Quote from CoolaireOfDankstora >>

This is the worst decision made in the 2024 edition. Paladin smite can now be counterspelled and only once per turn, which flies in the face of making lay on hands a bonus action as well. Another five-head decision from y'all. Great that I can just ignore this and run smite as normal, because you can't stop me from doing that. 

Paladin Smite being once per turn is kind of a good thing. 
It deals with one of the big problems of Fighter vs Paladin, which was that Paladin smite novas way outshined action surge, on top of also having Lay on Hands, auras, etc.
And critically, you can still crit fish with this. 

"you could take two levels of Paladin and the rest in Sorcerer and then Smite using a 9th lvl spell slot.........not sure why you would do this, but you could if you wanted to."
For the juicy Crits, of course.
Realistically you might do 5 or 6 levels of Paladin, then go sorcerer for extra smite fuel, unless you really want spellcasting that doesn't suck, rather than extra attack, aura, and lay on hands fuel.

Transformar isso em magia lascou tudo pro Paladino, se você é alguém da staff do site fica aí a minha reclamação!!

What does the range "self" mean

Quote from foRealfool >>

What does the range "self" mean

It means that it's a spell that you're casting on yourself, to empower yourself, rather than on someone or something else.

Soooo if a player is to cast Smite does that mean they strike them self's then like a goblin 

I had a player just cast Smite like it was Fireball but I did not know till later that it's range was self 

Quote from foRealfool >>

Soooo if a player is to cast Smite does that mean they strike them self's then like a goblin 

I had a player just cast Smite like it was Fireball but I did not know till later that it's range was self 

No, that's not how this spell works; it is nothing like Fireball. This is a spell you cast as a bonus action when you make an attack with a melee weapon or an unarmed strike. It makes the attack you're making deal extra radiant damage.

Ooooooooh ok thank you so much that is very interesting 

Quote from Arnagorn >>

Sword and board paladins don't work with this. It takes somatic components and you can't use somatic components with both hands full unless you take the warcaster feat which you can't take till level 4 and then have to give up ability score or another feat to just use a basic paladin ability.

 It only has a verbal component.