SOURCE: Player’s Handbook

Rating the Benefits of Inspiring Leader

Benefit #1 – 

By spending 10 minutes, a character with this feat can inspire up to 6 creatures, which can include themselves. 

An inspired creature gains temporary HP equal to the level plus the Charisma modifier of the character using this ability. 

A creature who has received HP from this ability can’t gain any more until they’ve taken a short or long rest. 

Temporary HP is basically a shield over normal HP. This feat hands out a good amount of scaling temp HP, to a lot of target creatures, with the potential to do it multiple times per day. 

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How Inspiring Leader Functions

The Inspiring Leader feat does one thing, but it does it incredibly well; 

Increase a party’s survivability by handing out a massive amount of temporary HP.

The feat is simple to understand but takes a little setup to use. Literally. To benefit from Inspiring Leader, the character using it has to be able to perform uninterrupted for 10 minutes. 

Inspiring Leader can target up to 6 creatures, including the user. Each of these creatures has to be able to see, hear, and understand the Inspirer. Interestingly, the feat doesn’t specify how the feat actually works to inspire people, meaning you’re free to flavor this however you want. 

Need to creatively repurpose your favorite movie moments? Absolutely. Do you need to tailor a custom speech entirely for your party and their situation? Sounds awesome, have at it!

A creature inspired by the feat gains temporary HP, equal to the inspiring character’s level + their Charisma modifier. This is great, as it means the temp HP is entirely reliant on the character with the feat, and a high-level character can inspire low-level or weaker allies, offering a massive amount of protection. 

Once inspired, like all temporary HP they last until they’re gone, or until the character with them takes a rest. 

A character that has received temp HP inspiration like this cannot be inspired again until they’ve taken a rest. Importantly, that covers both long and short rests, so a party can refresh the barrier of temporary HP multiple times per day, as long as they have at least an hour to take a short rest, and ten minutes for their Inspiring Leader to perform.

What this means for most parties is every day will begin with an extra 10-minute interval where everyone becomes Inspired, heading out into the adventuring day with a barrier of temporary HP. 

On top of this, for parties that have access to short rests, this becomes much stronger. Not only will certain class resources refresh and the party top up on HP using their hit die, as normal, if they have a spare ten minutes, which is not a big ask, everyone gains the temp HP shield again. 

This can even be used tactically. Have you scouted out the area and know there’s a big, scary thing up ahead, a boss monster crouched, sullen, and malevolent, inside its lair? Retreat a short distance and take 10 minutes to stack HP and get tough. 

More on who can benefit from this, and best uses, later in the guide. 

How strong is Inspiring Leader?

Used correctly, Inspiring Leader is an incredibly powerful feat, though I’ll admit there might be a little bias here. Inspiring Leader is indeed your writer’s favorite feat in 5e. But it’s also true that very few feats offer as much defensive impact spread across a working party, from so low a required investment. 

Let’s dive into the maths:

Inspiring Leader naturally scales in two ways: A character’s level, and their Charisma bonus. Between the two of these, the feat easily stays relevant across every level of the game without having to put further resources into it.  

The equation is this:

Inspiring Character’s Level + Charisma Bonus

Consider. At level 5, when most characters have had this feat for a level, Inspiring Leader hands out 8 temp HP per target. (5 from level, 3 from Charisma.)

In a standard 4 person party, that means the feat hands out 32 temp HP. That same party will probably have around 150 HP on average. This means Inspiring Leader makes the party 20% harder to kill. 

And this is if the feat is only used once per day. 

See, a 20% toughness increase is already powerful. But the Inspiring Leader feat can be used multiple times per day, with no resource cost, as long as the party has the time to take a short rest plus 10 extra minutes.  

That’s crazy. Especially if it’s paired with classes who already want to take short rests, like Bards, Monks, Fighters, and Warlocks. A party that wants to stop and recover 1 or 2 times per day synergizes perfectly with what this feat offers. 

Inspiring Leader numbers 

We’ve already mentioned the average HP increase in a four-person party from one use of Inspiring leader: It works out as a 20% boost to effective party HP.

