Not sure what the 1 Minute duration is about here...

You can hold it for one minute. Say you attack and miss, the smite isn't used. So you can use it again on subsequent attacks until you hit. 

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. 

Quote from CoolaireOfDankstora >>

You can hold it for one minute. Say you attack and miss, the smite isn't used. So you can use it again on subsequent attacks until you hit. 

 The asterisk about "1 Bonus action - Which you take immediately after hitting a target with a Melee weapon or an Unarmed Strike" sounds like you still use it reactively, however , after you already know you've hit/crit - like reading it straight by the book, it sounds like it's a BA immediately after a hit, and I *can't* use it if I just missed?

I don't hate this change. Smites being both spells and a feature was a weird mechanical inconsistency and being able to stack both of them felt like an unintentional exploit.

Quote from CoolaireOfDankstora >>

This is the worst decision made in the 2024 edition.

 You haven't checked out the 2024 ranger then.

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.

How is it it possible they’ve made the rules even more convoluted and cumbersome? If they are soooo concerned with paladin damage why not just say they can only divine smite once per turn and leave it at that?  If the smite breaks the rules by saying the bonus action is used on a successful attack roll why the one minute duration?  Smite should not be a spell.  You should not be able to counterspell a smite.

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. 

 Congrats you understand how dnd works. That being said, you realize that Paladins have aura of protection right? which lets them add their charisma to saving throws? So they are very rarely going to get counterspelled. Also the new counterspell doesn't even take your spell slot if you fail the save

Quote from Wardawn >>

How is it it possible they’ve made the rules even more convoluted and cumbersome? If they are soooo concerned with paladin damage why not just say they can only divine smite once per turn and leave it at that?  If the smite breaks the rules by saying the bonus action is used on a successful attack roll why the one minute duration?  Smite should not be a spell.  You should not be able to counterspell a smite.

 I agree it didn't need to be a spell, but Paladins are not gonna get counterspelled that often if at all.

do i see it wrong but as long as i can hold my concertation i can do it again and again with no casting a spell? I mean i don't see anything about the spell being stopped after i hit or not

Should be noted that Divine Smite now no longer has an updating limit, meaning 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. I get that it doesn't allow you to do it multiple times, but realistically that's the only main change they made other than taking away the damage cap

I'm confused this duration of 1 minute.  Thunderous smite is instantaneous.  The smites with ongoing effects are 1 minute. This says BA after hitting so your not pre-casting divine smite.  This seems to me that you hit, cast divine smite, do the extra damage, then for the next minute anytime you hit a target if you use a bonus action it triggers.  I feel like the duration was supposed to be instantaneous like Thunderous smite.

There is an error on D&D beyond, when you look at the spell in the spell description chapter of the PHB it has duration as instantaneous.

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.

 A holy symbol can be emblazoned on a shield so I'm assuming you can use the hand holding the shield for the somatic components and sword & board still works

According to the War Caster feat, you have to have that feat to cast a spell while you are holding a shield in one hand and a weapon in the other.

This is true for spells in 2014 that take a somatic component as well, however I usually overlook that as a DM. It feels like a paladin should have the training to do so with either their sword hand or shield hand, but that's not RAW. (Important for Adventure League games, but not so much for home games)

I like that you now don't feel like you are nerfing yourself for using some of the other SMITE spells now!

This description has a couple of errors compared to the actual Player's Handbook. As already noted, duration is supposed to be instantaneous. Also components should only be verbal.

Everybody focuses on counterspell. Being inside a silence spell also prevents smites now.

Personally, I've got no issues with this change, as a player or DM.

So the School of magic is wrong i think. If the physical version of PHB spell I've seen is to be believed its suppose to be evocation.

Well before you could cast thunderous smite before attacking for chunky extra damage.....now you have to pick one or the other.