mellored
Legend
You said yourself. You never saw any of the smites used.Nor does the old smite limited to once per day. It was already fairly balanced. Making it a spell just unbalanced things more.
That wasn't balanced.
That's how spells work. Higher level ones are better than upcasting lower level ones.Edit: But let's do a real comparison, shall we? 5th level banishing smite 5d10+banishment. 5th level divine smite: 6d8.
A 5th level Thunder wave does 6d8 in 15'
A 5th level cone of cold does 8d8 in 60'.