Hello fellow DMs, I had an issue today where a player did something really cool and I wanted to give them inspiration. But there was only 1 problem. They already had some. In the moment they asked if they could stack it. I said no at the time, but I told them I will get back to them on it. On the surface it doesn't seem to bad to me to have 2 inspiration points. Other systems have a similar mechanic and they allow stacking (FATE, Iron Kingdoms, Pathfinder, etc.).
My question is, what are your thoughts on stacking inspiration? Is it OP? Is it fine? Or is it unnecessary?
If you don't like it, what are some alternatives you would suggest to reward a player being awesome?
The formal rule is just one Inspiration at a time, but you're the DM. Do whatever feels appropriate for your group and apply the rule change equally for all players. My biggest concern would be hoarding. You don't want players to stack a bunch of Inspiration to get guaranteed critical hits in pivotal moments. This could be mitigated by specifying that Inspiration can only be used once per check.
Otherwise, I would consider using a different mechanism for Inspiration. For example, give them "Heroic Magic Items", which have charged abilities. Whenever they would otherwise get inspiration, you can restore one charge (Or have them roll a d4), and that would give them access to some novel ability.
My question is, what are your thoughts on stacking inspiration? Is it OP? Is it fine? Or is it unnecessary?
If you don't like it, what are some alternatives you would suggest to reward a player being awesome?
I don't do it. My alternative is to tell the player, "Use your dam inspiration!"
If I allowed stacking, the players in my game would spend the next 10 sessions with 2 or 3 inspiration, instead of just 1. :-)
Making a bit of a scene around, "Nice idea, Vector, you get an Inspiration, oh, wait, you already have an unspent one, I guess this one is discarded." encourages players to spend.
If you want to give out the inspiration as a reward but are concerned about stacking to be able to use them all in one critical combat / all but guarantee success on a vital check, two good options in my opinion. Either allow them to gift it to someone else and keep the one per person at a time or homebrew to allow getting multiple but you can only use one Inspiration point per short or long rest.
Alternatively, if this is just a one-off situation and you're not handing out inspiration all the time, it's probably not actually an issue to allow them to hold a couple inspiration points at a time.
A lot of good points here, my concern is the saving up bit as well. Having 1 extra inspiration, not that bad, but saving 4 or 5 could get ridiculous. I could just cap them at 3 or 2, but then it's like the same problem of them not using them can occur. Which would defeat the purpose of the whole thing I guess.
Hmmm, I was playing around with the idea of maybe turning any excess inspiration into like a guidance die. So they would have to use it with the limited time and it's only 1d4 on a check or save instead of anything. But idk if that's too much resource management.
The easiest option may be to just have Inspiration be a circumstance specific short term magical effect. For example, if they do something cool in combat, they gain the benefit of Bless for 2 rounds, no concentration. If they are in a social situation, they might get 1 minute of Eagle's Splendor. Etc...
It'll be exciting in the moment, and automatically expire, so they either use it or lose it, and can't forget it.
You could make an Inspiration table like the Wild Magic table.
If Inspiration is just 1 point, handed out on an extremely irregular basis - no one ever remembers to use it, including the GM never remembering to hand out Inspiration.
Always give 3 points, and refresh on a fairly regular basis. That way, it actually get's used, which ... is the point of any mechanic.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
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Hello fellow DMs, I had an issue today where a player did something really cool and I wanted to give them inspiration. But there was only 1 problem. They already had some. In the moment they asked if they could stack it. I said no at the time, but I told them I will get back to them on it. On the surface it doesn't seem to bad to me to have 2 inspiration points. Other systems have a similar mechanic and they allow stacking (FATE, Iron Kingdoms, Pathfinder, etc.).
My question is, what are your thoughts on stacking inspiration? Is it OP? Is it fine? Or is it unnecessary?
If you don't like it, what are some alternatives you would suggest to reward a player being awesome?
The formal rule is just one Inspiration at a time, but you're the DM. Do whatever feels appropriate for your group and apply the rule change equally for all players. My biggest concern would be hoarding. You don't want players to stack a bunch of Inspiration to get guaranteed critical hits in pivotal moments. This could be mitigated by specifying that Inspiration can only be used once per check.
Otherwise, I would consider using a different mechanism for Inspiration. For example, give them "Heroic Magic Items", which have charged abilities. Whenever they would otherwise get inspiration, you can restore one charge (Or have them roll a d4), and that would give them access to some novel ability.
I don't do it. My alternative is to tell the player, "Use your dam inspiration!"
If I allowed stacking, the players in my game would spend the next 10 sessions with 2 or 3 inspiration, instead of just 1. :-)
Making a bit of a scene around, "Nice idea, Vector, you get an Inspiration, oh, wait, you already have an unspent one, I guess this one is discarded." encourages players to spend.
Allow them to gift one of their inspirations to another player.
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Stacking is bad, because they'll save them all to easily defeat the end-boss.
If you want to give out the inspiration as a reward but are concerned about stacking to be able to use them all in one critical combat / all but guarantee success on a vital check, two good options in my opinion. Either allow them to gift it to someone else and keep the one per person at a time or homebrew to allow getting multiple but you can only use one Inspiration point per short or long rest.
Alternatively, if this is just a one-off situation and you're not handing out inspiration all the time, it's probably not actually an issue to allow them to hold a couple inspiration points at a time.
A lot of good points here, my concern is the saving up bit as well. Having 1 extra inspiration, not that bad, but saving 4 or 5 could get ridiculous. I could just cap them at 3 or 2, but then it's like the same problem of them not using them can occur. Which would defeat the purpose of the whole thing I guess.
Hmmm, I was playing around with the idea of maybe turning any excess inspiration into like a guidance die. So they would have to use it with the limited time and it's only 1d4 on a check or save instead of anything. But idk if that's too much resource management.
The easiest option may be to just have Inspiration be a circumstance specific short term magical effect. For example, if they do something cool in combat, they gain the benefit of Bless for 2 rounds, no concentration. If they are in a social situation, they might get 1 minute of Eagle's Splendor. Etc...
It'll be exciting in the moment, and automatically expire, so they either use it or lose it, and can't forget it.
You could make an Inspiration table like the Wild Magic table.
If Inspiration is just 1 point, handed out on an extremely irregular basis - no one ever remembers to use it, including the GM never remembering to hand out Inspiration.
Always give 3 points, and refresh on a fairly regular basis. That way, it actually get's used, which ... is the point of any mechanic.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.