If your DM is aware of the rule on smite is "When you HIT you may....." but has decided that Divine smite is overpowered and the change is a necessary nerf there is not a lot you can do. The DM is perfectly at liberty to change the rules as they see fit. I do not agree with him but it is within his power to do as he sees fit.
Was this made clear to you in a session 0 or when you told them you were planning on playing a paladin? They certainly should have done and if not, and this is a dealbreaker for you you should ask if you can change your character.
If you are stuck with playing a Paladin with this house rule I would look to casting smite spells rather than using divine smite, thunderous smite only does slightly less damage and if you miss as long as you maintain concentration you can get the extra damage with your next attack. Other melee characters in the party will appreciate rolling at advantage if you make them prone (and when you get to level 5 you can can advantage on your second attack) and it will limit their movement next turn, shoving them 10ft can also be very good in certain situations. Wrathful smite is probably better, it does less damage but the fear affect is really powerful and if they want to attempt to get rid of it they have to waste an action.
Thank you for the advice do you think a multi class to get for spell slots is worth it this is my first time playing. I want to continue playing a paladin It just force me to not be a smite bot.
Thank you for the advice do you think a multi class to get for spell slots is worth it this is my first time playing. I want to continue playing a paladin It just force me to not be a smite bot.
If it is your first time playing I would stick with a single class.
Multiclassing can produce reaaly bad builds if you don't know what you are doing and you really want to plan them from the start. For example 1 to 3 levels of hexblade warlock is very popular with a paladin, but if you are going that route you can attack using your charisma so that becomes your primary and you only need enough strength for heavy armor (or even go low strength and either go medium armor or accept the lower movement speed).
There can also be roleplay problems with some multiclass, especially warlock, if you sign a pact with a patron your patron wants something in return, will they be happy for you to refuse their gifts to make you more powerful to fight their enemys and ignore your patron?
If your DM thinks divine smite is overpowered they are very likely to rule out things like dips into Warlock as well.
A single class is great especially if you are relatively new to the game with multiclass there are a lot of interactions between features there might not be immediately obvious from the rules, for example can you divine smite using a warlock pact slot? While not as expericanced as many on these boards I have played at least 8 characters into double digit levels and only 2 of them were multiclass (with a single level dip). In my current campaign I am a level 10 single class stars druid.
We only have players handbook available I am going to be an ancients paladin, we have a moon Druid, a battle aster fighter, evocation wizard, a lore bard, and an arcane trickster rogue. Should I ask if instead of smiting before I role if I could only smite once a turn.
You can ask but it is the DM who decides the rules. Very few paladins use two weapon fighting so once per turn will only be a limitation when you reach level 5.
I do find it ironic that your DM will not allow divine smite for balance reasons but allws a moon druid. Moon Druid is the most unbalanced class in the game. At level 2 they can wildshape into bear which is FAR more powerful than any other party member and if they are reduced to 0 HP they can just just back into a bear again. (To do it a third time they need a short rest but the poor fighter has probably used most / all their hit points to recover from a single knockout. Wild shapes co not keep up with the players when levelling and at some points a moon druid it not much better than a druid without a subclass, and then at level 20 while arch druid is soemthing all druids get for moon druids it makes them almost unkillable becasue they can use their bonus action to turn into a mammoth with 126 HP every round and still use their action to cast a spell. Maybe the DM have nerfed the druid as well, if not maybe you could convince the DM that compared to the moon druid a smiting paladin is extremely balanced.
What level are you? At level 1 the druid won't have their sub class and are fine . At level two they can turn into a dire wolf a different beast entirely and similar in power to the bear.
If it was a dire wolf and 'almost died" you are either referring to almost being turned back to a humanoid (not a big deal) or the DM had upped the difficulty of the combat and g8ven the dire wolf the majority of the attacks as that is the only way of having a challenging combat that won't kill the rest of you.
