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Bards of the College of Swords have a feature called Blade Flourish that lets them use their Bardic Inspiration to add a modifier to their Attack action (XGtE, p. 15):

Whenever you take the Attack action on your turn, your walking speed increases by 10 feet until the end of the turn, and if a weapon attack that you make as part of this action hits a creature, you can use one of the following Blade Flourish options of your choice.

The feature then goes on to read:

You can use only one Blade Flourish option per turn.

Does this last clause mean that you can only use the feature to affect one attack in that turn, or that you can only use one of the three options for any attack you wish to affect during that turn?

For example: Could I hit my first attack and choose to use Mobile Flourish, and then hit a second attack in the same turn and expend a second usage of Bardic Inspiration to use Mobile Flourish again?

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2 Answers 2

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Only one attack can be modified by a Blade Flourish

There is another Q/A regarding the sorcerer's Metamagic which states:

You can use only one Metamagic option on a spell when you cast it...

There is now a small semantic requirement/argument that "you can use only one metamagic option on a spell" and "you can use only one metamagic option per spell" are equivalent statements.

To me this is true and so the above sentences are equivalent. This sentence structure was ruled in the Sage Advice Compendium to mean that you cannot use the same metamagic option multiple times per casting:

A sorcerer can use one Metamagic option once in the casting of a spell, not the same option more than once...

The Bard's Blade Flourish feature has the same structure stating:

You can use only one Blade Flourish option per turn...

It should follow the precedent set forth by metamagics and the Sage Advice Compendium and so the Blade Flourish clause means that you cannot use the same Blade Flourish option multiple times per turn.

To spell this out more directly:
You can use a metamagic option once per spell casting, and you can't use the same one multiple times in a spell casting.
You can use a Blade Flourish option once per turn, and so you can't use the same one multiple times in a turn.

This is also supported by Jeremy Crawford (though now unofficial, and at best can only be considered rules as intended) here stating:

Blade Flourish can benefit only one attack on each of your turns..

A small note on wording: Blade Flourish does not say that you can use it once per attack because then you could use different Flourishes with each attack.

Only one attack can be modified by one Blade Flourish option per turn.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh... didn't realise there was a Crawford on this... well, I'll leave my answer up to show the alternative reasoning... \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 20:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ @NathanS people upvoting your answer is also plenty reason to leave it up, at least to me \$\endgroup\$ Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 20:41
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Your chosen Blade Flourish affects all attacks made that turn

I read this to mean that you choose which flourish option (say, Mobile Flourish), then for each attack you make that turn, you can apply that chosen flourish (if you're happy to spend the bardic inspiration die each attack). I think this all hinges on the word "option".

A counter example of attacks that are intended to be used once per turn, rather than attack, are the Hunter Ranger's Colossus Slayer feature:

You can deal this extra damage only once per turn. (PHB, p. 93)

Whereas this is worded:

You can use only one Blade Flourish option per turn. (XGtE, p. 16)

So it's reasonable to conclude that the intention was for Blade Flourish to only be used throughout the entire turn, not just limiting it to one single attack. This is reinforced in this earlier part of the feature's description, where it draws attention to the "option", not the "attack":

you can use one of the following Blade Flourish options of your choice. (XGtE, p. 16)

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    \$\begingroup\$ This is an interesting interpretation. I don't necessarily agree with it but I think it's still reasonable because the requirement of using Bardic Inspiration each time provides an adequate balancing cost for using this interpretation. That said, I think the critical clause here is the fact that the wording is "if a weapon attack that you make" and not "when you hit with a weapon attack" which would have been more conducive to the ongoing permission you are ascribing to the ability. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rykara
    Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 20:28

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