Heroic Inspiration in DnD 5e (New Rule Deep Dive)
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In DnD 5e, Inspiration is a rule that rewards players for going above and beyond in terms of bringing their character to life at the table. Unfortunately, Inspiration is also a rule that’s generally forgotten about or completely ignored by both Dungeon Masters and players. Part of the reason may be because of how limited Inspiration is, as they can be difficult to come by and only allow you to gain advantage on a few types of rolls.
It’s a problem that Wizards of the Coast is trying to address in the new 2024 Player’s Handbook, introducing a completely new rule known as Heroic Inspiration that’s designed to be more useful and hopefully become more widely adopted among DnD 5e players.
So just what’s changed and how will it impact your game? Below, we break out all the details.
What is Inspiration in the old DnD 5e rules?
On Page 125 of the 2014 Player’s Handbook, Inspiration is described as follows:
Inspiration is a rule the Dungeon Master can use to reward you for playing your character in a way that’s true to his or her personality traits, ideal, bond, and flaw. By using inspiration, you can draw on your personality trait of compassion for the downtrodden to give you an edge in negotiating with the Beggar Prince. Or inspiration can let you call on your bond to the defense of your home village to push past the effect of a spell that has been laid on you.
What does inspiration do?
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. Additionally, if you have inspiration, you can reward another player for good roleplaying, clever thinking or simply doing something exciting in the game.
Notably, you either have inspiration or you don’t. In other words, you can’t stockpile multiple Inspirations for later use. Most DnD 5e character sheets have a small section where Inspiration can be recorded, but the PHB also suggests keeping track with a poker chip.
How do you gain inspiration?
The 2014 Dungeon Master’s Guide lists a variety of instances where a DM might reward Inspiration, including:
- Roleplaying: A player does something notable that is consistent with their character’s personality trait, flaw or bond. The player’s action could be funny, epic, dramatic or clever, but should always be memorable.
- Heroism: A player does something suitably heroic, such as leaping into a horde of orcs to give time for the rest of the party to escape, running into a burning building to save a trusted NPC or taking a risk to save the day.
- A Reward for Victory: In some instances, DMs may reward players for achieving victory. This could include reaching a narrative milestone in a campaign, hitting a certain level or finally defeating the Big Bad Evil Guy.
- Genre Emulation: A DM also choose to reward players for helping to support the lager genre themes of a game. A player for example, might get Inspiration for helping to build the atmosphere of tension and creepiness during a horror-themed adventure.
Notably, the 2014 DMG recommends awarding inspiration to each character about once per session of play – although this can always change based on the campaign, players and overall play style.
What is Heroic Inspiration in the new DnD 5e rules?
In the new 2024 DnD 5e rules, Heroic Inspiration functions similarly to the 2014 rules, the primary difference is that a player can now use their Inspiration to reroll any roll in the game. This could be a saving throw, an attack, an ability check or even the roll of a hit dice. In other words, any time a dice is rolled and the player doesn’t like the outcome, they can use their Inspiration (if they have it) to reroll the result.
As with the 2014 rules, Heroic Inspiration is also handed out by the Dungeon Master. That being said, there are also new mechanics that allow players to earn Heroic Inspiration in other ways. For example, the new Champion subclass of the DnD 5e Fighter has an ability called “Heroic Warrior” that grants the character Heroic Inspiration at the start of a turn if they don’t already have it.
Final Thoughts
It’s awesome to see Wizards of the Coast trying to enhance a rule that’s been largely ignored by most DnD 5e players. Interestingly, the new Heroic Inspiration rule was not included in any previous Unearthed Arcana materials or featured in any of the One D&D playtest, although Wizards of the Coast has acknowledge that it was driven by player feedback.
Full details on the new Heroic Inspiration can be found in the new 2024 Player’s Handbook, which you can pre-order now on D&D Beyond and Amazon.
In the meantime, Below is also a video from the official D&D Beyond YouTube channel that features an interview with lead designers Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins who discuss the new DnD 5e Inspiration rule (for ease of reference it’s been timestamped to the relevant section).
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
