Why Inspiration is not Great in D&D

[@Byggarebob]

Inspiration a reward for whoever brings the food to the session not for anything related to roleplay 😂

[@TheEthiopian1987]

But I can not give myself the inspiration as I am the DM, So that doesn't work out for me.

[@Byggarebob]

@@TheEthiopian1987ofc you can! use your inspiration against your players and they will start to bring food in the future.

[@TheEthiopian1987]

@@Byggarebob I mean I could, but I don't like to do that personally. As for bringing the food, I do it because most of them are not working at the moment. So it is always good, we have snacks and good homemade food. Though I do like to fudge the dice rolls sometimes, but that is to just make it interesting.

[@failurefiend]

Pay to win LOL

[@natehill123]

yes only if i did not do digital

[@austinjeffries5741]

"It's what my character would do." Isn't a bad phrase unless someone is just using it to steal from the party.

[@seaborgium919]

"it's what my character would do" is palming the coins found in a fountain instead of splitting them amongst the party. They didn't belong to anyone anyway. (we have a pompous thief in our party. He's great)

[@borderlands10]

I played a goblin Rogue in a Pathfinder game with a drawback where he HAD to steal money from the party or else he wouldn't be able to help anyone until he steals the party's money, so in that case stealing the party's money is literally what my character would do.

[@Robotron56]

​@@borderlands10 you also made the character that way. You're still to blame

[@borderlands10]

@@Robotron56 meh, if the party didn't want their money taken then they shouldn't have picked up a Goblin Rogue, seems like it's the party's fault in the end. And if Paizo didn't want to incentive players taking the party's money, they shouldn't have made it into a game mechanic 🤷

[@Robotron56]

@@borderlands10 it's something you chose to do, entirely your fault. You made the character, chose to do the money stealing. Chose to take the penalty for not stealing. It's not a core mechanic or anything

[@jonathanrobinson319]

Roll a 5. Spend a hero point. Nat 1.

[@seironed3165]

That literally happened to me but with a 4 instead of a 5, it doesn’t feel good at all

[@jonathanrobinson319]

@@seironed3165 Once I(DM) rolled below 10 five times in a row(for a dragon) and two nat 20 for a kobold attacking a sorcerer. A DM plans and the dice laugh.

[@1003JustinLaw]

@@jonathanrobinson319 This is why when you roll behind the screen you can change the outcome to suit your needs, especially when the rolls would utterly destroy the PCs. Now this does open the path for toxic DMs to claim that all their enemies are always rolling nat 20's and are always dealing maximum damage, but I like to think that dickwads like that are fewer and further in between than most horror stories would like to depict.

[@MikaeruDaiTenshi]

@arngeir "change the outcome to suit your needs" sounds rather suspicious. I get it, that a DM could fudge the dice to prevent a TPK, especially if the DMs Monsters/BBEG are on the brink of death. Or if one roll was so good, it would insta-kill a player first round. But other than that? I don't see how fudging dice would "suit a DM's needs" for any good reason.

[@1003JustinLaw]

@@MikaeruDaiTenshi I mean yeah, an inexperienced or plain bad DM could use "dice fudging" to railroad the game, secretly raising DCs and ACs to make the PCs feel powerless and stuff. But sometimes if the dice is being super mean to the PCs, an experienced DM could twist things to make for a more fun game experience. For instance, once I was rolling nat 20s non-stop for the monsters and even when I wasn't rolling nat 20s I was getting stuff in the high teens. So after my fourth nat 20 in just the first round, I decided to ignore that roll and just roll again so the party isn't TPKed in the first round of combat. I just suppose that I, with my DMing style, my "needs" have always been and will always remain "help my players to half fun". And if I need to change some things around to build more conflict or insert more drama, or make the situation more reactive to what the players want, I'll change anything and everything to meet those needs. If the dice says "unavoidable TPK", I'll just say "screw you" to the dice and reroll.

[@mollywillis14]

Love the zero out at end of session. I made a hero point system to encourage roleplay, creativity, and teamwork back 13 years ago the campaign went amazing but they were banking them at some point i let them trade them in for small xp bonuses just so they would stop hoarding.