The maximum theoretical HP from a single use of the Inspiring Leader feat is 150, at level 20. 25 HP x 6 recipients. 

The temporary HP provided by the feat is more useful on squishy backline classes like Sorcerers, Wizards, or Rogues. Fragile classes like these have a lower total HP pool, which means that the boost provided by the feat covers more of their HP as a percentage. 

Consider, a level 5 Fighter with 14 Con has a HP total of 44. Inspiring Leader gives the character an 18% increase in effective HP. 

A Wizard at the same level, with the same Con bonus, has 32 HP. Inspiring Leader is a 25% increase in total HP.  

The intricacies of temporary HP 

Temp HP aren’t like standard hit points. There are several significant differences, so your party can’t just glue bigger numbers onto their character sheets and be done with it. 

• First, temporary HP can’t be healed. It’s not real HP. Sounds obvious, but it’s worth pointing out. 
• Second, a character with temporary HP can have their normal HP healed while they have temp HP. 
• Third, gaining more temp HP does not add to the existing temporary HP a character might have. It’s a direct replacement. Either keep your previous amount or change to the new amount gained. 
• Fourth, temporary HP lasts until a character takes a rest, or until they are lost through damage like normal. 
• Lastly, resistances work with temp HP, just like they do with normal HP. If you have a way to reduce damage, it’s incredibly efficient when stacked with this feat. 

Key Stats

Inspiring Leader needs a Charisma score of at least 13 to be taken and also scales with your Charisma modifier. While having a score of 20 isn’t essential, it does squeeze a little more efficiency out of the feat and synergizes naturally with many classes in the game. 

Ideal Characters for Inspiring Leader

Top Classes

Bard – A high Charisma supporting spellcaster that doesn’t generally need feats to be effective, and never stops spinning tall tales. It’s like this feat was made for the Bard. The class even has synergy with short rests in its Song of Rest healing ability, which helps to keep party hit points high even as you stack more temp HP on top. 

Which Bard subclass is good with Inspiring Leader? All of them. Every single one. But if you want your party to love you forever, run a Glamor Bard with this feat. This combo is part of my favorite (stealthily broken) character combination. One your writer has personally run, and can vouch is incredibly good fun in every stage of the game. Look out for a guide on that soon. 

Fighter – Combining a surprisingly low reliance on stats besides whichever one they use to stab people, more feat availability than every other class in the game, and thematic ties all make Inspiring Leader a surprisingly great choice for a more party-minded Fighter. 

The Battlemaster subclass has some maneuvers that play surprisingly well into party dynamics. Personally, though, if we were spending power budget on a defensive feat like this one our subclass choice would be purely offensive. Samurai is incredible, freely gaining advantage and another spike of temp HP multiple times daily. Rune Knight is also a fantastic choice, considering the main dynamic of the class is becoming Large, then dishing out and taking a ton of big hits. 

Paladin – You’re playing a knight in glittering plate mail, carrying a honking great sword and shining with divine radiance. Of course, you’re taking Inspiring Leader. 

The Paladin class already plays well with other party members due to its aura abilities and class-based healing hands. Adding another barrier of temporary HP is a great way to keep the party members who don’t have literal gods at their backs alive and kicking. 

Our recommendation for any Paladin is still to take damage feats first. The class is a brawling DPS machine after all. But Inspiring Leader is a great thematic secondary choice, or amazing as the free feat from Variant Human or a background. 

Warlock – 

Race or Subrace Choices

Variant Human – The free feat from VHuman is possibly the best way to take Inspiring Leader, as it doesn’t cut into ASI progression and replaces niche racial traits with something that boosts the whole party. 

Kobold – Build on party synergy by yelling an inspiring cry in combat that gives all your allies advantage. Plus, the image of a tiny dragon person striding up and down giving heroic speeches is too cute. 

Aasimar – What can be better than conferring literal angelic inspiration to the party? Solid damage resistances, a once-per-day emergency healing hands ability, and a choice of three bonus action single-shot transformations that add damage or control effects to a build are all incredible for almost every class that wants this feat.  

