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The fighter's Second Wind feature says:

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 GM says that because the description says "on your turn", that you can only use it while in combat. Is that correct?

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    \$\begingroup\$ I’ve closed this as a duplicate since it has been asked before. In the future, please try to search the site for your question before posting. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 6:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ThomasMarkov I'm uncertain this is actually a duplicate- a bonus action, by default, can only be used on your turn once combat starts. Healing Word is a bonus action- it doesn't specify "on your turn" in its description, and outside of combat, you can still use that action so long as there are no other unmet requirements to do so. Second wind, on the other hand, is a bonus action that specifies "on your turn." If not all bonus actions specify that they must be used on your turn in the text, wouldn't it stand to reason the ones that do are for use during initiative only? \$\endgroup\$
    – TheFallen0ne
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 8:53
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    \$\begingroup\$ @TheFallen0ne Please read the other question. In particular, the part that says “Is there anything preventing a character from using an ability such as Second Wind […] when not engaged in a combat encounter?” \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 10:53

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You can use Second Wind outside of combat

The key to answer your question is if you can take actions or bonus actions outside of combat. You can take these only on your turn, too. If you can take them outside of combat, then you also are not limited to do anything else you could only do "on your turn" outside of combat.

You can take any action (other than actual fighting) outside of combat, and therefore you can also use Second Wind outside of combat.

I'll quote from my own answer there to explain why:

Combat is just a construct to help gameplay zoom in when a lot of things are happening at the same time. The PHB expains this on page 189:

Combat in D&D can be chaotic, deadly, and thrilling. This chapter provides the rules you need for your characters and monsters to engage in combat. (...) The game organizes the chaos of combat into a cycle of rounds and turns.

There is the proof by reductio ad absurdum: if you could not take actions outside of combat, outside combat you could not cast cure wounds or any other spell. Or drink a potion. Or remove something from your backpack. Or Run. Or Hide. Or Search for secret doors. Or help someone. And so on.

So in general, you can do anything you can do in combat also out of combat. Except for actual fighting.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What do you mean? I saw that video, you magic missile the darkness! \$\endgroup\$
    – Alan
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 5:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ What? The other question also asks about the idea of “turns” outside of combat when it says “My assumption is that a character gets a "turn" every round whether they are in combat or just walking down the street, but I want to be sure there's nothing that explicitly contradicts this idea.” How is that different from the question here? \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 6:38
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    \$\begingroup\$ You’ve been around long enough to know titles and body don’t often match perfectly. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 12:21
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch May I kindly refer you to this meta on how much duplicate search effort is expected before answering? It appears to me this is largely a matter of taste. I do not plan to spend time trawling for possible duplicates before answering if the titles do not sound like it. The risks are that the question may be closed by someone else who is more invested in that, and of course downvotes by people who think I must do that. I'll survive that. \$\endgroup\$
    – Nobody the Hobgoblin
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 18:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ Gotcha - I'll stop asking you to do a bit more in searching for duplicates before answering someone's question. While I wish that all stackizens do their due diligence, you're right that not everyone wants to do it. You've made your stance clear in how much effort you'll put in, so I'll refrain from continuing to ask. I do hope someday you'll opt to help out with duplicates and curation as much as you do with answering and edits. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Commented Dec 13, 2022 at 20:04

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