Is there an important game balance reason Paladins don’t have archery style / ranged smite?Nope, just pure flavor. Making it available breaks nothing
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) September 4, 2017
I think the main reason was that the smite spells and ability doesn't work with ranged attacks, if I recall correctly
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) September 4, 2017
Does it ever strike anyone else that Mike Mearls doesn’t always seem to understand the questions he’s being asked?
“Why do Paladin’s not get ranged smite?
“Mostly because smite stuff doesn’t work with ranged attacks.”
…well YEAH, obviously. But you wrote the rules for Smite in such a way as to MAKE it not work with ranged attacks. The question is -why- did you write them that way?