Change to Paladin's Smite Evil ability

[Kor - Orc Scrollkeeper]

One of the most disappointing aspects of the Smite Evil ability is when you miss. It feels like you are not capitalizing on a major class feature. The main intent of smiting evil is to cause damage to the "heretic".

I'd like to suggest a change to this ability. Remove the bonus to hit (adding a Charisma Bonus). Then allow the smite to be declared after a hit has been scored, but prior to any damage being rolled.

This would help to ensure this significan class feature would indeed be of benefit! Since this power can only be used once per day (and then gain an extra every 3 levels), I don't beleive it would make this class feature too powerful... in anything, it now makes it just as powerful as any other daily-use class features.

[Freesword]

I like it. I would even go so far as moving the Cha bonus from "to hit" to additional uses per day. I've been advocating giving them a flat 3 more uses per day (starting total of 4 at 1st) for a while now. Adding Cha bonus to the number of uses per day is equally good in my eyes. Removing the loss of a smite per day for missing is a good improvement that does not strike me as overpowering (especially with the removal of the +Cha to hit). Even with more uses per day to start it would still not be overly powerful. I would keep the part where using it against a non-evil target expends the use with no effect.