D&D 5E The power of smite

[jgsugden]

I said in the shield discussion...extreme CharOp builds aren't a good way of determining balance in the system.

We're not talking 'balance' here. We're talking 'power'. That is what the OP requested we address. I answered about how powerful it can be. I agree that extremes can be misleading when considering how effective an ability can be for most PCs - but here we're addressing how powerful smite can be.

I'm surprised you had enough spell slots to power all 8 strikes!

Not me - I was the DM.

However, you get 2 spells as a '1st level' caster, 3 at 2nd, 6 at 3rd, 7 at 4th and 9 at 5th (which is a 9th level paladin). In an alpha strike build, where you want to drop as much damage as you can in round one to try to prevent the target from ever going, paladins have no trouble having enough slots. So, even if you hit with all of those attacks and used one slot to cast haste - you're covered.

In my experience, these types of paladin builds burn spell slots fast, but often have a slot or two left over - which makes them feel a lot more like a warlock than other spellcasters. They use a wee tad of magic and then just deal a lot of damage.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

so as a follow up:

What about 1 smite a round? What if I go sorcerer or in my case cleric—-pal2/cler x

It seems those who talke about excess Find or in 2 attacks a round.

If there is debate about two smiths a round, surely one is no big deal?

 

[Ancalagon]

It is uniquely able to inefficiently burn spell slots in a short fight to convert to damage.

I used to think like you. Turning a level 1 spell into 2d8 dmg to one target, it's not very impressive is it?

But it is efficient. It's an efficient use of time, or if you prefer, the action economy. Because it allows you to spend that spell slot for "free" - no acction, bonus action etc - while you are spending your action clobbering your foes. And it's never wasted - no saving throw, no misses.

Lastly, the capacity to "alpha" - to spend extra resources to do a lot of damage fast - is very useful. Not every PC has it.

 

[NotAYakk]

I used to think like you. Turning a level 1 spell into 2d8 dmg to one target, it's not very impressive is it?

But it is efficient. It's an efficient use of time, or if you prefer, the action economy. Because it allows you to spend that spell slot for "free" - no acction, bonus action etc - while you are spending your action clobbering your foes. And it's never wasted - no saving throw, no misses.

Lastly, the capacity to "alpha" - to spend extra resources to do a lot of damage fast - is very useful. Not every PC has it.

That isn't what I said? It is inefficient use of spell slots, but it is quickly.

The more efficient way is to use it on crits, when it becomes both an efficient use of spell slots and action economy (18 auto-damage from a 1st level slot is very good).

The comparison (for slot efficiency) should be magic missile. It is 10.5 auto damage for a 1st level slot, +3.5 per level above.

Smite on non-crits is 9 auto damage, +4.5 per level above. So a 3rd level smite is about as good as a 3rd level magic missile.

And while magic missile is a decent spell, it isn't super-optimal; optimizers make it really good by adding +static to each bolt.

Smite's zero action cost is, however, really strong. Even in T1, the value of a wizard action is at least 3 damage (cantrip), making Magic Missile be worth only 7.5 autodamage.