Initiative and Dance Bard's Agile Strikes

I am looking for clarity on something regarding a College of Dance Bard and the use of Bardic Inspiration for an Agile Strikes with Tandem Footwork. 

Tandem Footwork allows the use of a Inspiration Die when rolling initiative. Agile Strikes allows an Unarmed Strike when a Bardic Die is expended as part of an action, bonus action, or reaction. I get the argument that a D20 test is not an action, however there are no actions I can see that the Bardic Die would be expended in that case. Additionally, under the Actions tab of a Dance Bard is where Tandem Footwork is listed, indicating that  D&D Beyond is considering it a part of an action at least. Am I missing an action where it could be used?

This may have been discussed in another thread, but I did not see one on my search and I am wondering how others have handled it at the table. Whether it is RAW is another aspect people could argue about.

Rolling Initiative is not an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction, so you can't use Agile Strikes to make an Unarmed Strike with it.

There are two main times when you can use Agile Strikes:

• When you give someone Bardic Inspiration using the base Bard class feature (this uses a bonus action, so it qualifies)
• When you use the level 6 feature Inspiring Movement (this uses a reaction, so it qualifies)

The feature is left somewhat open-ended and not explicitly limited to these two things so that it can apply to potential future abilities granted by things like Bard-specific feats and magic items.

On character sheets they do not always have a good way to categorize everything. They only have X options and sometimes they just place something into a category. So always take the words in the book over the words on the sheet (until the update when they have more flexible code)

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Rolling Initiative is not an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction, so you can't use Agile Strikes to make an Unarmed Strike with it.

There are two main times when you can use Agile Strikes:

• When you give someone Bardic Inspiration using the base Bard class feature (this uses a bonus action, so it qualifies)
• When you use the level 6 feature Inspiring Movement (this uses a reaction, so it qualifies)

The feature is left somewhat open-ended and not explicitly limited to these two things so that it can apply to potential future abilities granted by things like Bard-specific feats and magic items.

Giving a Bardic Inspiration to a creature is not Expending it. That is referred to as Conferring. Expending is when the BI die is actually rolled. 

From Bard Class Features  - Level 1 Bardic Inspiration
"Once within the next hour when the creature fails a D20 Test, the creature can roll the Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to the d20, potentially turning the failure into a success. A Bardic Inspiration die is expended when it’s rolled."
"Number of Uses. You can confer a Bardic Inspiration die a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest."

So under the rules as written, the College of Dance Bard would not have any way to Expend the BI die themselves as they Confer the die to someone else who then Expends the die. 

Perhaps rules as intended includes conferring the die as well as expending. 

Quote from DrRic >>

Quote from wagnarokkr >>

Rolling Initiative is not an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction, so you can't use Agile Strikes to make an Unarmed Strike with it.

There are two main times when you can use Agile Strikes:

• When you give someone Bardic Inspiration using the base Bard class feature (this uses a bonus action, so it qualifies)
• When you use the level 6 feature Inspiring Movement (this uses a reaction, so it qualifies)

The feature is left somewhat open-ended and not explicitly limited to these two things so that it can apply to potential future abilities granted by things like Bard-specific feats and magic items.

 

Giving a Bardic Inspiration to a creature is not Expending it. That is referred to as Conferring. Expending is when the BI die is actually rolled. 

From Bard Class Features  - Level 1 Bardic Inspiration
"Once within the next hour when the creature fails a D20 Test, the creature can roll the Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to the d20, potentially turning the failure into a success. A Bardic Inspiration die is expended when it’s rolled."
"Number of Uses. You can confer a Bardic Inspiration die a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest."

So under the rules as written, the College of Dance Bard would not have any way to Expend the BI die themselves as they Confer the die to someone else who then Expends the die. 

Perhaps rules as intended includes conferring the die as well as expending. 

That's not what's going on here.  The Agile Strikes clause of the Dazzling Footwork feature is not referring to expending a Bardic Inspiration die.  It says:  "When you expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration".  This is referring to a use of the Feature, not the die.

The Bardic Inspiration Feature says this:

You can supernaturally inspire others . . .

Using Bardic Inspiration [(the Feature)]. As a Bonus Action, you can inspire another creature within 60 feet of yourself who can see or hear you. That creature gains one of your Bardic Inspiration dice.

. . .

Number of Uses [(of the Feature)]. You can confer a Bardic Inspiration die a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Yeah, up2ng is correct here. You expend a use of the feature when you give the die to someone. They expend the die when they use it. Per the rules as written, Agile Strikes triggers based on the former, not the latter.