[@PlatonicLiquid]

In PF2, you can also spend all your hero points to lose the dying condition and stabilize at any time (including when you would normally die). A similar system in D&D could be to automatically stabilize and reset your death saves.

[@zeron_825]

There's this thing a couple of my DMs have started doing called white and black tokens. You roll a d20 at the start of a new session, 11 and above is a white, 10 and below is black. You can use a white token to give yourself or a friend advantage on a roll and then you flip it to a black token, where you can give yourself disadvantage on a roll, or give an enemy advantage on an attack roll against you, and then you can flip it back to white and use it again.

[@Starfloofle]

Oh this is a really fun idea, I love that. The way it changes its purpose and its black state encourages you to take a risk, but the payoff is that you have as many inspirations as you're willing to risk. I like how in essence that should actually do a good job teaching players it's okay to fail sometimes, too, especially because by voluntarily rolling with disadvantage they're basically opting into the idea that they're more likely to fail. If I didn't already have a set of mechanics for inspiration in my game I'd actually steal this, that's a fun one.

[@lewistrundell]

There are hero points in D&D too, it’s a variant rule as most are. It gives you a number of d6s that you can use on anything. You get more when you level up. I have found they help in a similar way to inspiration

[@mke3053]

Thats the 3.5 Eberron action points rule.

[@Elohist2009]

P2E: designs a hero point system for clutch moments in game to reward good role play. 5E: “Let’s make that a feat…”😅

[@feritperliare2890]

1) 5e came before 2nd edition and 2)this hero point system was already made in pathfinder 1st edition before d&d 5e like most homebrew changes people make to 5e to try to make it better and by that get closer to pathfinder

[@matissequaylepetit7592]

Just throwing it out there I've homebrewed that you can have more than one inspiration point at a time and it was completely fine

[@borderlands10]

Yeah it's pretty balanced, especially when you consider the fact most players will forget they have inspiration at all half the time. An easy way to balance it if need be is to allow a player to have a number of Inspiration equal to half their proficiency bonus, that way the maximum is always 3.

[@MonkeyDM]

100% I completely stole PF2e Hero Points, and it works great.

[@kullinnmeilleur-finn5734]

@@MonkeyDM you fucked up lol, this the hero point rule in the DMG. Hero points work well in epic fantasy and mythic campaigns in which the characters are meant to be more like superheroes than the average adventurer is. With this option, a character starts with 5 hero points at 1st level. Each time the character gains a level, he or she loses any unspent hero points and gains a new total equal to 5 + half the character’s level. A player can spend a hero point whenever he or she makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw. The player can spend the hero point after the roll is made but before any of its results are applied. Spending the hero point allows the player to roll a d6 and add it to the d20, possibly turning a failure into a success. A player can spend only 1 hero point per roll. In addition, whenever a character fails a death saving throw, the player can spend one hero point to turn the failure into a success.

[@richarddarma1452]

Just keep in mind hero point as written is expected to be given once every hour after the first. After 2 hours of play the party gets a single hero point, not one for each character, a single one for a single character in the party.

[@gabrielsalesmartins]

I use a system of inspiration points, where instead of the inspiration letting you reroll a dice your inspiration points let you add a bonus to your rolls (you gain X number of inspiration points, they are cumulative and have no expiration date, you can choose at any time to spend your hard earned inspiration points as a bonus to any roll you make) To be clear, I don't really care that player are hoarding the points, because it's still incentive to roleplay to accumulate more points (and if they roll horrendously, they can still spend many points to make sure to pass a check or saving throw)

[@iampierce7474]

My group uses inspiration like hero points, and instead of doing cool things in the session to get them, we do trivia before the start and whoever answers a question right gets an inspiration

[@joshuaalleman1755]

The way I use inspiration is you can roll a D6 to add to any roll you want (including damage) you decide after the roll and it is awarded for good playing. Either roleplay or just a good cool idea that you do in general. Being a good player gets inspiration at my table because some people can’t RP well.

