Inspiration

Not to be confused with Bardic Inspiration

Inspiration is a resource in Baldur's Gate 3 which can be spent to re-roll failed Ability Checks. It is earned by making choices which fit the player characters' backgrounds.

Inspiration is shared between all characters, and the party cannot have more than 4 Inspiration at any time. If an Inspiration milestone is hit while the party has 4 Inspiration, the character will still earn experience points (see below) but no Inspiraton point will be rewarded.

Gaining Inspiration

Inspiration is gained by completing specific actions in keeping with a character's background while that character is in your active party. These actions vary considerably; they can be anything from helping someone in need to finding particular loot, talking to certain characters or solving a problem using skills relevant to the character's background. If two characters have the same background, they may both gain inspiration for the same action; occasionally some actions count for multiple backgrounds as well.

See each individual background's page for a list of actions which grant Inspiration:

•  Acolyte (Shadowheart and Zenith Feur'sel)
•  Charlatan (Astarion and Kree Derryck)
•  Criminal (Ver'yll Wenkiir)
•  Entertainer (Brinna Brightsong)
•  Folk Hero (Wyll, Minsc and Danton)
•  Guild Artisan (Jacelyn)
•  Haunted One (The Dark Urge only)
•  Noble (Minthara and Kerz)
•  Outlander (Karlach, Halsin, Eldra Luthrinn and Sina'zith)
•  Sage (Gale and Sir Fuzzalump)
•  Soldier (Lae'zel, Jaheira and Varanna Sunblossom)
•  Urchin (Maddala Deadeye)

A custom origin character can have any background except Haunted One.

Experience reward

When a party member earns Inspiration they also gain a fixed amount of experience based on the action they completed. The experience rewards begin at 20 experience and increase in fixed increments upto 220 experience, with the amount of experience granted generally increasing for sources of inspiration found further into the game.

Only the characters who earn the Inspiration get this experience, which often leads to some party members having more experience than others. Inspiration is the only source of experience in the game which is not shared amongst all characters.

Spending Inspiration

The Inspiration option under a failed dice roll for an ability check. The player has 2 Inspiration.

When a character fails an active Ability check and has Inspiration available, the player will be presented with the option to "Roll Again" by spending one point of Inspiration. The number of currently available Inspiration points is shown in parentheses after the "Use Inspiration" text.

All modifiers for the original roll will apply to the re-roll, including Advantage or Disadvantage and additional dice from  Guidance and similar effects. A failed check can be re-rolled multiple times until the player runs out of Inspiration or succeeds.

If the failed roll is a Sleight of Hand check to pick a lock or disarm a trap, the option to roll again using Inspiration will be presented alongside the option to roll again using another Trap Disarm Toolkit or set of Thieves' Tools, if any are available.