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Healer – Probably not on the same character, but Healer and Inspiring Leader in the same group results in a party that stays topped up on HP unless something catastrophic goes wrong. 

Bountiful Luck – Leaning into the inspiring theme, a Halfling taking this path can also grab their racial feat to reroll every 1 the party rolls. 

Eldritch Adept – This is a feat with a lot of intricacy, as our full guide on the feat shows. We’re here for one thing. Fiendish Vigor; infinite casts of False Life, for frontline characters who want to double down on the ability to always have temporary HP available. 

Spells that Synergize

Bless – You’ve already covered HP, now increase the whole party’s saves and attack rolls into the bargain.  

Rope Trick – Create an extra dimension hidey hole that the party can retreat into for up to an hour, for their choice of short rest or Inspired Leader. 

Tiny Hut – This spell makes long rests safe against anyone not armed with Counterspell or Dispel Magic, and casts as a ritual so has no resource cost besides time. It’s a great way for the party to camp out in hostile territory. 

Strategies for Maximizing Inspiring Leader Effectiveness

Inspire more than the party

The rules for Inspiring Leader state that, to benefit, a creature has to be able to see and hear you, and also has to be able to understand you.

That covers a lot of ground, and notably, doesn’t specify that the creature has to be able to speak back. Possible unusual targets for inspiration include: 

• Familiars
• Animal Companions
• Summons

On top of this, there’s no limit on how many creatures can be inspired by you. Only that 6 creatures at a time can be inspired per use of the ability. 

Is the party putting together a desperate last stand with thirty six ragged and ramshackle villagers? Do you have an hour before the enemy is at your gates? Now every single one of them goes into battle with a shield of temporary HP on top of their own, and a nice warm feeling in their heart from your stirring words. 

Do you need high Charisma to take Inspiring Leader?

Simple answer. No. 

As long as a character meets that 13 Charisma threshold, they can take Inspiring Leader, and considering the majority of the scaling comes from level and not stats, the decrease in efficiency is surprisingly minor. 

In a standard 4 person party, having 13 Charisma instead of 16 means a loss of 8 HP, 2 per person. Even at level 20, it’s handing out 21 temp HP instead of 25. 

Characters who might want to take the feat in these circumstances include Fighters, mentioned above. Rogues, who don’t tend to be feat reliant. Casting-focused Clerics, who don’t need to spend stats on combat. And even Barbarians, who have a natural source of resistance to double those temp HP, and can comfortably take a few points of Charisma alongside their essential combat stats. 

Does Inspiring Leader require the Performance Skill?

Again, no. There’s nothing in the feat that’s linked to Performance, or any skills. It’s entirely self contained and self reliant. Any character who meets the Charisma requirements can grab the feat without any further investment. 

Are there any downsides to Inspiring Leader?

Absolutely. No feat can do everything, after all. 

First off, there’s the time commitment. To use the feat requires 10 minutes of uninterrupted showing off. If that isn’t available, because the party’s in hostile territory, say, or under serious time constraints, the feat does nothing. 

Second, the feat does nothing to increase a character’s killing power. Making everyone in the party tougher is all well and good, but if you could take a feat that makes enemies die one turn quicker, that might work out to roughly the same HP saved. 

Finally, there are the RP negatives. Your party might just get sick of your endless, bombastic speeches and strutting around. Don’t overplay your hand. Unless your GM is an absolute stickler for the rules, your inspiring speeches don’t actually need to be 10 minutes long. 

Final Thoughts on Inspiring Leader

Inspiring Leader is mechanically strong and thematically incredible. It’s a fantastic feat, and in the running for one of the most well-designed feats in 5e. 

The feat provides a powerful effect without being overbearing and benefits everyone in the party, no matter what class or build they’re running.

It slots neatly into a lot of character builds without being essential to run an optimized character. 

Best of all, Inspiring Leader encourages creative and fun roleplaying, as every player comes together to spin ridiculous speeches and tall tales, or just break down laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. 

It comes highly recommended, is what we’re saying. And we hope this guide has, ahem, inspired you to try it the next time you roll up a character.