[@lucas_lipp]

I started also giving inspiration to players who give a recap at the beginning of the session, and you can also get a second inspiration, which turns your regular inspiration into crit inspiration, being a guaranteed nat 20. I'm sure there's better ways to deal with it, but it worked really well, so far, being a lot of fun and really coming in clutch at times.

[@DexyD20]

That's why my dm let's you have many and use them before the dm says anything but after you roll. I don't use them for myself since failure is ok with me, but I can use them on my friends for some extra cool roleplay, it's like giving the help action but even if I'm not there by saying something like "you remember me tell you one night about a ghost story and the people in the story did this" or "you flash back to some coaching I gave you about the proper parries" or "you remember one time how we got a deal at a store and that flattery is what got us that deal" it's a cool way of interacting with a person in a scene that your not in, while not really messing with that other person's scene too much if they might mess up a roll and no one is there to help.

[@laughingmanime4622]

Another DM I watch has it to where if you have inspiration you can spend it to make a Legendary Action ( take an action at the end of another npc or pc's turn). It's their way to give people more incentive to actually use inspiration and not just hold onto for the entire battle for some just-in-case scenario that never happens.

[@borderlands10]

Now that's a great way to use inspiration and incentivize using it.

[@CrimsonRane]

I reworked inspiration as points to be used in this animated forge, a automaton that allows players to work with me and make items, themed towards the inspiration if possible, say someone does something very much in character, like when my death cleric knight ripped the heart/phylactery out of this rotten lich boss, and the inspired item was an ornate, green steel gauntlet, buffing actions involve finishing moves, granting a bonus on some rolls , y'know, like ripping a heart out, chopping a head off, encouraging some cool scenes of my knight describing finishing moves

[@transmaddie]

Hero points are also a mechanic from Mutants and Masterminds. They let you do much more than simple re-rolls but in general they work the same way with a session point and rewarded points

[@stanislav6092]

I use inspiration for rewinding time backwards for 5 seconds (it works like "and that would would have happened, If you've triggered the trap") and also I use my homebrewed Fate Points. For Inspiration I do allow rerolls, but also after the shitty roll, not before You know the result. Fate Points are a bit different - a player can have up to 5, and they gain fate points by doing some homework, roleplay, remembering rules, lore, characters and town etc. Each Fate Point can be added to any result or any number used in the game, like adding to a damage roll or subtracting from the damage roll made by an enemy, or add in 1 more gold piece after a mediocre investigation check etc.

[@77Zenin77]

In my games i make inspiration work completely different. In my games inspiration is a +5 bonus to EVERYTHING. +5 to saving throws +5 to ability check +5 to attack rolls +5 to damage Etc. And it's stays active as long as i say so, mostly as long as the character is doing a certain thing. For example if a character decides that he is going to sacrifice himself to buy his party some time to escape, and stays behind to fight overwhelming enemies by himself, he is getting this inspiration as long as he stays alive. If a characters biggest goal is to slay a powerful dragon, he is getting that inspiration while picking up a fight against dragon. Usually those inspirations are active for few turns, usually around a minute, i don't want it to stay for too long.

[@gcook725]

So, funny thing, I've always used Inspiration the same way as Hero Points cuz I just plain misread how they work. We even allow it to reroll advantage and disadvantage rolls. We tend to give out inspiration enough at our table that you may as well use it whenever you need to cuz you'll probably get it back. Things we give out inspiration for: 1) Staying true to your character's flaws 2) Doing something exciting or amazing 3) Putting in extra effort for good roleplay 4) Recapping at the start of the session

[@fantasticartstudios]

Something I have been using for a long time now is Inspiration as "Narrative Intervention" and/or "Flashback Intervention": Basically the player uses an inspiration and then describes EXACTLY what happens, not needing to roll. IF and only IF that is completely absurd, then the player still has advantage on the test, however if the description the player made was a good and heroic one, then the Inspiration is spent and everything happens just like he said moving the scene forward and sharing the Narrative power with the table!

[@andrewsimpson311]

The one time I was rewarded inspiration, I held onto it for quite some time. I finally decided to use it to resist the effects of petrification from a basilisk. Double Natural Ones.

[@YetiCat28]

I just realized that my brother changed inspiration when we played because I was really young. He made it so that it was near impossible to get them, but that they would always reset after long rests. He also didn’t add a limit.

