dwarven cleric smiting

[person29]

I have a player who is playing a melee focused dwarven cleric. He took the dwarven subsitution level from races of stone losing turn undead to gain smite giants.

He was interested in a feat that would allow him to use those smite attempts on other traditional dwarf foes (example: a feat that allows him to smite goblinoids, another feat to allow him to smite orcs) all using the same pool of smite attacks.

I don't think this is an overpowering feat and would be fine but was just wondering if anyone knew of anything similar from official sources or had any thoughts.

Thanks

[Fouredged Sword]

I can't think of any, but I would just give it to him.

SMITE RACIAL ENEMY
Prereqs - Smite class feature, racial bonus to attack, damage or defense vs a creature type or subtype.
- You gain the ability to use your smite on creatures that you have a racial bonus to attack, damage, or defense when fighting.

[Brookshw]

Yeah, I don't really know of any either. Personally I wouldn't mind giving him other traditional enemies as part of the substitution, not exactly game breaking. A single feat for an improved version on the smite giants to get the other enemies might be okay, but one per feels like a heavy feat tax.

[Fouredged Sword]

It could be interesting if it was worded as follows. Not as applicable to THIS situation, but I don't think any book made a paladin/ranger gestalt feat.

Holy Hunter
Prereqs
- Racial bonus to attack, damage, or defense vs a creature type OR favored enemy.
- Smite class feature
Bonuses
- Your paladin and ranger levels stack for determining your favored enemy class feature and for the strength and number of smite attempts you have each day. Your animal companion bonuses apply to your paladin mount if you have both class features, and your levels stack for determining the animal companion class feature. You may use your smite on opponents who you have a racial bonus to defense, attack, or damage OR are a favored enemy, regardless of alignment. You may treat spells that are on the ranger spell list as on the paladin spell list, and vice versa.

[Chronos]

You can get general-purpose smite from a feat in a couple of different ways. Just slightly expanding the scope of a smite you already have is underpowered for a feat.

[person29]

You can get general-purpose smite from a feat in a couple of different ways. Just slightly expanding the scope of a smite you already have is underpowered for a feat.

What are those ways? What books?

Thanks

[Meth In a Mine]

He was interested in a feat that would allow him to use those smite attempts on other traditional dwarf foes (example: a feat that allows him to smite goblinoids, another feat to allow him to smite orcs) all using the same pool of smite attacks.

I think having to spend two feats for each type of traditional dwarven foes, would be superbly underpowered. Maybe having ONE feat allow the smiting of ALL of them (i.e. goblinoids AND orcs AND giants and maybe aberrations?) would be less underpowered.

[Fitz10019]

Divine Might [CoWa] lets you spend a Turn Undead to add your Cha bonus to all attacks damage that round. It's like a smite theme, but not the same.

If you make the custom feat to add other traditional dwarven enemies, I would also add a smite per day to the pool with each enemy/feat.

[Red Fel]

I'd like to point out that Hammer of Moradin (which I'm surprised nobody has mentioned) does something similar to a smite - it gives the Bane (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#bane) property to your weapon for a number of rounds equal to your Cha modifier, 1/day. At increasing levels, your weapon becomes Goblinbane, Drowbane, and finally Giantbane. That is, by HoM 8, your weapon will deal an extra 2d6 damage to Goblins, Drow, and Giants, for a total number of rounds equal to your Cha modifier, 1/day.

That's not all that impressive sounding, is it? And it requires an 8-level investment. Which raises the question - is "Smite a Whole Bunch of Things" a comparable ability? I mean, when you look at generic Smites, there aren't that many - even Crusader only gets it a total of 2/day. Anything more than that requires feats, and those are narrow - for example, there's a feat that lets you smite things with the Fire subtype, another that expands Smite Evil to Smite Evil and Chaotic, and so forth. Rarely does it cover multiple creatures irrespective of alignment.

Frankly, if your PC really wanted to smite a whole bunch of things, he could have just kept Smite Evil. It's basically better. At this point, you're moving from "slaying our most ancient foe" to "killing a bunch of things we don't like," which strikes me as Favored Enemy territory.

I guess what I'm saying, in a roundabout way, is that I don't see a problem with you giving him the "Smite Enemies of the Dwarves" ability, but I don't see a reason to make it cheap.

EDIT: Alternatively, consider the Strength of Conviction feat, from Exemplars of Evil. Burn one Smite attempt to Smite Anything. Add no bonus to the attack roll, but add your level to the damage roll. Frankly, that covers everything you need, really. And kind of makes my earlier points look moot.

[Fitz10019]

he could have just kept Smite Evil.

The character is a cleric, who traded Turn Undead to get Smite Giants. He never had normal vanilla Smite Evil.

[Red Fel]

The character is a cleric, who traded Turn Undead to get Smite Giants. He never had normal vanilla Smite Evil.

... And I officially feel like a putz for misreading. Badly misreading, I might add.

Right! What about the Prestige Paladin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm#prestigePaladin)?

[Fouredged Sword]

PRC paladin is a great option, if you spare the feats to make it work. It gets you 1 smite evil without loosing CL.

I prefer Law Devotion and Power attack. You can burn 1 turn undead use (and 1 free use per day) to get +6 to damage for 1 min.

By level 20, it increases to +14

And when you are not smacking fools around, it adds to AC.

[ArcaneGlyph]

Honestly as a DM I would just house rule it worked on the standard dwarven enemies. It is such a small subsection of all possible enemies, I see little harm in it. Especially if it is limited by the same pool of attempts used for all attempts.

[Darrin]

You may want to drop him a Shield of Mercy (2170 GP, MIC). That will let him convert unused Smite {whatever} into healing.

Hmmm. I was looking for some kind of Favored Enemy/Smite Enemy synergy, but I'm coming up with squat.

[Chronos]

Planar Touchstone: Catalogs of Enlightenment gives you the granted power of one domain. Pick Destruction, and you can smite anything.

Initiate of Bahamut gives you Smite Evil like a paladin. It doesn't quite apply to everything, but the vast majority of your enemies in the typical campaign will be evil, so close enough.

I would agree with Arcane Glyph: Just houseruling the ability to work on goblins and orcs to begin with should be fine. It's still a step down from Turn Undead.

[person29]

After discussing with my player we agree on it being a feat to gain additional racial enemies and it will also grant him an additional smite attempt per day, so in this case he will be able to smite goblinoids, orcs and giants 4+con mod times per day

thanks!