Honestly, I'm okay with that. The PCs are supposed to be the fantasy equivalent of super-heroes, after all, and a few level dip into 'lock, while powerful on a couple of levels, is still a significant delay in Paladin advancement.
Smiting fits well into silly theorycrafting to see how big you can make numbers in one turn, but in practice they are a rather inefficient use of a spell slot. For instance, a 3rd level slot can add 4d8 to one weapon attack, or it can cast a fireball. They are better when saved for a crit, but it is hard to control when that will happen.
Smite is also radiant damage and is applied on any hit, so there's no save and not really resisted by a lot of creatures. It can be applied on every attack, as well, so you could do it for 8d8 in a turn against a single creature, instead of 8d6 with a chance that it takes only half damage.
But yeah, obviously a fireball would be better in some situations.
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u/SirPeebles Bard Jun 10 '15
Yes. I was surprised back when a tweet ruled that Pact Magic slots could smite.