| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
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. 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. Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.
In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite. If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.
There's the text. It says two things here.
First is that, regardless of the target, you bypass DR.But secondly, that it's an utter waste against non-evil.
So is it a total waste, or would you still get the DR bypass (and maybe the deflection AC) against a nonevil target?
I'm not exactly a specialist for paladins, but I think important is the last sentence:
If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.
Basically, smiting a non-evil target has no effect whatsoever. The "Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess." part of the description is only therre to clarify that you ignore die DR of any EVIL creature, not only those listed in the sentence before (undead, evil outsiders and evil dragons).
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I'm not exactly a specialist for paladins, but I think important is the last sentence:
If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect.Basically, smiting a non-evil target has no effect whatsoever. The "Regardless of the target, smite evil attacks automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess." part of the description is only therre to clarify that you ignore die DR of any EVIL creature, not only those listed in the sentence before (undead, evil outsiders and evil dragons).
Yeah, you got it right. If target =\= evil, smite has no effect whatsoever. If it is evil then it bypasses all DR (which is nice if you meet something with ridiculous DR like DR x/epic).
The last line says it all, If the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with NO EFFECT.
I think the confusion on the "Regardless of the target.." line refers to the specific examples in the line before; "evil sub-type, evil dragon or undead creature."
The last line should say, "Regardless of the targets mentioned..." or something similar.
I personally prefer playing a paladin so this rule really bites...
Make it another vote for "the smite is wasted with no effect."
Although I can see where an argument can be made. I too read it as "regardless of whether the target is an outsider, evil dragon, or undead, smite evil bypasses any DR."
FAQ it.
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I personally prefer playing a paladin so this rule really bites...
If you are thinking that the bypassing of DR should happen regardless of who the smite evil is used upon, are you really of the opinion that paladin's smite evil should bypass the DRx/evil of a celestial outsider? That this is in line with how a paladin's smite should work?
If I misunderstood, it isn't clear to me what you intended to opine here.
I personally prefer playing a paladin so this rule really bites...If I misunderstood, it isn't clear to me what you intended to opine here.
Oops. I ment the wasted smite attempt loss vs non-evil.
I think of a Smite attemt to be akin to a large postitively electrical capacator.
Evil beings are a direct negative path to ground.
Neutral and Good are non conductors.
It's the 'regardless of the target' line that made me wonder about this.
When I first saw it I thought it would work on non-evil, but looking again I thought now, so I'm asking.
Let me fix the text for you, so it reads as intended:
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 the paladin targets a creature that is not evil, the smite is wasted with no effect. 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. The attacks also automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.
In addition, while smite evil is in effect, the paladin gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made by the target of the smite.
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.
That reads better, thank you.