You smite too much in D&D 5e - Advanced guide to Smite 

This is correct. Thank you! Pinned.

4 rounds is a lot, smite might allow you to eliminate a creature in 1-2 rounds which means you can now double team another creature. You also have to maintain a concentration on bless, and if you are a front liner you might lose it in the same round you cast it. Blessing a wizard isn't too bad but you reduce the damage part of bless, and bless being concentration doesn't allow you to use cooler paladin spells like wrathful smite, aura of vitality, crusaders mantle etc.

@@PackTactics Also Paladins use divine focus not arcane focus. Divine focus doesn't need to be held at all it just need to be out and exposed to work

Bless really isn't that good for paladins, friend; 1.) It's only that good if there are sufficient targets. The average party size is 4-5 players. Assuming half of them prefer ranged combat, there's a good chance they won't be in range of the spell when it's cast. This is doubly true as a paladin, as paladins are almost always near the front lines. If you're only getting 2 targets with bless, it's not nearly as good. 2.) Bless doesn't actually add damage. It adds to-hit. If your chances to hit are already very good-as is quite common for physical attacking classes-then what you want is damage. Which is why the GWM feat is so common; an excess of to-hit, without enough damage. Paladins don't need to worry about low damage, because they can smite. 3.) It requires concentration, which means the chances of the paladin maintaining it as a front liner are very low. Either they'll be fighting a single target, which will deal a lot of damage and require a high DC constitution save to make the check-which paladins aren't proficient in-or they'll be fighting several smaller targets, and if they all attack, then the paladin will be called on to make many such saves. 4.) Bless has somatic components, meaning you have to have a free hand open to cast it. While you can draw OR sheath a weapon as part of another action, doing both in the same turn is an action to perform. Meaning you have to choose between having a weapon in hand, not using a shield, or casting bless. If you prefer a shield as a paladin-which is Very common-then it's a less attractive option. 5.) If someone else in the party has the bless spell, the benefits don't stack. If that party member is in a better position to use it than the paladin is-quite likely, as the paladin will be on the front line-then casting bless does nothing. Beings as bless IS a very good spell, it's quite likely someone else will have it. 6.) Bless isn't guaranteed damage, but still requires a slot. If a paladin makes use of bless, but no one benefits from it before they lose concentration, the spell slot is wasted. Smite is only wasted if you didn't need the extra damage to deliver the killing blow, which is something easily avoided by paying attention to the amount of damage already dealt. 7.) Once you reach level 5, Smite receives a huge damage boost, as it can then happen twice a turn. It requires double the slots, but if it means ending a threat in one turn it's generally very worth it. Bless, by contrast, means spending a turn not attacking at all. 8.) Your calculations on damage don't account for fighting undead or fiends, which receive additional damage from smite. As undead and fiends are very common enemies, your calculations become wrong on a regular basis. Conclusion: Let the cleric cast bless, paladins have better things to do with their slots. Like cast Shield of Faith as a bonus action, then draw their sword and charge into combat to smite first-turn.

@@Necroes You shouldn't smite twice in one turn unless it's a big obvious boss enemy and it's on turn 1-2. Don't make it a habit to smite twice a turn. Yeah it doesn't show undead or finds because that's not every enemy. So this is for more enemies that you will face. So no the calcs aren't wrong. You can in fact take a hand off a two handed weapon to do somatic components and then put your hand back. The only issue is if you're using a sword and board.

and you should always shout : "For Kingdom and Glory!" when it happens otherwise you will break the oath

“You’re the one who agreed to the oath!”

@@KajiinSkyrim FOR THE EMPEROR

should you smite every crit? no.... but it sure as heck does feel nice to do it anyways!.... so what if the boss only had 12 HP left, smiting them down for 2d8+5 slashing damage, +10d8 radiant damage still feels nicer as you hitting for that average 59 damage compared to the average 23 damage you'd do from 2d8+5 slashing, +2d8 radiant as an 11th level paladin. And if you get good rolls the feeling of hitting that poor creature for over 70 damage XD!

You also took Oath of Critfishing?

Overkill points go on the leaderboard. :D

Literally did this and my dm was like, "he had 5 hp left" I didn't bat an eye baby

@@austinrobinson6065 My response: So he's dead, right??

@@salvadortoscano2534 not dead enough

@@mugenokami2201 Exactly

Cast a smite spell with your divine smite for maximum smite!… you will burn through all of your slots in just a few short bursts, so make sure to have your recovery time. Still, the sooner you end a fight the better!

H E R E T I C ! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IEGo41443iI.html

Deus Vult!

Also applies to League of Legends Junglers

@@albertgore7435 TRUE!!!

That was my first thought haha

Always make the most out of a crit especially vs a boss that survived to round 6

John cena “are you sure about that”

Level 10? How about level 8, like in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, then again 1 level later.

At lvl 10? They should be making an absute joke out of that dragon lol seen lvl 6 parties mop up adults

i would drop my shield and take out my other short sword

Had this happen the other day, round 1, 1 hit kill with 52 damage. It was glorious!

Smite early. Smite often. Smite life. Smite coffin. Hold Person? Smite both them. Smite wizard and then held person. Praise god. Smite god. Smite until it's worth it, smite until it's perfect!

The bane of my existence, at least once I noticed.

at least bless improves your concentration saving throws... which is a real blessing early on. Ok... I'll show myself out for that one!

Just bless and hold it. Everything else is smite.

When I played a ranged paladin this was the bane of my existence.

You just made me think of this scene. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M1_Ir6iNSm4.html

Dude, setting up my phone to play *heavy music* would be the highlight of the session. More of my NPCs will have Command from now on.

Well actually you declare it after the roll, but before the DM says if it hits or misses. But unless you're dumb or the enemy you're fighting has unexpectedly high AC, you're still unlikely to miss.

@@megashark1013 "Starting at 2nd Level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon Attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage." A hit should be a hit, no?

@@megashark1013 no, it’s after you hit.

@@megashark1013 oof

@@megashark1013 oof

You find your tongue adheres strangely to the peanut butter sandwich.

Noooooo my ultimate survival guide has failed

That's funny because I have a kobold rogue the party picked up that ended up getting knighted for killing a half dragon. His name is Sir Trabik Blueslayer.

Never played a kobold, but I have a half-elf paladin. Took on animated scarecrows in a 2v1 at level... 5? It's been a bit. He killed each with one attack with searing smite on the first, and divine on the second. Yeah... and this is a dex-based paladin, BTW.

Damn, thats good, that makes me feel good! Thank you! I haven't even given any DM advices but I do know what you mean. If you understand the players and what their features and spells can do then you'll have a good idea what to throw at them and what not to. Before I got into DMing, I just calculated classes. It was hell but I'm happy I did it and now I slowly want to share my player knowladge to everyone both from experience practically and theoretically. This helps everyone grow including myself. Thank you!

Fan of your work to! Sub to Wintry Wyvern, guys!

Yes. Only the initial save is a save, further ones are checks. This means they get a disadvantage, but also that they *can't have proficiency* with it, even if they are proficient in Wis saves. Not only that, it takes *an action* to try to end the effect. Wrathful Smite is one of the best single-target control spells in the game.

You can actually use divine smite on top of wrathful smite given that wrathful smite is a bonus action and divine smite is included in the attack action with no action required to activate it. Same with eldritch smite if you dip into warlock so if you stack those up you can at most do 5 smites per turn Stacking divine eldritch and smite spell on one attack and divine and eldritch on another. That’s potentially 12d8 and knock the target prone (or 13d8 if undead or fiend) + smite spell damage and effect (5d10 for banishing smite) + weapon damage. Assuming you’re using a greatsword and the creature is undead or fiend. That’s on average 73 to 83 damage and you get to knock the target prone depending on if you use searing smite or banishing smite. Searing smite is 73 on average for initial damage but it has a lingering effect of fire damage each round so after 4 rounds the average damage would be above 83.

Subbed, not because you said so, but because of the profile pic

@@someoneonyoutube8622 become randy savage and just give then the noogy of GOD

Nat 20 instakill is not OP at all lmao

@@keykiq It is absolutely OP, but our DM has a habit of giving us a bunch of magic items and then just giving us really strong encounters anyway XD This just opened me up to actually using my smites more liberally is all, because I absolutely was that dude that always waited for a crit.

@@MissingNovice If it works at your table, good for u =)

Good call on not upgrading until you get something serious. Some of our best items don't seem all that special to others.

She sounds like a lovely DM!

You wouldn't need to argue.

You would just need to find a table with a pally and a cleric. Often times, depending on build, they can fulfill the same role so some tables might not see a need for both or there just aren't any players interested in playing those classes.

Smite all the things. When in doubt, smite.

Last time I play I was a paladin of conquest and one of my favorite moments was using thunderous smite to launch an enemy off a balcony into a gladiator pit. He was promptly killed by the monsters meant for us.

I was thinking the same thing

Obviously the Paladin eventually multiclasses out to warlock or sorc.

@@PackTactics Perhaps. However, I remembered another thing - that if the spell doesn't have Material Components, you RAW can't cast it with Focus. So "Quarterstaff is a Focus" would work only if the spell *does* have Material Component, while War Caster, which lets you perform Somatic component with weapons in hands, works only if the spell *doesn't* have Material component. So those two aren't interchangeable, you still need War Caster.

@@antongrigoryev6381 Correct. Component rules are really stupid.

I think for clerics and paladins alike they should be able to use their spell focus without hands as why would you need to hold and amulet to cast a spell with it. Additionally, what exactly constitutes a holy symbol. However, I had a lot of fun playing a paladin with the tavernbrawler feat using my religious text as an improvised weapon which the DM made it do 1d10 radiant damage and allowed it to benefit from great weapon master because my character constantly said god is great no one realizing the Arabic translation of the term.

I think I did the same thing, though I had just played a paladin so much that I had an idea of what spells worked with my play style. Though one of my funnier moments with my Redemption Paladin was getting Friends cast on me in a tournament match and told to stop my party from attacking him. So I cast Calm Emotions, popped my Emissary of Peace for the bonus to Persuasion, and rolled to convince them not to attack. I knew it wasn't going to work. The others even gave me props for quickly coming up with it. And I used to do an arena thing. I quickly became noteworthy despite Redemption seeming like a non-combat subclass. I would use my different abilities to control some elements of how people were getting damaged. Besides knowing how to wreck others on my own. There were various bets that would be set up. I would use Rebuke the Violent in free-for-alls when one PC would attack another just so they'd also take damage. I might have done the same if there was an additional NPC monster and a PC attacked it. I'd use Aura of the Guardian when it was down to the wire with three of us depending on turn order. One PC would attack a weak one, so I'd take the damage. The weak PC would attack the other to hopefully drop them, and I would come in to drop the weak PC. All about knowing your class.

Same here... my only smite so far has been a thunderous smite to break a grapple that would have otherwise killed me next turn.

Because spears don't work for the extra 1d4 bonus damage. *Only* glaives, halberds, and quarter staffs. Pikes are excluded, and as such so would spears. So, you could use a spear you're gonna arrive at a lower dpr.

@@Storywalker4 Have you been living under a rock? The errata that added spears to polearm master would've become a greatwyrm by now if it were a dragon

@@io6741 It would appear I misremembered. I didn't realize it said *both instances.* In which case, unless you're using shillelagh, there's no reason not to take the spear. Weird then than pikes are excluded.

@@Storywalker4 spear was added to pole arm master after an errata

You still need to look at warcaster anyway if your DM is enforcing free hand required for spells with no material component

Especially if you have a monk on the team to stun lock your heavier opponents.

If you want to eat all of your slots as fast as possible though, you can cast (wrathful, thundering, or whatever) Smite, which lasts until you hit, when you get your instant cast of Divine Smite. That's effectively 2 spellcasts plus a melee.

Problem is, Smite's literally the thing people pick paladin for. If you need to think about a good time to use Smite, you're more likely to just never use it at all and thus wasting your time playing the class instead of a fighter. That's why paladins just use Smite whenever they feel like it, even if it's not a 'good moment'. We're prepared castors too for fuck sake, so we're only preparing spells we know we're going to use anyways. If we prepare Smite, we're going to use the damn spell no matter what. This is why I say Smite should have been a cantrip for Paladin, it's the gimmick spell for the class same way as Eldritch Blast is the gimmick spell for warlocks. It'd also kill the argument of when a good time to use it would be, because you're not wasting a spell slot anymore thus it' ALWAYS a good time to use it.

@@caiusdrakegaming8087 smite being a cantrip is a surprisingly good idea, specially since SCAB exists

@@slayeroffurries1115 Exactly. I mean seriously, Smite is just the read and butter for paladins so it just makes sense for it to be a cantrip. I really also feel like there isn't ever a good or bad time to use Smite. It's all subjective anyways. Saving them for crits? Valid choice. Save them for undead or fiends? Valid choice. Spam them early in a fight so the full castors and supports don't need to waste more spell slots themselves during or after the fight? Valid choice. The last point there is something else I want to bring up. Paladins SUCK at being a healer. Paladin is built to be a frontline class like fighter or barbarian, all healing it does get is meant to help keep the frontline stable enough to keep going. Clerics get all the same healing spells as paladins, plus more on top of just having more spells to use in general. Paladins are a half caster class, just like rangers, thus we have the same spell slot limitation as them. Clerics are a full caster so they can go all the way to 9th level spells easy, and they just get all the stuff us paladins can get twice as fast. For us, a 5th level spell is late endgame, but for a cleric that same spell is just early midgame. Half casters don't worry about their spells as much, because it's so slow to get the actually good stuff that we just spam what we already got that works. That's why there's the joke that paladins are just Smite machines, because as a half caster the different Smites are honestly the best stuff we got. If we run out of spell slots, we still have our weapons. And we still have access to the big stuff unlike most full castors, so even without our spell slots we can still fight. Maybe not as great as we could with spell slots, but at least we're not helpless without them as a full castor would be.

@@caiusdrakegaming8087 "Paladin suck at healing" Lay on hands: Am I a joke to you? No joke tho, they may not be the best but they're decent at healing, it just take an action to heal though which you can use your BA to cast smite spells.

life domain clerics basically get smite lite at level 8: "Divine Strike At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 radiant damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8." why paladins don't get something similar with the ability to increase this effect by a lot with a spell slot is beyond me

I've been binging the lack tactics videos recently, and I was just thinking about how I'm really into DnD math, so it's funny to see you here😂 You do the math for DMs, Pack Tactics does the math for players

@@cornuqopia4460 PT and I are a good "I need more D&D math in my life(!)" combo 😄

Once you hit lvl 6 the paladin gets the equivalent to proficiency in every save so casting concentration checks becomes more worthwhile. I usually max charisma (or at least get it to 18) since it is pretty easy to get a belt of giant strength or at least gauntlets of ogre power by lvl 8 which is when youd be getting to 20 str anyways

Yes!

Include yourself, or the others will lose it too when you fail a concentration check.

@@MrKostrom Typically when I play a Paladin, charisma is one of my strongest stats. At an early level like that,it is a bit of a risk, but with the Aura of Protection later on, it is less risky. Taking either Warcaster, Resilient (Constitution,) or both minimizes this risk. Those feats and high charisma do turn a Paladin into a caster, and the best at being a "Caster" is a Conquest Paladin. In this character's case, though, my focus is buff spells and smiting when it counts, such the vampire that character fought recently. Used Protection from Evil and Good, then positioned myself in a way to block its path to the casters. So high AC with disadvantage on the enemy's attacks. Even if I'm hit, I've still got a good chance of success, even without those feats and aura.

Guys, go sub to Flutes loot!

@@PackTactics

Polearm mastert with slasher and crusher is pretty fun

Ah be careful. He’s gonna tell you that hex is a trap for averaging 2dpr. When bless does the same. Just for more people. But bless isn’t a trap at all.

@@samhill6831 👀 check his channel

@@cockman8437 yea I saw the hex trap video lol.

Yes but you know. I dont have to tell people that bless + smite is good! I really focus on round 1 more than anything.

I mean hopefully you have a Cleric and/or Bard. Party comp matters.

I’m not sure you need to account for crits since this is about using non-crit smites

Depends on where you dip. Dip too early and you get the 5th level burn due to lack of extra attack and 2nd level spells. Hexblade’s Curse is one time per short rest and uses your bonus action so its not ideal. I'd rather book paladin to 7th level and then consider multiclassing.

That sentence is "The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend, to a maximum of 6d8." The 6d8 does not apply to using a 5th level slot. Although it would still be more advantageous to use the other 5th Level Smite Spells.

@@justas423 Comparing the two documents side by side, that does appear to be the case, I stand corrected. I would however contend that it is somewhat dumb mathematically speaking, despite being accurate to what is written, because that means Warlocks have a higher damage potential with their Eldritch Smite than Paladins do with Divine Smite. It would’ve been so much simpler if “Smite = 2-6d8” regardless of how the feature was acquired, but oh well.