Does Inspire Courage Stack?

[NobyShroom]

So a friend and I were talking about bards and started to wonder if their inspire courage effect stack with each other. I tried reading the PFSRD but didn't see anything about it. So I was wondering if anyone has found anything on this before or has any input. Thanks in advance.

[Thymus Vulgaris]

They do not stack. Inspire competence offers a morale bonus and a competence bonus, and as is the case with most typed bonuses, these don't stack. Only the highest bonus of each type applies.

[NobyShroom]

Ah okay. Just read up on those now. Thank you very much!

[Majuba]

That said, multiple bards can be very useful. The first one to act can always start inspiring right away for the rest of the group, and you'll never run out of rounds.

Also once you're higher level, having one bard do Dirge of Doom while another uses Inspire Courage, while another uses Inspire Greatness (all as move actions...) can be very effective. The ultimate top-off is Inspire Heroics, but that takes a while.

We started Council of Thieves AP with 3 bards and a monk.

[Thymus Vulgaris]

Having bards of different archetypes could work as well. Say... core bard using inspire courage and archivist bard using naturalist—

Naturalist (Ex):

An archivist who has identified a creature with a Knowledge check appropriate to its type can use performance to share strategies for defeating it with allies in combat. The archivist and any allies within 30 feet gain a +1 insight bonus to AC and on attack rolls and saving throws against exceptional, supernatural, and spell-like abilities used by creatures of that specific kind of monster (e.g., frost giants, not all giants or all humanoids). This bonus increases by +1 at 5th level and every six levels thereafter. This language-dependent ability requires visual and audible components.
This ability replaces inspire courage.

—or maybe a daredevil with derring-do—

Derring-do (Su):

A daredevil can use her performance to bring out grace in the clumsiest allies. The daredevil and any allies who see her receive a +1 morale bonus on Reflex saving throws and a +2 competence bonus on Dexterity-based skill checks. Allies who move at least 10 feet during their turn gain a +1 dodge bonus to their Armor Class until the start of their next turn. At 5th level, and every six bard levels thereafter, the saving throw and Armor Class bonuses increase by +1, to a maximum of +4 at 17th level, and the skill check bonuses increase by +2, to a maximum of +8 at 17th level. This is a mind-affecting ability that uses visual components.
This ability replaces inspire courage.

—or maybe, inspired by Majuba's suggestion of the one bard using dirge of doom (which is only possible at level 8+), a court bard using satire, which is sort of like dirge of doom, except when it's not, and it scales with level.

Satire (Su):

A court bard can use performance to undermine the confidence of enemies who hear it, causing them to take a –1 penalty on attack and damage rolls (minimum 1) and a –1 penalty on saves against fear and charm effects as long as the bard continues performing. This penalty increases by –1 at 5th level and every six levels thereafter. Satire is a language-dependent, mind-affecting ability that uses audible components.
This performance replaces inspire courage.

You could of course also just keep the one bard with inspire courage as a backup for when/if the other one runs out of rounds or gets knocked out, but when dreaming up bard archetype combinations I do like to look for the ones that replace inspire courage, since I normally wouldn't otherwise touch them if there was just the one bard in the party.

[williamoak]

Actually, typed bonuses stack with other types; 2 morale bonuses dont stack, but a morale & a competence bonus stacks. DIFFERENT typed bonuses stack.

Which is nice, because having an archivist bard & a regular bard is pretty sweet. (Insight+morale).

[Thymus Vulgaris]

williamoak wrote:

Actually, typed bonuses stack with other types; 2 morale bonuses dont stack, but a morale & a competence bonus stacks. DIFFERENT typed bonuses stack.

I thought I explained that with "Only the highest bonus of each type applies"...