Bardic Inspiration houserules

TaranTheWanderer · Apr 6, 2019

I like the idea of handing out a dice. I'm going to start doing that.

Changing it to 'lasts until a short rest' but 'can only have one active at a time' would be a simple solution.

I also use 'scenes'. You could say it lasts until the end of the next scene. That could be a combat, it could be the entirety of sneaking through a castle until a combat starts, it could be a full day of exploring the forest(you spend the day tracking your enemy, make a survival role. - apply bardic inspiration). It's a bit hand-wavey but it gives you an easy way to track it.

Because sometimes a roll represents a single action(a shove attempt) or sometimes it represents 10 minutes of activity (searching a room) or sometimes it represents half a day of activity (foraging for food).

re: flavour. I'm playing a poet/writer, political essayist character. He can empower writing and knows 'secret True Names' that contain power. He casts all his spells by writing words(short poems or words of Power) on paper which flares and burns as the spell consumes it.

Same thing with his inspiration. He'll write a 'warm fuzzy' on a piece of paper and hand it to the character or just shout out something that incorporates the character's name in to a fitting bit of inspirational poetry. I find the travelling musician bard to be a bit overused.

Harzel · Apr 7, 2019

Like other groups, apparently, the player of the bard in my group uses cards that she hands out. She has as many cards as she has uses of inspiration per rest (CHA mod), and they all start in the 'usable' pile. When an inspired PC uses the inspiration or it expires, they hand the card back to her and she puts in it her 'used' pile. After a rest (her bard is 6th level), all cards move back to the 'usable' pile. If your bard somehow has trouble distinguishing 'used' from 'usable', players could hand 'used' cards to the DM, who could then hand them back to the bard player after a rest (long rest if less than 5th level).

As to the 'realism' issue of being inspired for 10 min - to me, that seems, if anything, too short for the effect of encouragement from a comrade in most circumstances. (To me, the weird thing is that in 5e that is enough time to fight half a dozen or more substantial battles.) In game terms, it seems to work just fine; and if occasionally I forget to point out that a use of inspiration has expired, it's not going to break anything and I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Harzel · Apr 7, 2019

dnd4vr said:
I suppose if you think of them as the Jack-Of-All-Trades-types, then they can act great in supporting roles but I can hardly seem them as being the MVP most of the time.

Huh? What is it you think is required to be 'MVP'? If it is high DPR, then yeah, bards may have a harder (or less obvious) path to that than some other classes, but IMX, being the 'MVP' is much more often the result of clever play (and circumstance) than some dominant class feature.

I don't know how much you've thought about it, but I think it is possible to undervalue Bardic Inspiration if you haven't seen it in action. First, it is unlike regular Inspiration. It is not advantage - it's a mod you get to apply after seeing the initial roll, which allows you to greatly increase the chance that it will make a difference. Second, you need to look at the additional options for using Bardic Inspiration that are granted by subclasses. Not only do they expand its applications, but a number of them are invoked by the bard themselves and do not need to be 'granted' in advance (with the associated risk of expiring before use).

In general, it seems to me that while a bard may be less likely to be 'MVP' by doing something visible (e.g., damage) constantly, they are more likely to supply the turns-the-tide / saves-our-bacon ace-in-the-hole at a key moment in the adventure.

5ekyu · Apr 7, 2019

Harzel said:
Like other groups, apparently, the player of the bard in my group uses cards that she hands out. She has as many cards as she has uses of inspiration per rest (CHA mod), and they all start in the 'usable' pile. When an inspired PC uses the inspiration or it expires, they hand the card back to her and she puts in it her 'used' pile. After a rest (her bard is 6th level), all cards move back to the 'usable' pile. If your bard somehow has trouble distinguishing 'used' from 'usable', players could hand 'used' cards to the DM, who could then hand them back to the bard player after a rest (long rest if less than 5th level).

As to the 'realism' issue of being inspired for 10 min - to me, that seems, if anything, too short for the effect of encouragement from a comrade in most circumstances. (To me, the weird thing is that in 5e that is enough time to fight half a dozen or more substantial battles.) In game terms, it seems to work just fine; and if occasionally I forget to point out that a use of inspiration has expired, it's not going to break anything and I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

"To me, the weird thing is that in 5e that is enough time to fight half a dozen or more substantial battles."

I am with you there. It's basically more than enough time to be available for multiple combats if not used in a dungeon crawl multi-combat tun but not enough for say even one hunt or slow stealthy approach?

That's why, mostly, I dont get too hung up on it timing-wise until they rest.

Let's face it, balance was figured based on " they use them" so I figure if my game's pacing still let's thrm use them, I do not gain much by bring a jerk about the clock on the wall as a GM.

Tales and Chronicles · Apr 7, 2019

My houserule for bards is:

Bards have a passive aura of 20' (30' at level 15). By itself, the aura does nothing.
Bard can spend Bardic Inspiration to begin a specific song (Skill, Debuff, Attack, Damage, Armor etc depending on your subclass).
This song last for 1 minute and requires concentration.
While a bard sings a specific song, he can use its reaction to add its Bardic Inspiration Die value to the roll specified by the song.