My DM makes me Divine Smite before I roll to hit for balance reasons. Any tips
If your DM is aware of the rule on smite is "When you HIT you may....." but has decided that Divine smite is overpowered and the change is a necessary nerf there is not a lot you can do. The DM is perfectly at liberty to change the rules as they see fit. I do not agree with him but it is within his power to do as he sees fit.
Was this made clear to you in a session 0 or when you told them you were planning on playing a paladin? They certainly should have done and if not, and this is a dealbreaker for you you should ask if you can change your character.
If you are stuck with playing a Paladin with this house rule I would look to casting smite spells rather than using divine smite, thunderous smite only does slightly less damage and if you miss as long as you maintain concentration you can get the extra damage with your next attack. Other melee characters in the party will appreciate rolling at advantage if you make them prone (and when you get to level 5 you can can advantage on your second attack) and it will limit their movement next turn, shoving them 10ft can also be very good in certain situations. Wrathful smite is probably better, it does less damage but the fear affect is really powerful and if they want to attempt to get rid of it they have to waste an action.
Thank you for the advice do you think a multi class to get for spell slots is worth it this is my first time playing. I want to continue playing a paladin It just force me to not be a smite bot.
If it is your first time playing I would stick with a single class.
Multiclassing can produce reaaly bad builds if you don't know what you are doing and you really want to plan them from the start. For example 1 to 3 levels of hexblade warlock is very popular with a paladin, but if you are going that route you can attack using your charisma so that becomes your primary and you only need enough strength for heavy armor (or even go low strength and either go medium armor or accept the lower movement speed).
There can also be roleplay problems with some multiclass, especially warlock, if you sign a pact with a patron your patron wants something in return, will they be happy for you to refuse their gifts to make you more powerful to fight their enemys and ignore your patron?
If your DM thinks divine smite is overpowered they are very likely to rule out things like dips into Warlock as well.
A single class is great especially if you are relatively new to the game with multiclass there are a lot of interactions between features there might not be immediately obvious from the rules, for example can you divine smite using a warlock pact slot? While not as expericanced as many on these boards I have played at least 8 characters into double digit levels and only 2 of them were multiclass (with a single level dip). In my current campaign I am a level 10 single class stars druid.
We only have players handbook available I am going to be an ancients paladin, we have a moon Druid, a battle aster fighter, evocation wizard, a lore bard, and an arcane trickster rogue. Should I ask if instead of smiting before I role if I could only smite once a turn.
You can ask but it is the DM who decides the rules. Very few paladins use two weapon fighting so once per turn will only be a limitation when you reach level 5.
I do find it ironic that your DM will not allow divine smite for balance reasons but allws a moon druid. Moon Druid is the most unbalanced class in the game. At level 2 they can wildshape into bear which is FAR more powerful than any other party member and if they are reduced to 0 HP they can just just back into a bear again. (To do it a third time they need a short rest but the poor fighter has probably used most / all their hit points to recover from a single knockout. Wild shapes co not keep up with the players when levelling and at some points a moon druid it not much better than a druid without a subclass, and then at level 20 while arch druid is soemthing all druids get for moon druids it makes them almost unkillable becasue they can use their bonus action to turn into a mammoth with 126 HP every round and still use their action to cast a spell. Maybe the DM have nerfed the druid as well, if not maybe you could convince the DM that compared to the moon druid a smiting paladin is extremely balanced.
Are moon Druid had not abused his powers yet. Last session he turned into a wolf Ironically the Druid and I almost died even though we are both tanky.
What level are you? At level 1 the druid won't have their sub class and are fine . At level two they can turn into a dire wolf a different beast entirely and similar in power to the bear.
If it was a dire wolf and 'almost died" you are either referring to almost being turned back to a humanoid (not a big deal) or the DM had upped the difficulty of the combat and g8ven the dire wolf the majority of the attacks as that is the only way of having a challenging combat that won't kill the rest of you.
The Druid got down to -8 I got down to -4 everyone else was fine I just had really bad rolls we were all level 2 we are level 3 now.