D&D 5E Expanding Inspiration

[Blue]

In a post from @dnd4vr there was discussion about subsystems we'd like to see added or expanded rules for. One of my suggestions was to expand Inspiration.

Inspiration as it is now is pretty much bolted on. It's easy to forget about and/or intentionally ignore because it doesn't mechanically touch anything else. I'd like to brainstorm with you on ways to expand it to connect it to the rest of the system. It will be a bit of power creep because we'll be adding, but hopefully we can keep that balanced between the options.

I'd to make some general rules everyone can use, and also look at weaving it some into the classes.

Here's some proposed rules to start with, don't overly focus on them - I'm really looking for your ideas of where else to add.

General
Inspiration lasts until the end of the next scene, instead of 10 minutes.
Goal: Make it meaningful when doing things like wilderness travel, both in the ability to get it (and still have it), and the ability to use it (when does a roll for a several hour journey get made?)

Aim is to be able to gain Inspiration a number of times equal to the hours of the session, though they can be groups together or spread out - this is not a "once per hour".
Goal: Get players on consistently playing heavily towards their PIBFs. Do not imply "oh, you got it so you are done".

When you would gain Inspiration, everyone has the following options:
1. Gain Inspiration as normal. Maximum one held as per the PHB.
2. Immediately spend a HD for healing. (With HP as partially battle luck, heroic determination, fatigue, this seems a good fit.)
(Please add more.)

Goal: Remove the waste of gaining inspiration when you have it. Also make it have more options. Immediate options will help players remember to use them.

Specifics
Really want to brainstorm ways for the various classes and races to use Inspiration. Here's some to start off, though I haven't given them a critical eye for balance. Also, it might be more than one option - they still only a certain amount of inspiration.

Bard
While holding Inspiration the bard finds it easier to inspire others. Bardic Inspiration and Song of Rest dice are increased by one size. d12 increases to 3d4.

Cleric
When gaining Inspiration, a cleric may spend it immediately to recharge a spent use of Channel Divinity.

Paladin
All paladin auras have their radius increased by 5' while holding Inspiration.

Monk
When gaining Inspiration, a monk may spend it immediately to regain Ki equal to their Martial Arts die.

Please keep this a positive thread - this is just brainstorming for those who want to make Inspiration more integrated in the rules - others can use it or not as they please. So a critique of "five traits is too many, let's do X" is welcome, but a flat "I don't like Inspiration" doesn't advance the goals, especially as you are absolutely free not to use it.

 

[Fenris-77]

Was the plan for the "while holding" effects to function like special abilities for the scene? That's cool. I would probably focus on more ideas like that. I think the connection between the scene the award was given in and the scene where the bonuses happen is pretty strong and that's very much how I think inspiration should feel. My only concern is that the abilities, whatever they are, should all be useful even if inspiration is gained late in a scene. Not just for balance, but you want inspiration to always matter.

 

[DND_Reborn]

First I assume you are talking about Inspiration, not Bardic Inspiration? If so, why the 10 minute/scene suggestion? Inspiration is there until you use it. Or, is it because you are trying to tie in a "lasting benefit" instead of a single use?

FWIW, we allow spending inspiration points to regain the use of an expending feature (such as the channel divinity you mention) as a house-rule. But, you can only regain a feature once before requiring a long rest.

This allows a fighter to spend a point of inspiration to action surge again even if it was already used. Since inspiration is fairly limited at our table, this is not abused as it might seem.

Other example similar to yours about Ki is a point of inspiration refreshes all lost Ki points.

Inspiration can be used to gain an additional movement until the end of your turn, so a character can "move" twice.

I like the idea of using Inspiration points to spend HD for healing during a fight... I think I'll suggest that to our table.

 

[77IM]

I never run Inspiration by-the-book (although my current campaign comes very close, following @iserith's method of making the players call out their own BIFTs). Here are some experiments I've tried.

Reroll: For some reason, the players around here, including me, universally make the mistake that Inspiration should be used to reroll the die. That's not actually how 5E works; you're supposed to declare it ahead of the roll and gain regular old advantage. But the misconception of rerolls is so widespread that I just go with it. (I also think it's better for the game, since you only need to worry about Inspiration when you really bomb a roll, not before each and every roll.)

Stacking: I hate hate hate that you can only have 1 Inspiration at a time. This means that when you have the Inspiration, you have no game-mechanical incentive to use your BIFTs, and if you do, it goes to "waste." So I always allow people to keep multiple Inspirations, and spend more than one on a single roll. I usually allow no limit, and that works for most players, but in the last campaign I had one guy who saved up all his Inspiration and entered the final boss fight with like 30 Inspiration. So for my current campaign I've put a limit of 5 and that seems to work better.

Little Tiny Dice: Instead of re-roll, I was in some campaigns where Inspiration gave you +1d6 on a roll per Inspiration spent, like an Eberron action point. We would track Inspiration by giving out tiny little dice; when you roll the die, you give it back. The nice thing about +1d6 is that, you can't do any worse (with a reroll, you might get a worse roll). The downside is if your roll is super low you might need to burn a whole bunch of dice in order to raise it to passing. The other interesting thing about +1d6 is that, given enough Inspiration, you can hit any DC. I've temporarily shelved this idea and went back to reroll because I was worried that +1d6 would horn in on Bardic Inspiration, but considering how seldom I see bards played, I might bring it back.

Helping: I was a player in one campaign where you could only spend Inspiration on other players' PCs. This was meant to foster teamwork, and it worked. I don't enforce this rule currently because my group has been playing together for a while now and the players tend to share Inspiration pretty readily. This is a side-benefit to allowing players to hold multiple Inspirations -- they're much more likely to spend it on someone else's important roll than to hoard it for a saving throw.

 

[GMMichael]

Two minor changes, and Inspiration would be pretty close to the Hero Points I use:

1) Each day, gain (character level) Inspiration points.
2) When role-playing leads you to jeopardize an Ideal or Bond, or express a Flaw, regain an Inspiration point.

The unique class-specific uses are a good idea, too. That gives them flavor. They should probably be able to override Disadvantage too, instead of just negating it.