Blue · Apr 7, 2019

vincegetorix said:
My houserule for bards is:

Bards have a passive aura of 20' (30' at level 15). By itself, the aura does nothing.
Bard can spend Bardic Inspiration to begin a specific song (Skill, Debuff, Attack, Damage, Armor etc depending on your subclass).
This song last for 1 minute and requires concentration.
While a bard sings a specific song, he can use its reaction to add its Bardic Inspiration Die value to the roll specified by the song.

So it sounds like you have given them nothing new, but taken away flexibility (do various abilities), range (normally can apply within 60' and they don't need to stay near you), time (used to be able to be done beforehand, if for example you want to buff someone going scouting), the bard's Reaction, and the majority of the core bardic spells because they require concentration.

That's a ridiculously huge nerf for a class defining ability. As in don't even offer a bard anymore.

Heck, even if the bard had unlimited uses it's still too much a hit because of how concentration interacts with their spells.

Springheel · Apr 7, 2019

vincegetorix said:
My houserule for bards is:

Bards have a passive aura of 20' (30' at level 15). By itself, the aura does nothing.
Bard can spend Bardic Inspiration to begin a specific song (Skill, Debuff, Attack, Damage, Armor etc depending on your subclass).
This song last for 1 minute and requires concentration.
While a bard sings a specific song, he can use its reaction to add its Bardic Inspiration Die value to the roll specified by the song.

Interesting. Thanks for responding with an actual houserule idea.

Most of the people here don't appear to have an issue with the ability, but in case someone else finds this thread in the future and is also looking for houserule ideas, I'm going to try the following:

Bardic Inspiration: You play a rousing note or utter a phrase that lifts the heart and fills your allies with inspiration. Each listener affected can choose to either immediately gain 1d6 temporary HP, or roll an extra 1d6 on the next attack, ability check, or saving throw roll they make. You can affect a number of allies equal to your level when using this ability, as long as they can hear you. The dice increases as you gain levels as listed in the PH.

I like this because it's not 'fire and forget' for the bard ("here, have some inspiration and you decide when it's useful"). The bard has to decide when it is most advantageous to use the ability. It also is resolved nearly immediately which cuts down on the tracking. Since it is less flexible in that way, I've added the temporary HP option, which seems to suit the idea of being inspired, as well as the ability to affect more than one person at a time at higher levels, which suits my impression of bards giving rousing speeches to an entire party or group, not just one person.

5ekyu · Apr 7, 2019

Blue said:
So it sounds like you have given them nothing new, but taken away flexibility (do various abilities), range (normally can apply within 60' and they don't need to stay near you), time (used to be able to be done beforehand, if for example you want to buff someone going scouting), the bard's Reaction, and the majority of the core bardic spells because they require concentration.

That's a ridiculously huge nerf for a class defining ability. As in don't even offer a bard anymore.

Heck, even if the bard had unlimited uses it's still too much a hit because of how concentration interacts with their spells.

It is unclear whether or not it adds. From a strict reading, they did not say that when the bard spent the reaction the song stopped.

So this sounds almost like each die launches a "bless" like effect where each "round" the bard can use their reaction to give someone the d6 modifier.

So, in a perfect situation, each use of a bardic inspire would last 10 rounds, eat the concentration and reactions of the bard but allow 10 different "here add this die" opportunities.

That would at its maximum turn a bard with 3d6 to give into a bard with three 10 round flurries giving a die each round.

But again, yo me it's not clear and I have no idea how this was developed or targetted so cannot asses its goal.

It really feels kinda like "bards dont get bless spell. F' that. Let's turn inspiration into that."

GlassJaw · Apr 7, 2019

+1 on handing out dice.

I'm playing a bard now and that's what I do. I then mark down on my sheet how many I've given out. Easy-peasy and the players like seeing that die placed on their character sheet.

Basically it's the same thing I tell Battle Master players to do with their superiority dice.

DND_Reborn · Apr 7, 2019

Springheel said:
Interesting. Thanks for responding with an actual houserule idea.

Most of the people here don't appear to have an issue with the ability, but in case someone else finds this thread in the future and is also looking for houserule ideas, I'm going to try the following:

Bardic Inspiration: You play a rousing note or utter a phrase that lifts the heart and fills your allies with inspiration. Each listener affected can choose to either immediately gain 1d6 temporary HP, or roll an extra 1d6 on the next attack, ability check, or saving throw roll they make. You can affect a number of allies equal to your level when using this ability, as long as they can hear you. The dice increases as you gain levels as listed in the PH.

I like this because it's not 'fire and forget' for the bard ("here, have some inspiration and you decide when it's useful"). The bard has to decide when it is most advantageous to use the ability. It also is resolved nearly immediately which cuts down on the tracking. Since it is less flexible in that way, I've added the temporary HP option, which seems to suit the idea of being inspired, as well as the ability to affect more than one person at a time at higher levels, which suits my impression of bards giving rousing speeches to an entire party or group, not just one person.

What are your thoughts on time limitation with this? The "next attack, ability check, or saving throw they make" could be hours or days away even. Are you sticking the 10 minute limit or something else? How often can you use it? When does it refresh? I could assume you're following the normal bardic inspiration rules, but you might have something else in mind.

Bardic Inspiration houserules

TaranTheWanderer

Legend

Harzel

Adventurer

Harzel

Adventurer

5ekyu

Hero

Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

Springheel

First Post

5ekyu

Hero

GlassJaw

Hero

DND_Reborn

The High Aldwin

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