[@benevolentworldexploder5395]

I really like Star Trek Adventures's system. Players have momentum, which is a shared pool and can only max out at 6 momentum. It can be used for all sorts of stuff, including adding extras dice to your rolls or asking the referee questions to help with your current mission. Then there is determination, which is another resource, but much harder to acquire and you have to either be following a directive or using your character's value before you spend it. In most sessions you only get one, but each person can max out at 3. Determination can be used to get an automatic crit on a die, but there are special talents that allow you to spend your determination in unique ways. Lastly, there is threat. Threat is the referee's version of momentum, which can be acquired when players use lethal force, get complications (critical fail on a die roll), or even when players are being too slow and indecisive. The referee will typically announce when they acquire threat and why, and they'll tell the players when they are spending it and on what. The game has so much focus on these mechanics that most of the talents (feats) involve these in one way or another. Some talents give you a reroll on specific checks when you spend momentum on them, Spirit of Discovery let's you spend determination to instantly acquire 3 momentum, and there are talents that give you benefits for purposely generating threat for the referee or allow you to circumvent generating threat in specific situations. I am reducing some of the mechanics down to their core, but these mechanics rely so much on teamwork and have so much synergy that the game legitimately feels like you are playing an episode of Star Trek. As I've been continuing to play D&D, I have been incorporating more and more mechanics from other games.

[@baconbandit4694]

I really like this idea, shad from shadivirsity (sorry if I spelt that wrong) had a similar idea but while you start off with three you earn them during roleplay and I just like the sound of that better

[@renodalenhart2903]

In the German system „dsA“ (das schwarze Auge) it is called destiny points. You also get three per session (mostly per session some times it is story related). DsA is a nice system to play with many social skills

[@Fastdragonstar]

we used to make it so that inspiration dices can alternatively add 1d6 to any roll that is not tied HP gain or item charges and that we could stack inspiration across sessions. The problem was how rarely we got inspiration, i got maybe 3-4 inspirations in a 2 year long campaign so i (and everybody else) were hoarding them.

[@Ayrond]

I first heard of Hero Points in Mutants and Masterminds where they let you do much more than just reroll a d20. They also let you do things such as "edit the scene" which let's you change what is happening to have a clutxh moment or attack a second time in a turn! Hero Points are a huge part of MnM since you quite literally have a part of your character sheet called "complications" which indicate WHEN you get hero points (for example the character if William Wisp in Just Roll With it 's campaign has a complication called "mystery addict" which gives him a gero point whenever he scratches his nystery solving tick

[@steakknives]

I've used a similar homebrew in all my campaigns for years. It's called the "That didn't happen" rule. Once per session, every player gets to say "that didn't happen" after seeing one of their dice rolls, before they hear the results.

[@giovannimarini3730]

We had a problem in the first dnd campaign I’ve played, for which I kinda found a solution: since we had in a session two inspiration worthy moments back to back, I came on the fly with this: we can stack inspiration infinetly but we can use a point once per session. This made role play better in that campaign Then there are hero and danger points for 7th sea

[@Andaisdet]

I remember seeing a seemingly fairly new dnd group on twitch mention something like this, but their campaign was on a villain’s perspective, so the hero points had turned into Nemesis points, and were given any time a character did any fairly significant villainous action

[@paulrudd1483]

You can also use a hero point to not die! If you need to make death saves you can spend hero points to auto succeed

[@PurpleMarV]

At my table we use Inspiration in a lot of ways: first of all everyone can obtain Inspiration if they contribute in some manner to the worldbuilding (a little faction with its rules, some detail on their hometown, even arts like insignias and NPC portrait concur), and they can "accumulate" them; and then the players can use it to get Advantage, to reroll, to get maybe some other bonus there and then, and even for suggestions from players (if it's cool it's doable). It's still a work in progress and maybe it will change later on, but for the time being the players get more engaged with the world, as they participated in creating it, and I have less work to do as a DM ;)

[@benjaminschneider1640]

My gm runs inspiration different. He'll reward rp and other things such as bringing food, funny inside jokes, or recap with either a d4, d6, d8, d10, and once a d12. He also let's you add it after you see the roll so that way you know if it's worth it or not. Most times it's just a d6 but it's always fun hearing you get a d6 inspiration.

