Apr 11, 2021 by [ "James R. Miller" ]
Categories: rpgs Tags: 5e paladin rules

5e Paladins and Smites

I have been DMing a 5e campaign for over a year now with a paladin and we’re getting into higher levels where additional smites are taking importance. We had gone back and forth on the smite rules in game, and for the sake of keeping the game going, I made off-the-cuff (incorrect) rulings and we moved the game forward.

I spent some time reading today and had a “d’oh” moment. I was ignoring the casting time, duration, and concentration of the various non-divine smites.

Here’s how it works:

Divine Smites

One per each attack that hits, assuming you have the spell slots available. No need to decide in advance if you want to pour in a spell slot.

Other Smites

The other smites require that you cast them as a Bonus Action before you attack, and the first successful attack gets the smite damage and other effects, if any. They are also concentration spells, so you cannont have multiple non-divine smites at the same time.

What does this mean? Generally, you can have as many divine smites as you successfully land attacks, and one non-divine smite a turn.

But BOM, what if I cast a smite with a Bonus Action on Turn 1, and then Attack on Turn 2, hit, cast another smite, and then Attack again on turn 2 as part of the same single action? Nope. You can’t break your single action to cast a Bonus Action in between.

But BOM, you can break up your movement between those attacks. Sure, and there’s explicit authority to do that in the rules on page 190 PHB. There is no explicit authority that you can break up a multiple attack Action with a Bonus Action.

If perhaps, your paladin dipped enough fighter to get an action surge, then this is likely legal: Turn 1, cast a Bonus Action Smite, Turn 2 Attack Action, Bonus Action new Smite, Action Surge, Attack Action, to get more than one non-divine smite in a round.

I hope this helps clarify how the smites work in 5E.