Image credits: D&D Player’s Handbook, art by Bryan Sola; Source: dndbeyond.com
This variant rule is for spells of your choice that have a casting time of a Bonus Action and are cast in response to a trigger defined in the spell. With this variant rule, the casting time of these spells is instead listed as “Reflex” (this does not change the trigger the spell is cast in response to).
A spell with a “Reflex” casting time gains the following additional rules:
Casting Time. The spell is cast in response to a trigger defined in the spell’s Casting Time entry as part of the Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction that you take to trigger the spell.
Limited Casting. The spell cannot be cast as part of an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction that you use to cast another spell, including cantrips and other Reflex spells.
On Your Turn Only. You can only cast a Reflex spell on your turn.
Example: Divine Smite
Level 1 Evocation (Paladin)
Casting Time: Reflex, which you take immediately after hitting a target with a Melee weapon or an Unarmed Strike
Range: Self
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
The target takes an extra 2d8 Radiant damage from the attack. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is a Fiend or an Undead.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 1d8 for each spell slot level above 1.
Why use this variant rule?
This variant rule is for players who were upset by the changes to the Paladin’s Divine Smite introduced in the 2024 rules. Although the class as a whole was given many improvements, many were unhappy that Divine Smite was turned into a spell that required a Bonus Action to cast.
Many were found the mere idea of Divine Smite as a spell to be the problem, but I don’t find that to be the biggest failing of this implementation. After all, the change did rein in the class’s burst damage potential, and brought Divine Smite in line with all the Paladin’s other forms of smiting, and although a few tweaks to the original feature could have achieved the same goals, I think the fact that it’s now a spell instead of a feature that costs a spell slot is largely a question of semantics.
No, I maintain that the biggest issue with this implementation is, and always has been, that the new version of Divine Smite costs a Bonus Action. First of all, it redefines Bonus Actions in a way that kind of breaks immersion. I generally think of a Bonus Action as something that takes about half as much time as an Action; long enough for a Bard to play an inspiring arpeggio, or a Rogue to dash 30 feet. The moment of impact for a weapon is only a fraction of that time, but somehow it still consumes the same amount of your turn? It doesn’t feel right. Second of all, I think it makes the class less fun to play. Critical Hits can turn from awesome to deflating in the wrong circumstances; if you bring up an ally with Lay on Hands, then score a Critical Hit on an enemy, you could get super excited about smiting until you remember that you already used your Bonus Action.
The Reflex Casting variant rule fixes these problems by taking the action economy cost out of smiting, and with any smite spell you want; not just Divine Smite. This rule can also apply to spells like the Ranger’s Hail of Thorns and Lightning Arrow, and opens up design space for a whole new category of spells.
One final note: This variant rule is written to be fairly flexible. If you want to implement this rule, you can of course choose to mix and match, applying it to some spells and leaving others unchanged. However, in this case, you should clarify with your table as to whether or not the Limited Casting rule prevents a Reflex spell from being cast as part of the same action that triggers a Bonus Action spell; for example, if you make Divine Smite a Reflex spell, but leave Staggering Smite unchanged. The wording is left up to interpretation intentionally, because I don’t know what’s best for your table, but that also means it could cause confusion if not addressed. If you wished, you could also make this variant rule a part of the Paladin’s Smite class feature, thereby allowing Paladins to cast spells this way without opening up the doors to all other classes that can access these spells.
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