[@BestgirlJordanfish]

Hero Points being used to simply not die is also super handy! And god I love being able to hold up to three Though I’m also a big fan of the rule that instead of rerolling as a Fortune Effect you can add +d6 or request little ways to do cool maneuvers not listed in your Feats for the sake of flavor and narrative (I think the older version used +d6?) I like being able to let players increase their crit odds actively instead of just using them defensively

[@epicmedic1794]

I am definitely going to be using this (or something similar) in my homebrew campaign.

[@an_oracle]

We have a unique system called BB points BB points are actually two separate point systems, Blessed and brilliant (ill be honest i do not remember where the names came from). Blessed are given by the DM for good role play, while brilliant are given by players for doing something cool or funny. Brilliant increase the outcome of the roll, while Blessed allow for entire rerolls. You also have to use your brilliant points BEFORE the roll, while blessed are used AFTER a roll. It's a weird little system but it helps insentivize players to both roleplay and also cheer eachother on for said role play, which I think really helps the atmosphere.

[@borderlands10]

I heard of ways Inspiration could be used in a Planescape game, such as summoning a portal to a different plane, morphing a certain amount of the plane to suit your needs(change the topography, conjure buildings, etc.), or just simply giving yourself advantage on your next role; Personality traits can play a massive role in a Planescape game, leaving Inspiration open to having way more potential than it has in a normal game on the Material Plane. Also, Hero Points just sound like Inspiration points , except you can have 3 of them and you get one every session; that can easily be converted to 5e's Inspiration system, just allow players to have a number of Inspiration points equal to half their proficiency bonus and grant them one point of Inspiration at the start of a session, and if they already have one Inspiration point by next session they don't get additional point until they earn another one.

[@FlatOnHisFace]

When Monkey needs to hold up his hand to display a number with his fingers, the sheer weight of those massive numbers requires propping it up with his other hand.

[@emilbroseliger8506]

Man, that’s even better than being able to have more inspiration! I didn’t even know this existed! Thanks a lot, monkerDM! :~/)

[@Nolifecoffeeaddict]

I actually really like the influence dice system from the grim hollow books its like inspiration but its a shared pool for the party and also has negative influence to discourage murderhoboing

[@alexcarlson6776]

I've thought of using a similar mechanic, but you can keep them between sessions. And when you accumulate 5 of them, you can spend all of them to auto succeed on what you're trying to do. I might try and do something more like this.

[@bassyxgrelle8659]

Yea, I have a bad habit of hoarding inspiration unless it's a one shot

[@giggleandout2205]

How my DM treats inspiration is that it can be used as a nat 20 basically, for percentile rolls you just get advantage, and you can stack them.

[@The-Apothekari]

spend 3 hero points an get nat 1, 3 times. DM: "You are fated with great sorrow, please walk into the sword."

[@mindfalling7079]

So im thinking about making a house rule that makes it so that you can put away an inspiration to the side and have it be called excess inspiration. Excess inspiration cannot be used to roll with advantage but when you have stored 10 excess inspiration you get one superior inspiration. You can only have one superior inspiration and when you have one superior inspiration you are not able to put/make normal inspiration into excess inspiration. A superior inspiration can be used for rolling with superior advantage letting you pick the best roll of 3d20. Its just an idea though and i might tweak the rules just a little bit if this becomes crazy op.

[@auroramcbride1688]

Monty Cook's Arcana Evolved uses Hero Points. It's a standalone book that uses rules based on 3.5. I haven't played it in over a decade but it's really fun and very magic heavy. Our group also included Dumbass Points when people did something incredibly stupid that fit their character 😅

[@alfzepo9976]

I give inspiration based on if the character themself did something good and pleasurable for them, like during a long rest they took a bath and had expensive wine or if they ate the tastiest fruit in the world stuff like that

[@ItsDaKoolaidDude]

I've one DND session where inspiration is rewarded both by socially acknowledging what either others have done or how things have panned out. You get a max of 5 and can bring a vote of.... Idk 1 or 2. And the inspiration is essentially a "reroll" on any d20, so long as it's not a nat 1. you give one complimenting point about how someone played whether it was funny af or amazing like getting nat 20s in a row, you and the player gets 1 inspiration each. You can even give one compliment to the GM and get an inspiration. Oh and yes it does reset, meaning you can't stockpile inspiration. Use em or lose em wisely.

