So, back again with some interesting thoughts. I have alot of these ideas due to you keeping class features with wildshape.
So quick statement, HOLY BEAR, cause being tanky as a moon druid is in fact, not enough.
So since a monsters attacks such as a Brown Bears claws or a fire elementals touch is a "Melee Weapon Attack" you can go ahead and ask your god (Or demon lord i don't judge) to bless your strike with there divine smite which moves this tanky druid into a literal tank, (Kfc bucket included)
Anyone got thoughts on this idea?
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"Anyone can smith at the cosmic anvil, yet only I can forge a weapon as good as thee."
This one has a little more DM leeway, but the designers have officially clarified that since smite tells you that it works on a weapon's damage, it requires an attack with a weapon (i.e. a thing that the game calls a weapon, not just a weapon attack). I don't think natural weapons count as such, so running RAI, this doesn't work.
Yeah unfortunately the problem isn't the smite saying "melee weapon attack", the problem is it saying to add it to your weapon's damage. Your claws or whatever may count as melee weapon attacks but they still aren't weapons. RAW it's no different from why it doesn't work on unarmed strikes.
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I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
My first thought was that natural weapons and unarmed strikes would be treated the same but it looks like JC's answer is that natural weapons (at least those from PC races) are weapons so they can smite. Here's a previous discussion on this from the forums. This answer is also in line with JCs clarification that the rule against unarmed smites was purely for flavor and that allowing them wouldn't effect balance in any way (although they definitely officially aren't allowed). Seems like bites smites are ok and I'd say yes to the divine ursine.
I would be wary of rely on JCs tweets there are several cases where they contradict. Only what is in SAC is official.
The SAC says "If a DM decides to override this rule, no imbalance is created. Tying Divine Smite to weapons was a thematic choice on our part—paladins being traditionally associated with weapons. It was not a game balance choice.". The reason for the offical ruling that divine smite doesn't work with unarmed attacks is paladins are traditionally associated with weapons which means it should nt apply to natural weapons unless paladins traditionally turn into a bear before making their Holy attacks!
Having said that the SAC says it is not a balance issue so if in the DMs world there is a tradition for paladins making unarmed or natural weapon attacks then it is fine ot let them smite.
The broader question is - is it really worth it to multiclass as a paladin to add a few more dice of damage to your bear claws a few times a day? If you are jazzed to do more radiant damage in combat, just invest those same levels in Druid so you can upcast your Moonbeam more and let the Moonbeam do the smiting more reliably and to more enemies.
That's a valid point, especially because every level you don't take in druid makes your wildshape worse. Two levels of paladin makes your wildshape one CR worse 2/3 of the time.
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So, back again with some interesting thoughts. I have alot of these ideas due to you keeping class features with wildshape.
So quick statement, HOLY BEAR, cause being tanky as a moon druid is in fact, not enough.
So since a monsters attacks such as a Brown Bears claws or a fire elementals touch is a "Melee Weapon Attack" you can go ahead and ask your god (Or demon lord i don't judge) to bless your strike with there divine smite which moves this tanky druid into a literal tank, (Kfc bucket included)
Anyone got thoughts on this idea?
"Anyone can smith at the cosmic anvil, yet only I can forge a weapon as good as thee."
My Homebrew Please click it, they have my family.
This one has a little more DM leeway, but the designers have officially clarified that since smite tells you that it works on a weapon's damage, it requires an attack with a weapon (i.e. a thing that the game calls a weapon, not just a weapon attack). I don't think natural weapons count as such, so running RAI, this doesn't work.
Yeah unfortunately the problem isn't the smite saying "melee weapon attack", the problem is it saying to add it to your weapon's damage. Your claws or whatever may count as melee weapon attacks but they still aren't weapons. RAW it's no different from why it doesn't work on unarmed strikes.
I've never encountered a forum where I got this many "talking to a wall" impressions as this one...
My first thought was that natural weapons and unarmed strikes would be treated the same but it looks like JC's answer is that natural weapons (at least those from PC races) are weapons so they can smite. Here's a previous discussion on this from the forums. This answer is also in line with JCs clarification that the rule against unarmed smites was purely for flavor and that allowing them wouldn't effect balance in any way (although they definitely officially aren't allowed). Seems like bites smites are ok and I'd say yes to the divine ursine.
I would be wary of rely on JCs tweets there are several cases where they contradict. Only what is in SAC is official.
The SAC says "If a DM decides to override this rule, no imbalance is created. Tying Divine Smite to weapons was a thematic choice on our part—paladins being traditionally associated with weapons. It was not a game balance choice.". The reason for the offical ruling that divine smite doesn't work with unarmed attacks is paladins are traditionally associated with weapons which means it should nt apply to natural weapons unless paladins traditionally turn into a bear before making their Holy attacks!
Having said that the SAC says it is not a balance issue so if in the DMs world there is a tradition for paladins making unarmed or natural weapon attacks then it is fine ot let them smite.
The broader question is - is it really worth it to multiclass as a paladin to add a few more dice of damage to your bear claws a few times a day? If you are jazzed to do more radiant damage in combat, just invest those same levels in Druid so you can upcast your Moonbeam more and let the Moonbeam do the smiting more reliably and to more enemies.
That's a valid point, especially because every level you don't take in druid makes your wildshape worse. Two levels of paladin makes your wildshape one CR worse 2/3 of the time.