Inspire Competence p. 18

[Tharen the Damned]

The flat +2 bonus on skill checks is good enough in the lower levels. In higher lvels (from 8+) it will become less useful as the DC of the skill checks rises linear.
I suggest to add an increasing factor to Inspire courage.

Add in the 10th row of the inspire courage block, just before "A bard can't inspire competence in himself":

"At 8th level, and every six bard levels thereafter, this bonus increases by 1 (+3 at 8th, +4 at 14th, and +5 at 20th)."

This will make this ability worthwhile and used even in higher levels.

[Jess Door]

Yeah, I pretty much always exchange Inspire Competence for an alternate class feature. Any alternate class feature. Even a poor alternate class feature is more useful.

[Samuli]

Tharen the Damned wrote:

The flat +2 bonus on skill checks is good enough in the lower levels. In higher lvels (from 8+) it will become less useful as the DC of the skill checks rises linear.

Mathematically, you just contradicted yourself. Because the DC rises linearly the bonus should be fixed. If the DC rises exponentially your suggestion would be justified.