[@byronsmothers8064]

Me, who's party wasn't told about hero points until half the party died on session two: ...that checks out!

[@ClevelandBeans]

I made up an inspiration point called a luck token. I give out inspiration to my players when they rp really well. I give out luck tokens if they do something cool or do good rp etc. I give them out more liberally than inspiration points. The difference is that luck tokens are inspiration that you can only use on other players, not yourself. and they can have as many as they earn, I don't put a cap on it

[@autdroid6078]

My DM let's inspiration stack. He also gives me a point of inspiration every time I bring weed to the sesh; he's cool.

[@TLRNemesis]

I like the way Baldur's Gate 3 handles inspiration. You can have up to 4 points saved and they work the same as hero points in pathfinder, reroll after your die throw if you've failed the check

[@connorcontreras440]

The way I use inspiration is similar to this, but I also can take away inspiration and even give my players negative inspiration for doing things they shouldn't be doing (like constantly stealing from and killing random people)

[@TheEthiopian1987]

I always use the better method for DnD sessions. So my party can get inspiration, but it can be given at any time. Had a player needing to roll for the fifth time for a death save, so before they rolled I had them remember the things their character had done. Saving the children from a burning house and getting a burn scar on their arms and back. They then remembered the children saying how they wanted to see the Dragonborn Fighter again, and they got 1 inspiration and advantage on their last roll. The advantage saved them, then later they used the inspiration to slay the BBEG while yelling "I am coming to see you kids." The Dragonborn never got to see those kids again, as the BBEG had found each of their weaknesses and destroyed them. The kids died on the final death saving roll for the Dragonborn, the same one that gave them advantage and inspiration. Though the gods felt generous and let the Dragonborn see the kids one last time. It was a beautiful moment.

[@andrewsanders17]

I use something similar to the pathfinder 2e hero point system but I call them twists of fate. You make a role and can have advantage as you try to twist fate to your grasp but if a player uses a twist of fate it plays out narratively different. Players can hoard twisted fates if they choose however I do not allow them to bend things like bad checks. The twisting fates are moments of life and death. I had one player use 6 points just to keep themselves from dying and by the end the ground was reaching up trying to bring them back to the earth. Scared the area high level magic style.

[@jude2214]

My dm does a rule where once per combat, if you roll a natural 1 or 20 you gain an inspiration, and it lasts till your next rest. It makes for some really clutch moments in tense fights

[@elmsigreen]

The only problem with that is that characters that roll more often have a higher chance of getting inspiration.

[@ryanbritten6784]

Oh...that's pretty much how I changed inspiration for a homebrew rule. Nice, makes me more confident that it'll work well when I use it next session.

[@connorbryant5719]

Our dm ended up making inspiration an automatic nat 20 if we roll shit. This has lead to some interesting moments

[@eldritch3465]

I like Vtm's take on it with willpower

[@narutouzumaki4056]

My dm rules inspiration as a token you can turn in after rolling but before giving the number rolled to the dm, you can earn an infinite amount and they last indefinitely till use. If a character has 50 or more there is a very tiny chance of encountering an arch lich. If you pay 50 then a powerful deity will revive the party and destroy the lich, one time only.

[@iateitguy903]

My group's always played with inspiration after the roll, and while I sometimes think about having multiple inspiration points it wasn't really possible in most of our recent games because most of our DMs just give one at the start of the day and leave it at that. Since I'll be DMing next I might try to rule it differently this time!

[@MikaeruDaiTenshi]

I think this "before the roll" is an older rule, because in the current PHB, there's no wording of that sort. "Using Inspiration If you have inspiration, you can expend it when you make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. Spending your inspiration gives you advantage on that roll."

