D&D 5E Question about Paladin Improved Divine Smite

[Gwarok]

Ok, so I'm sure this has been asked and answered a billion times, but I suck at finding old topics. Also, seems to be clear to me but had a dispute. Paladins get an additional D8 radiant damage at 11th, and at the end it says this damage also adds to the bonus damage when activating divine smite. So if I'm reading it right, pally gets weapon damage plus a D8 normally, and if he burns say a 1st level spell, get the normal 2D8 bonus damage, plus another D8 on top of that for an additional 3D8 using a first level spell.

Weapon + D8 + 3D8, this is correct, or is it just +2D8 for the 1st level divine smite?

Thanks, and apologies again if this has been done to death before.

 

[jaelis]

Yes, you have it right
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/03/29...apon-damage-does-that-mean-it-adds-2d8-total/

 

[Gladius Legis]

Yes, you have it right
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/03/29...apon-damage-does-that-mean-it-adds-2d8-total/

Whoa, I'd been waiting on this answer for a while. Nice to see some confirmation ... and that it's actually stronger than I had been playing/ruling it.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Ok, so I'm sure this has been asked and answered a billion times, but I suck at finding old topics. Also, seems to be clear to me but had a dispute. Paladins get an additional D8 radiant damage at 11th, and at the end it says this damage also adds to the bonus damage when activating divine smite. So if I'm reading it right, pally gets weapon damage plus a D8 normally, and if he burns say a 1st level spell, get the normal 2D8 bonus damage, plus another D8 on top of that for an additional 3D8 using a first level spell.

Weapon + D8 + 3D8, this is correct, or is it just +2D8 for the 1st level divine smite?

Thanks, and apologies again if this has been done to death before.

This is not correct, it is applying the d8 for the IDS twice. If you are burning a 2ns level slot it should look like:

1d8 - weapon damage
1d8 - Improved Divine Smite
2d8 - Divine Smite, powered by a 1st lvl slot.
------------
Total 4d8 + modifiers in damage

Not sure where you got the "extra" d8, but IDS should only count once, not twice.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Whoa, I'd been waiting on this answer for a while. Nice to see some confirmation ... and that it's actually stronger than I had been playing/ruling it.

So you're saying that basically if you use divine smite, in addition to the the damage from divine smite, you ALSO get 2d8 from Improved Divine Smite, rather than just the 1d8 it normally does? That does not seem to go with how it is written. In the PHB is says you get to add the IDS to the Smite, but I'm not sure where that is getting interpreted to mean that you get to include the IDS twice? Just that it stacks with the Divine Smite rather than replaces it.

 

[jaelis]

It says

By 11th level, you are so suffused with righteous might that all your melee weapon strikes carry divine power with them. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon, the creature takes an extra 1d8 radiant damage. If you also use your Divine Smite with an attack, you add this damage to the extra damage of your Divine Smite.

Did you hit a creature with a melee weapon? Yes you did, so it takes an extra 1d8 damage from the attack. Did you also use your Divine Smite with the attack? Yes you did, so you add 1d8 to the damage of your smite. That means you add a total of 2d8 damage on top of what you would get without Divine Smite.

That reads pretty clearly to me, but in any case Jeremy Crawford (the official rules question answerer) confirmed it in the twitter linked above.

 

[cbwjm]

I always read it as the extra damage stacks with spending a slot to divine smite instead of being overridden by the extra dice so that an 11th level paladin spending a 1st level slot to smite with this longsword would do 1d8 longsword + 1d8 IDS + 2d8 DS for a total of 4d8. Reading it in the SRD it doesn't seem to read that you get an extra 2 dice when you use your divine smite.

 

[Kalshane]

As confirmed in the Crawford tweet, IDS improves both your normal attacks (by adding 1d8 radiant) and your smite ability. (I didn't realize it worked that way either. The wording in the PHB is a little awkward.)

Effectively, you have an always-on +1d8 radiant and the floor of Divine Smite increases from 2d8 to 3d8. So a paladin with IDS using a 1st level Divine Smite would tack a total of 4d8 radiant on top of their weapon damage.

 

[jaelis]

It would be better if it said "If you also use your Divine Smite with an attack, you add 1d8 damage to the extra damage of your Divine Smite" instead of adding "this damage." But evidently "this damage" means 1d8, which not unreasonable.