A level 20 Paladin smites a giant demon with a full attack. On their first attack, they hit. There is a banishment effect that fails. Do they:
1.) lose smite for all remaining attacks that round?
2.) lose smite after the full attack is resolved?
I just read this ability for the first time and am confused by it. Instinctively, I would play it option 1.
The way I'm reading Holy Champion is the Paladin does not get the option to choose whether or not to activate the banishment effect, it simply activates as soon as they successfully hit the evil outsider. If the outsider resists the banishment attempt, the effect and damage has been resolved, meaning the Smite Evil effect is removed.
RAW, I'd say it would be a little worse than your second option: the Paladin loses Smite as soon as they successfully hit with an attack during the full attack action. The Paladin loses her Charisma bonus to attacks and damage bonus to all other attacks after one successful hit.
As intended? I have no idea. If it didn't discharge on failed attempts, the paladin is looking at being able to just keep trying to banish for free until successful, which isn't balanced. I know your option 1 is incorrect, because Holy Champion says nothing about suppressing the Smite, just removing it entirely.
I'd run it as the Paladin can choose to activate the Banish, then follow the rules designated in Holy Champion. It doesn't seem fair to the player to force them to dispel/waste their smite evil because the enemy is an evil outsider.
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I'd run it as the Paladin can choose to activate the Banish, then follow the rules designated in Holy Champion. It doesn't seem fair to the player to force them to dispel/waste their smite evil because the enemy is an evil outsider.
This seems like a workable way for me. Otherwise, I'd multiclass to avoid the banishing and keep my smites working.