (p. 12) [1]. A natural 20 at the wrong wall finds a very nice wall. We set Search against Passive Perception, DC by DC, in our Castle Greyhawk post.
Both actions pair with Help, which gives an ally Advantage on their next check with a skill you're proficient in (pp. 182-183) [1]. Against DC 15 [3]:
| Bonus | Alone | With Help |
|---|---|---|
| +0 | 30% | 51% |
| +2 | 40% | 64% |
| +5 | 55% | 80% |
Utilize and Magic: the doing actions
Utilize is for "when an object requires an action for its use" (p. 191) [1]: the second door, the lever, the healer's kit. You get one free interaction a turn; the second costs Utilize (p. 12) [1].
Magic covers a spell with a casting time of an action, a magic item that needs one, or a magical feature (p. 185) [1]. It also handles long spells: for a casting time of a minute or more, "you must take the Magic action on each turn of that casting, and you must maintain Concentration." If Concentration breaks, the spell fails, "but you don't expend a spell slot" [1]. Good news for the wizard whose ritual got interrupted by a goblin.
Why the new actions feel different: ask, remember, focus
Pushing makes people push back. Reactance theory, reviewed by Steindl and colleagues, describes what happens when people feel their freedom is threatened: they are motivated to restore it [4]. Influence builds that in. Hostile creatures roll against you with Disadvantage, and a failed ask locks that approach for a day. Asking the same way twice louder is the one thing the rule forbids.
Knowing that you know. Study models a real feeling. In Brown and McNeill's 1966 "tip of the tongue" study, people who couldn't recall a word could often still report its first letter and number of syllables [5]. A failed Study check at the table works the same way: the character knows there is something about trolls and fire, and can't reach it. Players remember that itch.
One thing at a time is a real limit. Rubinstein, Meyer and Evans found that switching between tasks costs time, and the cost grows with the tasks' complexity [6]. "One Thing at a Time" is the game admitting you can't charm the guard and read the guard's face in the same six seconds. Neither can we.
How to run the five actions well
- Sort before you roll. For Influence, say out loud whether the creature is willing, unwilling or hesitant. Players learn the world from that call.
- Name the skill from the table. Dragon lore is Nature; ghost lore is Religion. It rewards the player who took the odd skill.
- Location beats luck. Ask "where are you looking?" before any hidden-object roll.
- Let potions and wands flow. Bonus Action potions and Fast Hands wands speed up combat. Don't re-slow them with 2014 habits.
- Track the 24-hour lockout. Write the failed ask and its approach on a card. Next time, the party needs a new angle, which is where the good roleplay lives.
Table Talk
Arthur: Best tidy-up in the book. Three verbs, every skill filed, and a page number for each.
Tia: Tidy isn't the point. Influence finally says the NPC has a mind. Some things are just a no.
Arthur: And some are a DC 21 no. I like that the lich's brain sets the price.
Tia: I like that you can't nag. Fail, and you wait a day or try another way. That's what real persuasion looks like.
Arthur: My tip: print the Study table on an index card. Nature for dragons. Every session someone reaches for Arcana.
Tia: Mine: before a Hesitant roll, let the player say what the creature wants. If they guessed right, move it to Willing and skip the dice.
References
- Wizards of the Coast. System Reference Document 5.2.1. 2025. CC-BY-4.0. Sections: "Playing the Game" (Actions table and One Thing at a Time, pp. 9-10; Social Interaction, pp. 10-11; Time-Limited Object Interactions and Finding Hidden Objects, p. 12); "Rules Glossary" (Friendly p. 182; Help pp. 182-183; Hostile p. 183; Indifferent and Influence p. 184; Magic p. 185; Search p. 187; Study and Areas of Knowledge p. 189; Utilize p. 191); "Classes" (Rogue: Thief, Fast Hands, p. 64); "Equipment" (Potion of Healing, p. 99); "Monsters" (Goblin Warrior, Mimic, Adult Red Dragon, Lich). https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/srd/5.2/SRD_CC_v5.2.1.pdf
- Wizards of the Coast. System Reference Document 5.1. 2016. CC-BY-4.0. Sections: "Rogue" (Thief, Fast Hands, pp. 40-41); "Equipment" (Potion of Healing, p. 68); "Combat" (Other Activity on Your Turn, p. 91; Search and Use an Object, p. 94); "Magic Items" (Activating an Item, p. 207). https://media.wizards.com/2023/downloads/dnd/SRD_CC_v5.1.pdf
- DnD Dice Roller. Actions odds script: exact count over all twenty d20 faces; Influence DC = max(15, Intelligence); Advantage and Disadvantage as best and worst of two d20s; bonuses +0, +2, +5, +9. 2026.
- Steindl, C., Jonas, E., Sittenthaler, S., Traut-Mattausch, E., & Greenberg, J. (2015). Understanding psychological reactance. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 223(4), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000222
- Brown, R., & McNeill, D. (1966). The "tip of the tongue" phenomenon. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5(4), 325–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(66)80040-3
- Rubinstein, J. S., Meyer, D. E., & Evans, J. E. (2001). Executive control of cognitive processes in task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(4), 763–797. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.27.4.763
