Credit to the Dungeon Dudes for pointing this out in this video.
The rules for casting spells as a bonus action in the 2014 PHB are weird and confusing. While most tables boil it down to "you can't cast a leveled spell as both a bonus action and an action," the actual rules are a little weirder, as written. It's ok: nobody understands them.
Fine. Here's how the actual quote reads: A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. you must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell, provided you haven't taken a bonus action this turn (this feels a bit redundant as there's no way I'm aware of to get multiple bonus actions per turn). You can't cast another spell during the same turn, excpet for a cantrip with a casting time of one action.
Now, this is coming from D&D Beyond, so there might have been some errata to fix things (I've heard people argue that this means that if you've already cast a cantrip, you can't cast a bonus action spell, which doesn't seem correct. What is interesting, though, is that if you cast a bonus action cantrip, like Shillelagh, you cannot then use your action to cast a leveled spell.)
The 2024 PHB vastly simplifies this: the rule is simply that you can only cast one spell that expends a spell slot per turn.
Sadly, heartbreakingly, this now removes the special exception for Eldritch Knights. While Action Surge was revised to not allow taking the Magic Action with your additional action, because of War Magic and Improved War Magic, EKs were able to get around this because they will typically be casting spells with their Attack Action. They did prevent Fireball-Action Surge-Fireball by limiting Improved War Magic to 2nd level spells or lower, but you could still double-cast Thunder Wave or Shatter.
However, this breaks this possibility as well. EKs will still be able to cast multiple cantrips per turn, so you can feel free to weave a Green-Flame Blade into both your initial and your second attack actions (meaning at level 7 we're talking about two Green-Flame Blades and two regular attacks, and on my Dragonborn you know that one of those attacks is going to be a Lightning Breath, so still pretty spicy) but there's a hard rule that will prevent you from ever casting two Shatters on a single turn no matter how you try to swing it.
The other nerf here is actually a pretty big deal: if someone counterspells your spell, you cannot counterspell their counterspell. While you will still be able to Counterspell or Shield on another creature's turn, if you've cast something with a spell slot, that's it.
(Luckily, Counterspell got nerfed so that it's not going to work as often, which I frankly love, and will make me less wary about using spellcasting adversaries in my encounters.)
So, a nerf to spellcasters, right?
Here's the thing: this prevents you from casting multiple spells that expend spell slots. It doesn't single out cantrips.
And boy, if only there were class and species features that allowed you to cast leveled spells without a spell slot! Wait, there are?!
Yes, if you're an Archfey Warlock, who now gets several free uses of Misty Step per long rest, you can now bamf with abandon and then unleash a nasty Synaptic Static after you get clear of the area. If you're a Triton Wizard and your party is caught out on thick, muddy ground, you can cast Water Walk with your species feature and then cast... um, what's a good bonus action Wizard spell that isn't just also Misty Step... Jump?
This now makes me very curious to see how the revision to the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer is going to look, because you can cast any of your Psionic Spells using Sorcery Points rather than spell slots (which is usually the best way to cast them). This will then free up your "spell slot use" for your turn even if you then use your bonus action to convert a spell slot to get the points back that you just spent on the spell.
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