[@lordmars2387]

Minus the reset that's literally our rules for +5 years

[@ZoeBateman]

My DM home rules that inspiration is basically just a free luck point, can just re-roll any failed roll and you don’t have to choose to use it before a fail or potential fail. He doesn’t always give inspiration for RP though either, he also gives them out for bad puns and making him laugh

[@AbyssalDragon42]

This is better. I will now do this in DND. Thanks for the idea.

[@bobalmond8257]

In the experience point system you can actually give players with real rewards: experience points. As often as you like. This actually provides true progression for the players. Your PC acts like it should = they gain towards their next level.

[@judahforshey1865]

I merge inspiration and xp into fate pts for my game. Spend one fate point to Auto crit a roll BUT it will mean you level up slower. Fp are rewarded for large story progress or cool rp moments.

[@halkyuusen8626]

If you want to encourage and reward role-play. Give XP for it commensurate with combat XP. It ties in really well with the Bonds Flaws and Ideals system in D&D 5th.

[@elmsigreen]

It's basically the Lucky feat but for the entire party. Much better than having it as a feat. I need to use this. And get some tokens to represent the hero points that I can give out in the beginning of the session and take back at the end.

[@MikaeruDaiTenshi]

Not exactly like the Lucky feat, but similar.

[@nonameworm69]

Kekw.. In our campaign, inspiration stacks, and it just lets you reroll something You can use as many on a single roll as you want, and you only loose them if your roll succeeds. It's a fun one

[@xRyoden]

I want to make a video game where the ultimate healing item that fully heals the entire party has "use it when you need it, Don't wait until the game is over" in the flavor text. Then if you have one in your inventory during the final boss he can steal it at 10% HP to fully heal.

[@DarkDragonDave]

Fallout 2d20 does something similar with Luck Points, the number you have can vary based on the Luck stat and a couple of other factors.

[@yamato9753]

I reward my players for referencing their backstory in a healthy way. Moments like, the barbarian in the party says to an npc Gladiator "you remind me of my little brother." while they fought and then spares him. He willingly let's his weapon fall to the ground and offers their friendship. I gave them a "hero-point" which they can Later use for either a "i know someone" Moment or a special Attack in battle. For the latter, imagine a named Attack from an anime. Multiple people can decide to use hero points together when nearby to to a team-Attack.

[@francodamiani2099]

Every D20 system has a lot of natural swinginess due to the nature of the D20. I love the way Mutants and Masterminds 3E does Hero Points, you start with one and get one everytime the GM utilizes one of your narrative complications to penalize you. You can use these a bunch of ways, but one of the things you can do is reroll any roll you make, AND if you roll 10 or below, you add a +10 to your roll, which means you always get some cool high roll from it!

[@yuridezanet7560]

Totally agree, my pc's got inspiration once on its third session and kept it until 2 sessions ago, almost an entire year, it was like not having it

[@alcxander]

I give my players a d4 whenever i feel like they deserve inspiration. They can keep the d4 for as long as they like, whenever they get inspiration again I upgrade the die so d6 then d8 etc. I tell them to roll it whenever they want but they've taken it to mean it's effectively inspiration and they use it on each others rolls as well as their own.

[@TheWeebCalledShira]

*Me with 16 mini nukes raiding the Institute* I might need them later.

[@andreainselvini3568]

That's why i changed mine. Stackable to 4. When spent, the player must spend all of them. Depending on how many inspirations they spend they get a die to add to their rolls (damage roll, attack roll, ability check, the player choose) BEFORE knowing the outcome. The die changes like this: - 1 inspiration: 1d4 - 2 inspirations: 1d6 - 3 inspirations: 1d8 - 4 inspirations: 1d10 Inspiration expires at the end of the session. They can't pass the inspiration to each other. Inspiration is given when the players does something true to their characters even if it makes them at a disadvantage or they make me laugh so much i cry. Until now only the paladin got 4 inspirations in a session

[@DT_Liox]

Our house rule is allow more than one and you can stack them for better odds

[@RedNZBlue]

My games, the players can have a number of inspiration points equal to their proficiency bonus. And they use it to reroll. Masterwork weapons use inspiration points to do an extra thing, and you can tailor spells. "Hey can I use my magic missile to break the glass?" "Sure! Use an inspiration point"

