Does haste's extra attack get triggered when you cast haste on yourself?

Question

My question here is what is the right combination of the answers from these two questions:

• Does Extra attack stack with haste?
• Can you get an extra attack after casting a spell whilst hasted?

Assuming I'm a level 5 fighter / level 5 wizard and I cast haste on myself.

It's clear from the second question I can then proceed to use the attack action as per haste. My interpretation:

• RAW is you get only one attack and extra attack does not get triggered as per the answer to the first question.

RAI it looks like that particular line "one weapon attack only" was intended to limit attack explosion on the fighter:

The "one attack only" stipulation is preventing the use of the extra attack feature in the additional action, so a character with extra attack could use his regular action to make 2 attacks and use the additional action granted by haste to attack once more. This is to prevent say, a fighter at level 20 who gets 3 extra attacks from having 8 attacks in a single turn on top of a possible bonus action.

As specified in the answer of this other question.

Is there any indication (by WOG or similar in either direction) as to where in this particular scenario the fighter would get the extra attack? Which would mean, if you cast haste on yourself on your turn, the effect of casting haste is you get to do your turn as normally without the benefit of haste but also without having lost the action into casting haste.

Answer 1

You would not normally get the benefit of Extra Attack on the turn you cast Haste

Some background:

• Characters are normally limited to one action per turn.

• Fighters at level five get an ability called Extra Attack, which allows them to make one additional attack, whenever they take the Attack action, as part of that same action.

• The spell Haste grants an extra action which is limited to certain specified uses. This extra action (lower case) which you can use to take the Attack action is nothing to do with Extra Attack (upper case) the aforementioned Fighter feature.

Now, into the detail of your question:

1. On the turn that you cast Haste on yourself, you have done so using the Cast a Spell action so could not, on that same turn, take the normal Attack action, and therefore benefit from the Fighter's Extra Attack feature. You could however, immediately use the additional action granted by Haste to make a single attack. The hasted Attack action is limited to one weapon attack only, so that precludes applying your Extra Attack feature.

2. On any subsequent turns, while Haste was still active, you'd be able to take both a normal Attack action, eligible for Extra Attack in addition to your hasted Attack action (not eligible for Extra Attack).

3. In addition to all of the above, as a Fighter, once per short rest on any given turn, you can use Action Surge to get another extra action - of unrestricted use. This is therefore eligible for Extra Attack and could be used on the same turn which you intially cast Haste or any subsequent turn.

4. Becoming a Sorcerer instead of a Wizard would allow you to use Extra Attack on the first turn you cast Haste. As a Sorcerer, you could spend sorcery points and use Quickened Spell to cast Haste as a bonus action, not an action. This would free up your action that turn to be used for attacking, as well as your Hasted action - and potentially an Action Surged action too!

Putting all of the above together a bit more explicitly, in one turn, by burning a few resources, a Fighter 5 / Sorcerer 5 could:

• Use Quickened Spell and Bonus Action cast Haste on yourself.
• Attack twice for your normal Attack action, using Extra Attack (Attacks 1 & 2)
• Attack once your hasted Attack action (Attack 3)
• Attack twice with your Action Surge Attack action, using Extra Attack (Attacks 4 & 5)
• Then, make three attacks a turn thereafter, as long as Haste lasted.

That said, at level 11 a single classed Fighter could make three attacks per Attack action as standard - so it's not that ridiculous a combination.

Answer 2

Just to make things SIMPLE, and to clear things up for anyone looking at this. If you are of any class that has access to the Haste spell or spellcasting and have acquired a scroll of the Haste spell, you may cast the spell and then on the same turn make a (single, as it says in the spell disc.) weapon attack with your HASTED action, or do one of the other options listed. This is to never be confused with the EXTRA attack class feature which only applies to your NORMAL action, not your HASTED action.

The major confusion is in the wording people use, which even the developers screw up when clarifying the spell in tweets etc., when talking about the "extra" Action granted through the Haste spell, it should be referred to as a HASTED Action to avoid being confused with things like the Extra Attack feature.

Scenario Example: On turn 1 of combat, A 9th level Vengeance Paladin uses their ACTION to cast Haste on themselves, they use their movement (which is now doubled thanks to haste) to move up to an enemy, they then may use their BONUS ACTION to use their channel divinity, Vow of Enmity, on the creature they are now within melee range of, granting them advantage on all attacks for a minute against them, They can then use the HASTED ACTION which is granted to them immediately (source for how the spell takes affect immediately: https://www.sageadvice.eu/haste-can-i-take-a-second-action-on-the-same-turn/) when the Haste spell is casted, to make ONE (as stated in the spell disc.) attack (at adv. thanks to Vow of Enmity) against the creature. You are still left with your reaction, but this is an optimal 1st turn in the scenario.

I hope this is clear enough to anyone who finds themselves asking the same question, but only finding convoluted answers that don't quite address the real question being asked!