D&D 5E (2024) Playtest 6: Paladin ... Divine Smite is a Spell now

[Vael]

Makes Thor work as a Paladin too. Smite with a thrown hammer.

 

[Yaarel]

Makes Thor work as a Paladin too. Smite with a thrown hammer.

Thor a Paladin − as he should be − an enforcer of oaths.

 

[Yaarel]

A "class spell" is a class feature that can spend a slot.

 

[Clint_L]

This also does away with using smites for critical hit fishing, which will be a substantial change to how paladins play.

 

[Horwath]

A "class spell" is a class feature that can spend a slot.

this.

the whole "everything has to be a spell mentality" is getting real old, real fast.

Same with Hex, Hunters mark, most "class spells" in playtest No.5

 

[Chaosmancer]

So, I'm not a fan of the Divine Smite not being ranged, but I guess that is some whistling into the wind. I do like the new unified smite mechanic, and many of the smites have been improved. Still need some tweaking on Banishing, Staggering and Wrathful, but blinding and searing are now good.

I'd also give up weapon masteries any day of the week to keep cantrips for Paladins. Seriously, cantrips opened up some great utility for the Paladin, don't take those away from us to give us weapon masteries.

I am a bit surprised they took away divine Conduit, it was a good ability since Paladin's have a lot of use for those channel divinity options.


Is Level 7 just supposed to suck for paladins? Charm immunity is of limited use, they nerfed ancients into the ground by just giving them resistance to three of the least common damage types, and Vengeance gets an ability that is decent, but then broken by its own later ability. About the only one that is a purely good ability might be the Alacrity, and it isn't THAT good.

I like the Smite of Protection, but I am upset it got moved and changed. I understand why because of Inspiring Smite. Inspiring Smite needs to scale better at high levels.

Nature's Wrath is fixed! YES! In fact, most of ancients is great except for the nerf to the Aura.

Same with Vengeance for the most part. Vow of Enmity moving is amazing, relentless stopping movement is neat. However, Soul of Vengeance needs to be an opportunity attack, otherwise you will have conflict between wanting to use Relentless to lock them in place, and Soul to hit when attacked. And you shouldn't have your 15th level ability competing with your 7th level ability like this.

 

[Sir Brennen]

This also does away with using smites for critical hit fishing, which will be a substantial change to how paladins play.

I'm still not convinced it does. The wording of the spell seems to strongly indicate the damage is part of the same attack, and therefore doubling of damage dice on a crit would still apply.

As you hit the target, your strike glows with divine power.
The target takes an extra 2d8 Radiant damage from the attack.

However, as a bonus action and a spell, you're limited to one Divine Smite per turn. Our current campaign, the paladin, who often is hasted, frequently gets two or three smites in on their turn. That's the real nerf, and I'm fine with it.

 

[Sir Brennen]

One other minor thing: besides maybe needing just a tad more oomph (d8 damage?), Wrathful Smite needs a different name. You're causing a creature to be frightened, so why not Terrible Smite, or even the obvious Fearsome Smite?

"Wrathful" should be something that is tied to a retaliatory or raging effect or theme.

 

[Undrave]

this.

the whole "everything has to be a spell mentality" is getting real old, real fast.

Same with Hex, Hunters mark, most "class spells" in playtest No.5

It was already getting old when they replaced racial powers with just 'you know spell X'.

People were up in arms over every 4e character 'being a Wizard' but when everybody uses Spell Slots for everything, apparently that's fine? Because the FIGHTER doesn't get any? Is that it?

 

[Indaarys]

It was already getting old when they replaced racial powers with just 'you know spell X'.

People were up in arms over every 4e character 'being a Wizard' but when everybody uses Spell Slots for everything, apparently that's fine? Because the FIGHTER doesn't get any? Is that it?

Its surprising that Second Wind and Indomitable weren't just made spells by this point.