D&D 5E The Bard's Inspiration Die...

[5ekyu]

I hear what you're saying in terms of the die being relatively powerful compared to the level you gain it. It's not that I think Inspiration is bad but compared to Bless, Inspiration is only "ok".

Having been both the recipient and giver of both Bless and Inspiration, only Bless has the players arguing who should get it. Hell, I once had the 4 weapon-weilder types basically present their resumes. Inspiration is like "Does anyone need Inspiration?" *silence* "Yeah sure, I guess I could use it". That's because everyone understands that +2.5 to attack rolls and saving throws for the entire combat is better than +3.5 for one attack or save.

And of course, when they get Bless AND Inspiration, players get start to get crazy greedy eyes.

Bless eats up the concentration slot while bard inspire does not. Bless can vanish easily if the cleric loses conc... Inspire does not.

Again, comparing single abilities is complex and is often relatively useless given each comes with the rest of the class.

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[transtemporal]

Bless eats up the concentration slot while bard inspire does not.

Correct, Inspiration instead eats a bonus action every time I want to use the bloody thing! At least Bless is fire and forget.

Bless can vanish easily if the cleric loses conc... Inspire does not.

You mean I get to keep my one-use 1d6? Awesome.

I'm not saying it's not useful but I have yet to see Inspiration turn the tide of an battle, whereas Bless does this routinely.

Personally, I don't see how you can rate something as overpowered without looking at the other buffs in the game.

 

[Stalker0]

Well bless has been argued as possibly OP several times on the board. We did a lot of spell comparisons not that long ago, and bless was holding its own to some 5th level spells!

 

[5ekyu]

Correct, Inspiration instead eats a bonus action every time I want to use the bloody thing! At least Bless is fire and forget.



You mean I get to keep my one-use 1d6? Awesome.

I'm not saying it's not useful but I have yet to see Inspiration turn the tide of an battle, whereas Bless does this routinely.

Personally, I don't see how you can rate something as overpowered without looking at the other buffs in the game.

Bless is **NOT** fire and forget. It consumes the concentration slot every round until you choose to drop the remaining bless.

I am **not** saying the Bard's normal inspiration die is OP.

I am saying it is quite powerful and that with it as it is the bard is a very powerful class.

I am also comparing the current bard with the AOE bard suggested and seeing a big gain in power in key circumstance - boss fight - by getting all the other PC covered at once plus getting all those extra bonus actions back.

Given the overall strength of the bard, the current influence of the BID i see the big uptick to be providing a sognificat power up that is not needed.

This is a whole character comparison. The rest of the character is identical.

That different from say pulling one buff from one class and comparing it to another buff from another class.

Consider, apply the *same* logic (compare bless to BID solo and see which is better) to HD by class and soon every class has d12 hd. Every class has all the armor prof... Etc cuz at each comparison the best wins...

If you have found bards to be underperforming in your campaign by all means house rule them to have alk the extra power you think they need.

But as far as convincing others that the class needs such improvements you are likely going to need more than feelings and apple bless to orange BID out of context side-by-sides.

One item v another item isolate and out of context is not evidence, not convincing and not a strong approach to **CLASS** balance.

Ymmv

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[Charlaquin]

Correct, Inspiration instead eats a bonus action every time I want to use the bloody thing! At least Bless is fire and forget.



You mean I get to keep my one-use 1d6? Awesome.

I'm not saying it's not useful but I have yet to see Inspiration turn the tide of an battle, whereas Bless does this routinely.

Personally, I don't see how you can rate something as overpowered without looking at the other buffs in the game.

I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who used the word “overpowered” to describe it, and I prefaced it with the word “borderline”. As in, not overpowered, but close. It’s a vey, very powerful ability due to its potency (the bonus is worth more than Proficiency) and its versatility, (it can be applied to any d20 roll) and its discretion (you can wait to see the number you rolled on the d20 before deciding to use it.) It is kept from being overpowered by its limitations (it only applies to one dice roll per use). Removing that limitation would, in my opinion, be ill-advised, because that limitation is what keeps it “just” a very strong ability and not an overpowered one.

 

[CapnZapp]

How do you feel about the Bard's Inspiration die?

I am not too fond of it.

I feel it should grant the Inspiration to a number of allies equal to it's Charisma mod (a minimum of 1) to those in range, not just 1 ally.

What do you think?

Don't.

It's incredibly powerful already, and doesn't need this.

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[Warmaster Horus]

The only thing I might consider would be that a Bard to distribute more than a single Inspiration die as their bonus action (still counts toward their total). They're performing, after all, and the effect of that performance could influence those that see it (more than one person). But as others have said, Bardic Inspiration is already pretty potent.