Dungeons & Dragons Explains Why the Paladin’s Divine Smite Was Changed

The lead rules designer of Dungeons & Dragons provided some additional insight as to why the Paladin’s signature ability was changed. Earlier this summer, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that the 2024 Player’s Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons would feature new rules for the Paladin and in particular new limitations on when and how the class’s signature ability Divine Smite could be used. The rules changes were controversial with some players, who felt that it represented a rare nerf within the new Player’s Handbook. 

Speaking with ComicBook.com earlier this month, lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford spoke about why the changes to the Paladin were made. “So with Divine Smite in particular, we realized very early on in Fifth Edition that frankly the Paladin was too powerful, and that excess of power was largely because of how open-ended the use of Divine Smite was,” Crawford said. “When we originally designed Divine Smite, it was under the hood, basically a spell. I mean, you’re spending a spell slot on it. And it was our idea of what if there was just sort of a really simple spell option for the Paladin who just wants to kick the crap out of things. And in the process, in a way, we kind of outwitted ourselves by making this spell not a spell. And that then planted the seed of now the Paladin who has multiple attacks, is smiting on every single one of the attacks.”

Crawford explained that after the playtest process, the D&D design team embraced the idea that Divine Smite was a spell, similar to other smite spells used by the Paladin. “We landed on just embracing the fact that under the hood it was always a spell, and that ended up giving us a number of benefits,” Crawford said. “It really clarified how this magical effect functions alongside other magical effects. It was also a part of an effort on our part to improve all of the Smite spells because we weren’t just concerned about Divine Smite being overtuned. We were also concerned about Paladins’ class specific Smite spells being under-tuned. And so we did a holistic change because we wanted Paladins to feel like they actually had a range of cool options and not be in the position of the right choice is always just to Divine Smite.”

Ultimately, the change to Divine Smite was made to open up the class and keeping it from feeling one-note. “We wanted Paladins to feel like ‘I have some cool tactical options’,” said Crawford. “Yeah, sometimes the baseline Divine Smite is still going to be the best option, but there are going to be other times where the other Smite spells are ideal. Changing it over to a spell also under the hood resolved some potential multi-classing issues that used to be there. And so it solved many, many things while still remaining a very badass option for Paladins.”

The Player’s Handbook will be released on September 17th. You can find additional changes to Dungeons & Dragons’ ruleset here.