Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Paladin Smite Mechanics are Horribly Done

So what I am trying to say here is the action economy of the paladin is adversely affected by the current implementation of smite spells. Smite spells cost a bonus action to cast and are a self buff lasting up to 10 rounds (requiring concentration). The Smite spell buff is only consumed on a hit but should the attack miss the buff remains and does not require further actions to use on subsequent attacks. This means that the paladin should be able to use just a single bonus action to cast the smite spell buff and be free to use his bonus action for other things in subsequent rounds. As it stands the paladin must spend both an action and bonus action EVERY round in order to keep attempting to hit with the smite spell. Now I will check again to confirm whether or not divine smite is actually consuming a reaction on hit when set to do so, but as it looked to me so far divine smite seemed to consume a reaction when set to take effect on a hit. If this is the case then it would mean the paladin would be required to use an action and bonus action to attempt to hit with the smite spell EVERY ROUND and if the paladin does hit the enemy and wanted to use divine smite on that same hit they would have to use their reaction as well. What this boils down to is paladins spending extra bonus actions every round they miss their attack and being cost a reaction to use divine smite that should cost no action at all. It is not an insignificant drawback, rather it has huge implications, for example it prevents paladins from using items or bonus action spells on any round they want to attempt to hit with their smite spell. Whereas normally they should be able to cast their smite spell swing (miss) then next round swing again (miss) still use a potion or cast a bonus action spell (that doesn't require concentration) while keeping their smite spell buff active (concentration, up to 10 rounds). Once they do hit they normally would be able to use divine smite simultaneously with no action cost whatsoever.

Now I will say that I thought about it some more and what they could do instead is refund the bonus action spent when missing with smite spells to simulate the fact that there is not supposed to be more than one bonus action spent when using the smite spells (unless recasting is necessary due to lost concentration or the like) However this too has significant impact on the paladins action economy by effectively making smite spells cost no action at all unless the attack hits (which seems OP) and so I think the changes I mentioned in my earlier post are the way to go. To address your comparison to hex and hunters mark I will just say that smite spells are a self buff not a debuff and do not provide additional damage on hits after the first however smite buffs do not care who you attack so unlike hex and hunters mark which cannot be retargeted until the original target dies the smite spell buffs can be used for attack attempts on any target.

I will do some further testing to make doubly sure that I have interpreted the current smite mechanics correctly but from what I've seen so far I think I have a pretty good grasp on it. We are all human however and humans make mistakes, so to make sure that I am not the one making the mistake I shall check again.