Smite Evil / Aura of Justice and Acid Arrow

[Disinherited Knight]

I know this has been brought up time and again but I have yet to see any official answer to how these abilities are intending to interact with each other.

Example: If a 11th level paladin hits an evil dragon with a acid arrow in the first round of combat the dragon takes 2d4+22. The rounds following that does the dragon just take 2d4 or 2d4+11?

Example 2: Same Paladin uses Aura of Justice and grants smite to all allies within 10 feet. Do they have to stay within 10 feet of him or can they move away and still get the benefit?

Basically, does smite damage effect spells and does smite damage effect damage rolls on continuous effects (such as with acid arrow)

I have seen much speculation on this but I would like to hear something official. I will be flagging this for the FAQ and I hope you all will to.

[chaoskin]

Disinherited Knight wrote:

Example: If a 11th level paladin/mage hits an evil dragon with a acid arrow in the first round of combat the dragon takes 2d4+22. The rounds following that does the dragon just take 2d4 or 2d4+11?

paladin/mageO :)

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a paladin can call out to
the powers of good to aid her in her struggle against evil.
As a swift action, the paladin chooses one target within
sight to smite. If this target is evil, the paladin adds her
Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her
paladin level to all damage rolls made against the target
of her smite.

i dont see why not acid arrow you do need to roll to hit and and add your smite

Acid Arrow
An arrow of acid springs from your hand and speeds to its target.
You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to hit your target. The
arrow deals 2d4 points of acid damage with no splash damage. For
every three caster levels you possess, the acid, unless neutralized,
lasts for another round (to a maximum of 6 additional rounds at
18th level), dealing another 2d4 points of damage in each round.

all damage rolls 2d4+22is what im reading

I LOVE paladin/mageO :)

Disinherited Knight wrote:

Example 2: Same Paladin uses Aura of Justice and grants smite to all allies within 10 feet. Do they have to stay within 10 feet of him or can they move away and still get the benefit?

the way i read Aura of Justice they have to be with/in the aure or they cant smite

[Disinherited Knight]

**Bump**

C'mon guys, I know there are more of you that want an official ruling on this topic and not another long discussion about it. Selected these posts as FAQ candidates please. Until we get official word however, I will continue to discuss it in the hopes it gets enough attention to be officially answered.

1) The paladin wouldn't necessarily have to be a wizard or sorcerer. He could UMD a wand of acid arrow.

2) If the smite damage applies to the continuous damage (which I am still waiting on official word about) it wouldn't be 2d4+22 it would be 2d4+11 due to this errata from the Pathfinder RPG Errata 2:

"If the target of smite evil is an outsider with the evil
subtype, an evil-aligned dragon, or an undead creature,
the bonus to damage on the first successful attack
increases to 2 points of damage per level the paladin
possesses."

I interpret that to mean the first damage roll as well.

3) I do agree with you about the aura and staying within 10 feet.

[Kalyth]

I would rule you would only get your smite damage on the initial attack with the acid arrow. so 2d4+22 then 2d4 after that.

[Valandil Ancalime]

Our Paladin has just gotten Aura of Justice. I have some questions and after trying to search for an answer I have found some threads but no official answers. Are there official answers to how Smite Evil works with spells?

[Kamelguru]

Acid Arrow would deal full damage on the first hit, this much is clear. Beyond that, I am not certain. I mean, I feel like it is kinda unfair to arbitrarily restrict casters, when some ranger based on archery can spam arrows for godly damage. 2d4+11 every round pales in comparison to 5d8+90 or whatever every round as long as you hit.

[Stynkk]

I am very unsure about this... smite evil vs a group of baddies and fireball them for Xd6 + smite? Magic missile + smite damage? Acid arrow persisting like this every turn could very well break encounters especially since the smite lasts until the target is dead.

Something about this seems off. I am unclear as to if smite evil is intended to apply to spell damage.

Especially since the last sentence of Smite Evil states that the smite ignores DR. Energy damage already bypasses DR, so it doesn't really make sense (to me) that this is what the function of smite evil is.

However, if you did allow it then it would have the smite bonus on all damage rolls since that is what it says (literally). So it would be on all subsequent rolls since you're rolling damage for the acid arrow.