Inspire Greatness (Su): A bard of 9th level or higher can use his performance to inspire greatness in himself or a single willing ally within 30 feet, granting extra fighting capability. For every three levels a bard attains beyond 9th, he can target one additional ally while using this performance (up to a maximum of four at 18th level). To inspire greatness, all of the targets must be able to see and hear the bard. A creature inspired with greatness gains 2 bonus Hit Dice (d10s), the commensurate number of temporary hit points (apply the target’s Constitution modifier, if any, to these bonus Hit Dice), a +2 competence bonus on attack rolls, and a +1 competence bonus on Fortitude saves. The bonus Hit Dice count as regular Hit Dice for determining the effect of spells that are Hit Dice dependent. Inspire greatness is a mind-affecting ability and it relies on audible and visual components.
Do these bonuses HD apply as racial HD? So they get all of the respective bonuses for increased HD such as BAB, saves, skill points, etc?
I would like to know how this is handled, I searched and didn't seen to find a consensus.
No.
The spell is pretty clear (IMO) what you get.
Two d10 hit dice worth of HP (+ con modifier). +2 Attack bonus, and +1 bonus on fort save.
You don't gain any extra BAB as though these were racial hit dice, or other save progression bonuses, or anything else.
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I feel like the standard Inspire Courage bonus is still better than Inspire Greatness. IC gives a better to hit, as well as damage bonus, and affects everyone who can hear it. IG targets one person only, gives a handful of HP, and a bonus to Fort. I've never seen this ability used, and I'm curious to know when you'd want to.
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I feel like the standard Inspire Courage bonus is still better than Inspire Greatness. IC gives a better to hit, as well as damage bonus, and affects everyone who can hear it. IG targets one person only, gives a handful of HP, and a bonus to Fort. I've never seen this ability used, and I'm curious to know when you'd want to.
It is patterned after the Potion of Heroism from 1ed AD&D. As a power you get a level 9, which scales only in the number of targets, it is very weak. The only use I see for it is if you need to keep a low-level (or one with few hit points) NPC alive during a fight. As an example, if you are escorting a noble and your group is assaulted by assassins.
Besides that, the only use I see is in supporting a rogue that is disarming a trap, as it will give him a little hp padding, but in that scenario inspire competence is better. The only reason to use it is if the target already has a competence bonus to his Disable device that is greater than what Inspire competence will give him.Corner cases.
P.S.: and the "Go our hero!" scenario, when the whole group piles all the bonus they can muster on a single character. We did that once in 3.5, there was a Shadow dragon (its breath weapon drain levels) and we had only one Death ward, so we used everything on our best melee fighter. Having more hit points, and renewable ones, was more beneficial than a better to hit and damage, that other spells had already increased.
Inspire competence gives temporary hit points, so they can refreshed every round by stopping and restarting the song.
Note that you get the ability at level 9, when starting a bardic performance is a move action. Bard *technically* has an iterative attack since level 8 meaning their move action, when not spent moving around the battlefield does have some use, but the ability to cycle Inspire Greatness on your front line every round for an effective healing buffer of ~11*2*Con-mod of hp is nowhere near worthless, let alone its value at being just a move action. This is also readiable if you don't mind burning through performance rounds to double the per turn health loss mitigation, as you can't stack the temp hp from multiple uses, but you can refresh them as soon as they are gone
When this scales up to being eventually your entire party at level 18+, it becomes even more valuable, never mind it now costs only a swift action every round instead of a move action. This alone can put a bard who dedicates their buffing to this path far ahead of the healing even a cleric can put out turn over turn with channels, but unlike the cleric, the bard isn't sacrificing any meaningful action economy to do so. Couple that with the +2 atk and +1 fort save and you get a nice cherry on top that means you aren't sacrificing one set of utility for just the one thing.
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I feel like the standard Inspire Courage bonus is still better than Inspire Greatness. IC gives a better to hit, as well as damage bonus, and affects everyone who can hear it. IG targets one person only, gives a handful of HP, and a bonus to Fort. I've never seen this ability used, and I'm curious to know when you'd want to.
I used this ability a LOT. But not as a bard. My cleric (evangelist) would throw out Inspire Greatness as a move action and follow up with an alignment-based spell such as dictum. Inspire Greatness would allow my non-lawful allies to avoid the nasty effects entirely. Once I hit 15th level it was even better because then I could spend my swift at the end of the round after the spell cast to switch back to Inspire Courage.
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Note that you get the ability at level 9, when starting a bardic performance is a move action. Bard *technically* has an iterative attack since level 8 meaning their move action, when not spent moving around the battlefield does have some use, but the ability to cycle Inspire Greatness on your front line every round for an effective healing buffer of ~11*2*Con-mod of hp is nowhere near worthless, let alone its value at being just a move action. This is also readiable if you don't mind burning through performance rounds to double the per turn health loss mitigation, as you can't stack the temp hp from multiple uses, but you can refresh them as soon as they are gone
When this scales up to being eventually your entire party at level 18+, it becomes even more valuable, never mind it now costs only a swift action every round instead of a move action. This alone can put a bard who dedicates their buffing to this path far ahead of the healing even a cleric can put out turn over turn with channels, but unlike the cleric, the bard isn't sacrificing any meaningful action economy to do so. Couple that with the +2 atk and +1 fort save and you get a nice cherry on top that means you aren't sacrificing one set of utility for just the one thing.
I don't think I understand what you are saying here. How do you "double the per turn health mitigation?" Yes, you have a standard and a move, but usually your party members aren't losing HP on your turn.
All the HP are temporary HP. If you end the performance those temporary HP disappear. If you start Inspire Greatness as a standard, then do it again as a move, then again as a swift, you have accomplished exactly the same thing as if you did it only one time. 11 + (2 x CON mod) temporary HP. (Not 11 x 2 x CON mod.)
Move action to refresh the temp hp on your turn, ready to refresh them again when enough party members have been attacked (e.g. enemy wizard casts a fireball but there's still the wizard's minions trying to slap your party). At later levels, depending on con mod but most likely almost always, a single hit will wipe the full temp hp so you can just wait until everyone who is likely to take a hit takes one hit.