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I ran into this in my current campaign, in which I am the DM. My players were fighting a half-orc and one of them decided to use his Inspiration point to gain advantage on an attack roll. At the time, he was poisoned so I assumed that the advantage and disadvantage would cancel out. He told me that Inspiration gave automatic advantage to any roll, disregarding any disadvantage. I don't know which is correct, RAW or RAI.
Can someone please help me clear this up? Thanks!!
Inspiration gives you advantage(PHB, 125):
If you have inspiration, you can expend it when you make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. Spending your inspiration gives you advantage on that roll.
But, as you know, if you have both advantage and disadvantage, you count as having neither(PHB, 173):
If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. This is true even if multiple circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation, you have neither advantage nor disadvantage.
There is no special exception for advantage that comes from inspiration. It uses the same wording as many other features that grant advantage, without providing any extra rules.
If you have inspiration, you can expend it when you make an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. Spending your inspiration gives you advantage on that roll. (PHB 125)
If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. (PHB 173)
Advantage gained from inspiration is no different from Advantage gained from another source. If you originally had Disadvantage, you will roll a simple check.
