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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 9371356" data-attributes="member: 6795602">My position isn't that Paladins are broken. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f914.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":unsure:" title="Unsure    :unsure:"  data-smilie="24"data-shortname=":unsure:" />That's not nearly as clear cut as you imagine.  High damage can end a hold person just as easily as a dispel magic (failed high dc concentration save).  The caster may not be able to last longer than another turn or so anyways.  The dispel magic attempt may fail if the effect is a higher level spell effect (it's not 100% successful against every spell effect).And more importantly by trying to save the slot for dispel magic in the hopes that some spell will need dispelled is a very high opportunity cost.  At some point in the adventuring day the opportunity cost ceases to be worth it even if it otherwise would have been a good idea.Very situation dependent.  Wrathful smite has alot of stuff that can go wrong with it.1.  You lose concentration on it before you land an attack.2.  The targeted creature passes it's save.3.  The creature dies shortly after wrathful smite is applied or to prevent the creature from dying shortly after it's applied the party focuses on another enemy (meaning some degree of the focus fire effect is lost).4.  The enemy is already controlled with a more debilitating effect from the Wizard.5.  *You also are forgoing any other bonus action - a bonus action attack being the most common.6.  You lose concentration on it shortly after you've applied it.Now don't get me wrong, i'm a big fan of wrathful smite, but when an encounter is probably lasting 3-4 meaningful rounds at most, and given all the probabilities above, it's likely that on average not causing all that many rounds of fear in the first place.  **It will feel great when you land it on turn 1 against a big solo melee attack only enemy and never lose concentration on it.  I think people remember things like that more often.  Like the time I cast Hold Monster on the BBEG and it failed the first 3-4 saves against the spell.  If I remember correctly it had one round where it got to do something before we killed it.  But things like that are very much not the norm.Paladin's don't get the spells Wizards do and the opportunity cost for using them is higher - cantrip vs attack action with fighting styles/improved divine smites/magic weapons/melee buffs/etc.I'm with you that optimizing Paladin play is about learning when to divine smite and when to cast another spell, it's just most other spells on the paladin list aren't clearly better - or are only clearly better in a niche circumstance that probably will not even arise this adventuring day.</blockquote>

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