Spells or smites?

[Aussiehams]

G'day all.

I know this is a personal player/campaign thing, but do experienced Paladin player find that spells or Smites are more useful?

I'm wondering if War caster is worth the investment, or if all my spell slots are likely to be used on Smites anyway?

Any advice from experienced players would be appreciated.

Cheers.

[Malifice]

G'day all.

I know this is a personal player/campaign thing, but do experienced Paladin player find that spells or Smites are more useful?

I'm wondering if War caster is worth the investment, or if all my spell slots are likely to be used on Smites anyway?

Any advice from experienced players would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Your shield (with a holy symbol painted on) is a Divine focus, so it'll work for all spells with a M component (the hand that holds it is also used for the C components). Spells without M components that also lack S components (V only) are also OK.

Alternatively, use a singe weapon. You can hold them all with 1 hand, so you can cast with a halberd or greatsword or longsword only just fine.

[Phoenix042]

G'day all.

I know this is a personal player/campaign thing, but do experienced Paladin player find that spells or Smites are more useful?

I'm wondering if War caster is worth the investment, or if all my spell slots are likely to be used on Smites anyway?

Any advice from experienced players would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Smite is a shockingly effective and satisfying way to turn slots into damage; when what you want to do is hurt the big bad guy as much as possible and you've just hit with your attack, smiting is often better than saving those slots for other uses later.

But paladin spells let you do other things with that power, besides convert it directly into HP damage. In practice, a very well timed healing word can be the difference between a lost and won fight, while 2d8 damage might not have cut it. In practice, sometimes you really need your foe to get hit with some debuff, or to leave this plane of existence NOW (banishing smite is one of the coolest spells in the game, in my opinion).

So the reality is that both uses of those slots are great tools to have in your belt; you just have to weigh them from moment to moment and try to use them wisely.

Remember that damage and debuffs often matter more earlier on in a fight; knocking out one foe in round one, then another in round two is better than knocking out two foes in round two. If you're going to smite, try to figure that out early.


Edit: Also, your choice of subclass has a huge role here.

If you went vengeance paladin, then hunter's mark can be dramatically more effective than a smite in the same slot.

[Aussiehams]

I’m lvl 3 S&B Vengeance so I plan to use Haste and HM as I progress, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth it or if the smites are better. I’m trying to plan out my lvl 4 asi/feat.

[Foxhound438]

I've always found that the smite spells like wrathful smite have more impact in the long run. You lose some damage, but the chance of debuffing a problem enemy is worth it in my opinion. Not all of them are equal though- wrathful smite is pretty great, ensnaring strike is good sometimes for the ancients pallys (note that with this one they have to use their action to try to break free), and thunderous smite deals almost full DS damage with a knockback, but Searing smite is going to typically just do less damage than a DS with no special effect, branding smite is potentially good where invisibility comes up but pretty niche in that regard (plus some DM's will hard ignore the fact that you would technically still know an invisible creature's location and say you have to guess what space they're in), and blinding smite is questionable considering its effect is resisted on a con save every turn.

Smite spells aside, your other paladin spells can be pretty good anyways. Command has a chance to 1 for 1 on turns while disarming an enemy or forcing them into a bad position, protection from poison gives a resistance to a fairly common damage type without using concentration, aura of vitality gives a good amount of healing on your bonus actions, and banishment gives you a good way to clear out a single enemy while you kill off their friends. And then there's bless, which is a fine use of a spell slot, as well as your oath spells- crown paladins make up for their lackluster features with Spirit Guardians, Ancients gets a good ranged damage source in Moonbeam, conquest can clear crowds with Fear, and vengeance gets the coveted Haste.

In conclusion: I'm a big fan of using spell slots to cast spells. I smite whenever I crit, but otherwise I feel like it's burning a resource that I don't have much of to spare. You may take some more damage in return from not nuking things as fast, but if you pace out your adventuring days properly you should get a short rest somewhere to get that health back.

[LudicSavant]

G'day all.

I know this is a personal player/campaign thing, but do experienced Paladin player find that spells or Smites are more useful?

I'm wondering if War caster is worth the investment, or if all my spell slots are likely to be used on Smites anyway?

Any advice from experienced players would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Short answer is that for the greatest results you should be using both, not one or the other.

[Gwalchavad]

It really depends on your party composition. Paladins in a party with a dedicated healer such as a cleric will primarily use their spell slots for smites - at least that's what I find to be the usual in the game where I play a paladin and the game I DM where our paladin was the primary healer until a new player joined the game as a cleric. That said, the spells you do cast will tend to be concentration spells (I tend to cast Sanctuary on said cleric, extra Blesses can be handy in large parties, Compelled Duel makes you the tanks' tank, and the various Smite spells are all concentration) so War Caster is a handy feat to have especially since Constitution is not one of your saving throw proficiencies.

[Azgeroth]

totally up to you of course, personally..

smite is for crits, otherwise its good ol' hack and slash! look mum, im a fighter!

spells should really be utility, as mentioned above most of the 'smite' spells are... weaker, than DS, they're also all concentration, so you can't buff/debuff and use those.. they are super situational because of that (concentration) so you are better off taking utility spells for buffing/out of combat utlity and trying to save as many of them as possible for those juicy DS crits..

also, running that way, if TSHF, then you have plenty of slots left to stomp down whatever mobs are murdering your friends..