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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3911993" data-attributes="member: 32164">What's funny to me is I hear a lot of people complaining about the notion of a Paladin that casts spells by swinging his sword.But the this is that a PALADIN is a divine warrior. He's not supposed to be a warrior who casts spells. All of the spells paladins had in 3e were supposed to provide a way to simulate the paladin's divine favor. Some of those abilities were handled with granted class abilities, whereas others were presented in the form of spells the paladin could cast because that was the only way the designers thought the abilities could be balanced.Now, along comes 4e and we have a view of a few options for the Paladin's key ability that should have been "per encounter" in 3e: Smite. But it really is per encounter now rather than it being "4 times/day" with the HOPE that its use would be spread out. I imagine that your average paladin has a choice of a few smites to use - all of which cause double damage, but each of which has a different divine power (mostly "leader-y" stuff: buffs or nerfs) that they trigger. I'm sure paladins also have many of their traditional abilities, like cure disease, or "lay on hands." The latter could be an "at-will" or "per day" ability. But in combat, the paladin with  Renewing Smite doesn't have to stop fighting to lay on hands - he can channel the excess divine energy from his smite to boost one ally. By making each smite self-contained, it cuts down on the possibility of a player "forgetting" about the secondary effect. If I use "Safeguard Smite," I don't have to worry about having to remember to decide what my Smite's secondary effect is. Ditto if I use a different smite.Essentially, smites are just strike activated spells. The paladin is channelling divine energy into a strike, and doing something with the excess. It's like they combined the ability to channel divine energy, spellcasting and the smite. Basically, I'm speculating that "Smites" are the primary way paladins channel divine energy. And that's fine with me. Paladins "casting spells" in the middle of combat has just never made a whole lot of sense.Personally, I like the flavor and the mechanics here. However, given the hew and cry, I'm beginning to understand why WotC was reluctant to let stuff out. People are speculating wildly and, in most cases, assuming the worst. And I imagine that will continue at least until they see the system in full. Until then, things just won't make complete sense and the wild speculation will continue.I love the internet.</blockquote>

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