"If you gain Heroic Inspiration but already have it, it’s lost unless you give it to a player character who lacks it."
It also says
"Only One at a Time. You can never have more than one instance of Heroic Inspiration. If something gives you Heroic Inspiration and you already have it, you can give it to a player character in your group who lacks it."
Does this mean if I have the Musician origin feat, i can hand out Heroic Inspiration to my allies after every rest and if one of them still has Heroic Inspiration, could they then give that inspiration back to me? I am assuming I couldn't give inspiration twice to one person and have it bounce after the first rest.
Can I give a familiar Heroic Inspiration? Could they bounce it back to me if I gave it to them when they already have it?
Most GMs I expect would probably let you just give yourself inspiration with the Musician feat, but if not, then should you use it to give inspiration to another PC who already has it, then yes, they could pass it on to you.
Familiars aren't player characters, so no to that one.
[EDIT] I've thought more about it and with regard to the familiar, the rules are clear that only a player character can use inspiration, and for the "only one" rule, you can only give it to a player character, so there's clearly a consistent assumption that only PCs will ever have it. But the Musician feat just says allies, so I'm not sure there's any text that would actually prevent you from using Musician to give a familiar inspiration. They can't actually spend it to reroll anything, but it may be technically not against the rules. That said, if your GM won't let you just give yourself inspiration with Musician, I doubt they'd let you exploit this with the familiar to get it to yourself.
As Encouraging Song say, you can give Heroic Inspiration to allies and the number of allies you can affect in this way equals your Proficiency Bonus. I don't think it's intended to affect the Musician or familairs.
EDIT Rethinking about it, i'm not sure the ally doesn't count as being affected when giving him, which can in turn give it to another PC including the Musician.
Late to this discussion but chiming in as this is pertinent to our campaign.
RAI I don't think familiars were intended to be recipients of heroic inspiration. However, based on RAW, the familiar heroic inspiration laundering scheme appears to work.
A familiar fulfills the definition of an ally since "A creature is your ally if it is a member of your adventuring party, your friend, on your side in combat, or a creature that the rules or the DM designates as your ally." My little feathery pal who's fun to be with and provides the help action during combat fulfills the bolded criteria. Having the familiar pass heroic inspiration back to the musician (a player character) also appears to be valid since "you" as used in the second sentence of the the definition of heroic inspiration can be extended to a familiar. Per the PHB Rules Glossary, " "You.” ... That “you” refers to the creature or object that the rule applies to in a particular moment of play. For example, the “you” in the Prone condition is a creature that currently has that condition." The reference to "you (a player character)" in the first sentence of the heroic inspiration definition qualifies those eligible to use heroic inspiration. The same parenthetical restriction is not applied in the second sentence, which defines those who gain heroic inspiration (possible for a familiar via musician) and can pass it on to a player character. While the author likely assumed "you" to be a player character in both sentences, the failure to be explicit in the second sentence, coupled with the use of lax language in the description of the musician feat, opens the door to interpretation.
I apologize for parsing words, but there is nothing in my read of the descriptions for the musician feat and heroic inspiration that would preclude granting the familiar heroic inspiration, doing so again during a subsequent short rest, and having the familiar pass the second inspiration back to the musician. I am not even aware that heroic inspiration expires before being used, so once the familiar has inspiration they should be able to hold onto it for perpetuity (and will do so since they are ineligible to use it) to facilitate future laundering escapades. I am sure that all of this is much ado about nothing since many DMs would probably allow the musician to give themself heroic inspiration anyway.
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According to the 2024 PHB is says
"If you gain Heroic Inspiration but already have it, it’s lost unless you give it to a player character who lacks it."
It also says
"Only One at a Time. You can never have more than one instance of Heroic Inspiration. If something gives you Heroic Inspiration and you already have it, you can give it to a player character in your group who lacks it."
Does this mean if I have the Musician origin feat, i can hand out Heroic Inspiration to my allies after every rest and if one of them still has Heroic Inspiration, could they then give that inspiration back to me? I am assuming I couldn't give inspiration twice to one person and have it bounce after the first rest.
Can I give a familiar Heroic Inspiration? Could they bounce it back to me if I gave it to them when they already have it?
Most GMs I expect would probably let you just give yourself inspiration with the Musician feat, but if not, then should you use it to give inspiration to another PC who already has it, then yes, they could pass it on to you.
Familiars aren't player characters, so no to that one.
[EDIT] I've thought more about it and with regard to the familiar, the rules are clear that only a player character can use inspiration, and for the "only one" rule, you can only give it to a player character, so there's clearly a consistent assumption that only PCs will ever have it. But the Musician feat just says allies, so I'm not sure there's any text that would actually prevent you from using Musician to give a familiar inspiration. They can't actually spend it to reroll anything, but it may be technically not against the rules. That said, if your GM won't let you just give yourself inspiration with Musician, I doubt they'd let you exploit this with the familiar to get it to yourself.
As Encouraging Song say, you can give Heroic Inspiration to allies and the number of allies you can affect in this way equals your Proficiency Bonus. I don't think it's intended to affect the Musician or familairs.
EDIT Rethinking about it, i'm not sure the ally doesn't count as being affected when giving him, which can in turn give it to another PC including the Musician.
Late to this discussion but chiming in as this is pertinent to our campaign.
RAI I don't think familiars were intended to be recipients of heroic inspiration. However, based on RAW, the familiar heroic inspiration laundering scheme appears to work.
A familiar fulfills the definition of an ally since "A creature is your ally if it is a member of your adventuring party, your friend, on your side in combat, or a creature that the rules or the DM designates as your ally." My little feathery pal who's fun to be with and provides the help action during combat fulfills the bolded criteria. Having the familiar pass heroic inspiration back to the musician (a player character) also appears to be valid since "you" as used in the second sentence of the the definition of heroic inspiration can be extended to a familiar. Per the PHB Rules Glossary, " "You.” ... That “you” refers to the creature or object that the rule applies to in a particular moment of play. For example, the “you” in the Prone condition is a creature that currently has that condition." The reference to "you (a player character)" in the first sentence of the heroic inspiration definition qualifies those eligible to use heroic inspiration. The same parenthetical restriction is not applied in the second sentence, which defines those who gain heroic inspiration (possible for a familiar via musician) and can pass it on to a player character. While the author likely assumed "you" to be a player character in both sentences, the failure to be explicit in the second sentence, coupled with the use of lax language in the description of the musician feat, opens the door to interpretation.
I apologize for parsing words, but there is nothing in my read of the descriptions for the musician feat and heroic inspiration that would preclude granting the familiar heroic inspiration, doing so again during a subsequent short rest, and having the familiar pass the second inspiration back to the musician. I am not even aware that heroic inspiration expires before being used, so once the familiar has inspiration they should be able to hold onto it for perpetuity (and will do so since they are ineligible to use it) to facilitate future laundering escapades. I am sure that all of this is much ado about nothing since many DMs would probably allow the musician to give themself heroic inspiration anyway.