[@FifthKazekagGaara]

see i reward inspiration for jokes, good plans, creative solutions, and rp moments. but i dont put a cap on inspiration that can be earned only that it can be used once once per person but multiple can force a reroll on one thing but it causes a wild magic surge to explain how fate itself is being bent and reshaped through the sheer will of their actions. They can also give each other their inspiration if they feel the roll is important. i do all of this so my players can have their moments and feel powerful even if they are rolling like shit. i actually had one player last night burn though a stack of a 5 inspiration to help the rest of the party survive pretty horrible situation and it made it this awesome thing despite the low rolls

[@andersrkeness2721]

Hero point in DnD is similar to the faith points in Dark Heresy(40k DnD).

[@AugustoEL]

One time in PF2e I was fighting an optional boss, and during the fight i got an extra hero point (probably due to my god Gorum because the sky suddenly turned red and I got buffed for a few rounds) and ended up using both the hero points to make the final hit a crit when I and the boss were both in critical state. It was that last push that I had to do to either win or fucking die, worth it even though it destroyed my greataxe in doing so, eh I got a greasword (cursed but powerful so who cares, jaja I will probably regret that lol). And the whole fight was really cool and I felt powerful.

[@korvincarry3268]

I have a dirty secret. Anytime id normally give inspiration to a player for good roleplay or a particularly smart idea, i make something easier for them. For instance, they are playing a strength based character and they roleplayed something really well? Well, that boulder they wanna move woulda been a 25 on a check to move it, but since it fits their character and they did so well roleplaying, ill drop it to 20. Still difficult to do and most of the party that isnt strong couldnt do it, but it makes it more likely that the strong character will be able to. Oh, and i still give inspiration. It works xause my table is VERY heavy on roleplay, so much so that i once went 4 sessions without a single combat, just tons of roleplaying. They were happy af. Inspiration is more often used in combat due to the amount of rolls, and forgotten about for checks (especially at my table), so it rewards my players even when they forget to reward themselves.

[@hunterbrown2001]

D&D also has hero points but they can be used to make plot things happen or switch the DM. It is an optional rule.

[@travelershu4963]

I really enjoyed what the world of io did with inspiration in 5e

[@PintegaElegante]

Inspiration say that you can wait to see the roll, but before the DM says if it's a success or a failure.

[@Dazen101]

They got him! This is how it begins. The transition to pathfinder lol

[@hipopotamodata9932]

Inspiration in my table we can decide to use after the roll and if fails

[@Madmidget]

We had a system where you get stardust for nat 20s and role play can’t remember most of the functions but with 3 you could re-roll I think and since we played so much we got to keep I think a max of 6 for a week

[@Axle3000]

My Dm gave us Chiron Coins that allow us to redo a roll. We get more coins by doing cool or clever stuff or hitting major milestones.

[@Zer0Solution-g3i]

I'm using this in dnd from now on, I always thought you should be able to have multiple I spiraling points because only having one makes you hoard it in case of a really important roll. This let's you have at least one roll for an emergency and 2 to play around with, and the reset encourages using them all but you always k own you'll have at least one each session so there's no fear of inconsistency. This is way better and more fun, I'm using it.

[@c0wsrcool_]

That's why you homebrew things

[@perfidiousprophet]

Sounds like a cross between my house rules and bennies from SWADE!! I let inspirations stack up to 3, and they can use them on ANY roll, before or after. The only caveat is that magic dice cannot be rerolled.

[@rubric167]

There are also Bennies in Savage World

[@bulletmagnet1038]

Not to mention, in Pathfinder. You can use ALL your points and get up if your knocked to 0 hp

[@1003JustinLaw]

I'll hoard my potions even during the boss fight, because what if I need them after? No I don't care that this is literally the last fight.

[@whyareyoulookingatthis236]

That's like bennies in Savage Worlds

[@milanmilacic9311]

I rolled a 3 to jump over a fence today and I failed, so I used a hero point to fix it and then i got a 2 feels bad it was just today my first pf2e experience