In a current campaign I am in, the dm said pretty early into the campaign like session 3 or so I believe that paladins can't smite after they roll to attack. I asked why and he goes on a rant about how stupid it is that paladins can just wait until they hit then at the last minute add more damage and even go nuclear if they land a critical. So that leads me to believe he does understand divine smite RAW and RAI as they are both exactly the same, but still chooses to do it his way. That would have been fine if I was told ahead of time. On top of that he also said divine smite counts as a spell, which is more understandable In my eyes and atleasts gives me a trade off as now spells, abilities, feats, modifiers, etc that affect spells now affect my divine smite. For example, find steed. "Any spell that normally targets yourself also targets your steed." Meaning my steed can also smite. For the attack roll thing tho? Nothing. Just a nerf. On top of THAT he also admitted to never actually playing paladin or reading up too much on them so it could potentially be he just also doesn't know how they work as two sessions ago when I divine smited he said "oh I thought divine smite costed an action or something" at which point I had to say "no bro I don't need you nerfing me even more on top of me losing the ability to smite on hits." There were multiple times I told him pretty clearly that it's his house ruling so really he only knows about divine smite being able to be used on hits and decided to nerf it and other than that knows very little. Other than that though he hasn't really touched upon my other abilities. Though even with all that I could live with it. If it wasn't for the fact about him complaining about it being op when there's literally one pc that everyone else agrees is op. In his defense and atleast from my understanding, a majority of his ability and reason why he's so powerful is because of feats, class features and in general stuff you could just normally do in most campaign while some of his abilities are homebrew along with the dms own homebrew feats rules abilities etc. One of his most broken being he can pull in items from his sort of pocket dimension (this is all stuff he got from other campaigns aka other "realities, univierses, time periods etc.") Keep I mind he's also a multiclass of warlock, paladin, wizard and I believe also sorcerer. But he's also a higher level than most On top of being a mixed race of like over 10 creatures. Thing added with his backstory of being a devil tgat owns a layer of the 9 hells, babayaga being his (kinda) mom, married to tiamat etc, makes him easily op inside and out of battle. So I kinda feel like this beats the whole purpose of nerfing divine smite in the first place. Now given I don't blame the player of the pc. He's a cool dude and I'd say we're friends. I just really wish the dm would listen or at tge very least come up with another ability to make up for it or just not make it as bad as like someone said earlier, if it misses it doesn't use the spell slot. That way you can't know what you roll still so you can't only choose to smite on a crit, but you also don't waste a spell slot when you miss. Though he seems pretty adamant on keeping this ruling.
Sorry for the long post. Probably should have just posted on r/dndhorrorstories XD but yeah I agree, keep divine smite the same but if you feel like you must change it please give a good reason, do it before the campaign and try to give them a trade off instead of straight up nerfing them. Paladins already lack behind outside of combat being a half caster. Still more utility than a fighter with things such as command and certain other spells and depending on the oath but a lot focus on heals and damage (again depending on the oath). They really dont need to be bad at both fighting and out of combat play. And not have any spell slots to actually use utility spells they do have because they missed one too many times in combat all because "ThEy ArE tOo Op!!!!1!1!1!!11!" Remember. Anything the players can do, you can too. So I'm just waiting for him to use a paladin against us and for him to mess up and say he smites after the attack roll so I can correct him in the most annoying way possible and say he loses a spell slot permanently. That or he mind controls or charms or whatever my pc that he says I divine smite after the attack roll, I'll say I actually don't and due to the unfathomable act of usung divine smite after hitting a creature i simply can't take the idea and fall unconscious and prone onto to floor, leaving my teamates either open to attack the enemy using me or open to be attacked for whatever reason id be mind controlled by something but still help my party. (Yes he said next time I use divine smite after the attack roll I lose a spell slot permanently.)
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In a current campaign I am in, the dm said pretty early into the campaign like session 3 or so I believe that paladins can't smite after they roll to attack. I asked why and he goes on a rant about how stupid it is that paladins can just wait until they hit then at the last minute add more damage and even go nuclear if they land a critical. So that leads me to believe he does understand divine smite RAW and RAI as they are both exactly the same, but still chooses to do it his way. That would have been fine if I was told ahead of time. On top of that he also said divine smite counts as a spell, which is more understandable In my eyes and atleasts gives me a trade off as now spells, abilities, feats, modifiers, etc that affect spells now affect my divine smite. For example, find steed. "Any spell that normally targets yourself also targets your steed." Meaning my steed can also smite. For the attack roll thing tho? Nothing. Just a nerf. On top of THAT he also admitted to never actually playing paladin or reading up too much on them so it could potentially be he just also doesn't know how they work as two sessions ago when I divine smited he said "oh I thought divine smite costed an action or something" at which point I had to say "no bro I don't need you nerfing me even more on top of me losing the ability to smite on hits." There were multiple times I told him pretty clearly that it's his house ruling so really he only knows about divine smite being able to be used on hits and decided to nerf it and other than that knows very little. Other than that though he hasn't really touched upon my other abilities. Though even with all that I could live with it. If it wasn't for the fact about him complaining about it being op when there's literally one pc that everyone else agrees is op. In his defense and atleast from my understanding, a majority of his ability and reason why he's so powerful is because of feats, class features and in general stuff you could just normally do in most campaign while some of his abilities are homebrew along with the dms own homebrew feats rules abilities etc. One of his most broken being he can pull in items from his sort of pocket dimension (this is all stuff he got from other campaigns aka other "realities, univierses, time periods etc.") Keep I mind he's also a multiclass of warlock, paladin, wizard and I believe also sorcerer. But he's also a higher level than most On top of being a mixed race of like over 10 creatures. Thing added with his backstory of being a devil tgat owns a layer of the 9 hells, babayaga being his (kinda) mom, married to tiamat etc, makes him easily op inside and out of battle. So I kinda feel like this beats the whole purpose of nerfing divine smite in the first place. Now given I don't blame the player of the pc. He's a cool dude and I'd say we're friends. I just really wish the dm would listen or at tge very least come up with another ability to make up for it or just not make it as bad as like someone said earlier, if it misses it doesn't use the spell slot. That way you can't know what you roll still so you can't only choose to smite on a crit, but you also don't waste a spell slot when you miss. Though he seems pretty adamant on keeping this ruling.
Sorry for the long post. Probably should have just posted on r/dndhorrorstories XD but yeah I agree, keep divine smite the same but if you feel like you must change it please give a good reason, do it before the campaign and try to give them a trade off instead of straight up nerfing them. Paladins already lack behind outside of combat being a half caster. Still more utility than a fighter with things such as command and certain other spells and depending on the oath but a lot focus on heals and damage (again depending on the oath). They really dont need to be bad at both fighting and out of combat play. And not have any spell slots to actually use utility spells they do have because they missed one too many times in combat all because "ThEy ArE tOo Op!!!!1!1!1!!11!" Remember. Anything the players can do, you can too. So I'm just waiting for him to use a paladin against us and for him to mess up and say he smites after the attack roll so I can correct him in the most annoying way possible and say he loses a spell slot permanently. That or he mind controls or charms or whatever my pc that he says I divine smite after the attack roll, I'll say I actually don't and due to the unfathomable act of usung divine smite after hitting a creature i simply can't take the idea and fall unconscious and prone onto to floor, leaving my teamates either open to attack the enemy using me or open to be attacked for whatever reason id be mind controlled by something but still help my party. (Yes he said next time I use divine smite after the attack roll I lose a spell slot permanently.)