Blinding Smite: A Smite for Sore Eyes
Usable By: Paladin
Spell Level: 3
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 bonus action
Range: Self
Duration: Concentration up to 1 minute
Components: V
The next time you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack during this spell’s duration, you weapon flares with a bright light, and the attack deals an extra 3d8 radiant damage to the target. Additionally, the target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be blinded until the spell ends.
A creature blinded by this spell makes another Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a successful save, it is no longer blinded.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
The fantasy of smashing undead with a brilliant glowing greatsword is a classic one. Light so righteous it literally blinds evil is a trope paladin's embrace, literally with Blinding Smite. It, like the majority of the other smites, has to be directly compared to the base feature, divine smite, and when you do compare them, it comes out about the same to me.
A 3rd level divine smite is getting 4d8 radiant damage in, with bonus damage to undead and fiends. The trade off is then a bonus action, a prepared spell, and 1d8 radiant for the opportunity to potentially blind the hit creature. Blinded creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls, and attacks against them have advantage, both of which can be useful and radically aid in encounters against a single monster or small numbers of big threats. It absolutely can be worth the opportunity cost when the blind succeeds. Unfortunately, the blind is attached to a Constitution save, and the save is repeated at the end of each of the hit creatures turns or until you lose concentration, both of which make it roughly last a round. Constitution is highest on the enemies you’d want to blind, as they’re the targets you’re looking to debilitate for a longer duration fight; that doesn’t kill Blinding Smite entirely, but it takes from a “absolutely worth it” to a “eh, it can be worth it” for spell preparation to me.
As far as the smites go, this is probably the one I’m most likely going to cast, but I still don’t think it's worth it. When I go to divine smite, the point is to deal stupid amounts of damage in high bursts. You don’t need to prepare spells to do that; you can always just do it with divine smite. This makes my prepared spell list favor defensive prep options or out of combat utility that better diversify what I’m able to do. I personally like a character that can do a lot of things well enough more than one thing exceptionally.
If you’re in the market for something to hit home the “more righteous than thou” paladin, Blinding Smite helps fulfill that fantasy. It's a tool that can be fine, with a floor high enough you’ll never feel awful when something passes the blind save. When it works, it can rock a single enemy for a round or two, and that can absolutely be worth it. Otherwise, it's just a slightly worse divine smite, which is fine. It's not for me, but Blinding Smite might find a home on your character sheets.
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