Re-reading the Combat Inspiration tooltip (and since my game hasn't fully patched yet so I can't test it out myself), it sounds like this is how Combat Inspiration actually works despite my initial impressions.
1) The Bard grants Combat Inspiration to a party member.
2) The party member gets a free action to decide which parameter to use the die on. The die is still expended on the next roll if conditions are met.
So the party member would still get to hold onto the die, as long as they don't yet decide how the die should be used during their turn. Using it to boost your attack rolls or damage rolls would work out if you choose how the die should be used right before you attack, but it becomes finicky against incoming things like saving throws or the AC boost since you have far less control over that for obvious reasons.
Last edited by Saito Hikari; 07/07/22 08:49 PM.
