I get that some spells are "especially swift" to cast and thus have a casting time of "Bonus Action". But is there any reason I couldn't cast such a spell as my Action?
Does it make a difference if the idea is for the one spell to be cast all by itself on a turn or if the desire is to use another Bonus Action (possibly a spell) on the same turn?
Best Answer
No. Actions cannot be traded for bonus actions.
So by the rules you could use one bonus action from a spell without using an actual action but you could not use one bonus action as the actual action and another one as the bonus action.
You get 1 bonus action and 1 action. The action cannot be traded for a bonus action.
Rules as Intended agree
Lead rules designer for 5e, Jeremy Crawford agrees in this tweet: