D&D 5E Divine smite paladin, infinite times pr round? And divine smite on ranged attacks?

[Pathkeeper24601]

I agree with this. I was sad to find that I couldn't build an outlander themed bow paladin and make use of my smiting capabilities, which I can't find much justification for. My gut reaction is that they thought bowadins might overshadow rangers, especially with paladin of vengeance being able to snag hunter's mark, but if that is the case, i would rather they have changed it in such away as to make ranged smites a thing.

This is kind of form matches function. Paladin's deliver their smite as they hit their opponent with their weapon providing the conduit of that power. With a ranged attack, there is no direct conduit between Paladin and opponent, so no divine smite.

Using homerules, if someone really wanted to do ranged smites I would allow them to "pre-load" the smite on the ranged attack. They would have to expend the spell slot before making the attack, but will be able to add the smite damage to the attack, so if you miss you lose that spell slot. Essentially this is giving up the reliable resource management for the ability to add the damage at range.

With, I would allow Improved Smite to all weapon attacks that do not involve ammunition as default. In home games, I probably could be convinced to include other ranged weapons if the character concept was interesting enough.

 

[Saeviomagy]

You can sort of do a ranged smite as an ancients paladin: entangling strike doesn't specify melee only.

 

[mellored]

Divine smites requires a melee weapon attack. So you can smite someone with a punch, or as a wildshaped bear, but not by throwing a handaxe.

Improved divine smite requires a melee weapon. So it works with thrown handaxes, but not punches or wild shaped bears.

I don't know why there's a difference.


As a hourseule, I allow ranged smites at reduced damage dice. So 2d6 for divine smite. And similar for other smites.

 

[Flamestrike]

So the paladin have its limited usages of smite. But say the pally has 2 attacks and halberd feat so 3 attacks. And if lucky get the reaction attack aswel thats 4 attacks that round. Can he add smites to all those 4 attacks? So using 4 spell slots and have a huge attack total?

Yes.

Now I understand divine smite issent a spell and a whery finite resource, but it feels a bit off in damage potensiell.

5E is loosely based around the expectation of a longer adventuring day of around half a dozen encounters, with each encounter usually featuring multiple monsters.

As smites key off spell slots, they dont recover until the Paladin gets a long rest. Meaning the expectation is that he has to ration those smites over several encounters, each containing several monsters, and lasting for several rounds.

If you arent enforcing this longer adventuring day paradigm, then some classes (long rest dependant classes) can nova like mad and are upgunned considerably.