I think it would be helpful to look at the combat spells available to the Ranger and compare it to the Paladin.
For 1st level you have the following:
Paladin: Divine Favor, Divine Smite, Searing Smite, Thunderous Smite and Wrathful Smite
So a few flavors of Smite. Smite with fire and burn, smite with thunder and push, or smite with necrotic and fear. Those all do less than just the standard smite with radiant damage (unless the target burns with Searing Smite for a while). Divine Smite does 2d8 damage, no save, and gets +1d8 per higher spell level.
Divine Favor is a nice little buff that adds +1d4 per hit but only lasts for 1 minute (no Concentration, which is nice). That is an extra 3 DPR, or 12 damage in a four round combat. But it competes with all of the other smites for your bonus action. So you can’t cast Divine Favor and smite on the same round. Still if the combat lasts at least two rounds, it will do more damage than a regular Divine Smite which has a DPR of 5.4 for the round it is cast.
Ranger: Ensnaring Strike, Hail of Thorns, and Hunter’s Mark
The Ranger starts with Hunter’s Mark, of course. This requires Concentration, adds +1d6 to all attacks against the target for 1 hour.
Ensnaring Strike competes with Hunter’s Mark for concentration and requires the target to fail a Str saving throw. If it fails the target takes 1d6 piercing damage per round until it spends an action to attempt a Str (Athletics) check to remove it. This is good if it works, but should only be attempted against smaller targets as there is a good chance anything larger will make the save and this spell will do nothing.
Hail of Thorns, on the other hand, does 1d10 piercing damage, does not require concentration (so can be stacked with Hunter’s Mark), and still does half damage if the Dex save is successful. It does compete with Hunter’s Mark for the Bonus Action, but you probably don’t want to spend a spell slot on this every round anyway. It also does the 1d10 damage to creatures next to the target (Dex save for half). Getting +1d10 per higher level slot is also pretty good advancement.
2nd level spells:
Paladin: Find Steed, Magic Weapon
The Paladin really doesn’t have much here. They will most likely up-cast Divine Smite for 3d8 radiant damage.
Find Steed summons a Large creature that you can ride. It has an attack based on the Paladin’s spell attack bonus that does 1d8+2 damage, but if I am reading the rules right I don’t think the Paladin can use it unless he falls unconscious.
Magic Weapon is only good if you do not already have Magic Weapon, and the Ranger gets it too. So that is a wash.
Ranger: Magic Weapon, Spike Growth
Spike Growth is hard to figure out exactly how much damage it would do, but is generally considered to be “broken” if it is built around to be exploited. It competes for Concentration, so there is that, and it lasts for 10 minutes. It fills a 20' radius area with spikes that do 2d4 piercing damage for every 5’ a creature moves through the area, even if it is forced movement. So pushing creatures into the area or dragging them through it is possible. It is an awesome spell for battlefield control and damage.
3rd level spells:
Paladin: Elemental Weapon, Blinding Smite, Crusader’s Mantle
Blinding Smite is another Smite, this time doing 3d8 radiant damage (instead of 4d8 with an up-cast Divine Smite) and adds blindness. Another good single target option.
Elemental Weapon is similar to Magic weapon, but does +1 to hit and +1d4 elemental damage instead of a flat +1 damage. However, an up-cast Magic weapon would be +2 to hit and +2 damage with the same spell slot, which would be better in most cases. Ranger gets this as well and has the same problem.
Crusader’s Mantle is an upgraded Divine Favor, but doesn’t do more damage. Instead it buffs allies within 30’ so they get the +1d4 radiant damage to all of their attacks also. It also takes an Action to cast, instead of a Bonus Action, and requires Concentration.
Ranger: Conjure Animals, Conjure Barrage, Elemental Weapon, Lightning Arrow, Summon Fey
Instead of using Hunter’s Mark, the Ranger can use Conjure Animals or Summon Fey, both of which require Concentration.
Conjure Animals lasts for 10 minutes and does 3d10 slashing damage (+1d10 per spell level) to anyone that fails a Dex save in a 30’ cube that can be moved up to 30’ per round.
Summon Fey gives you a small Fey creature that can fly around and attacks for 2d6+6 force damage. AC, HP, Attack bonus, damage, and number of attacks increase according to spell level.
Conjure Barrage, as I said in my original post, does 5d8 force damage, Dex save for half, to all creatures of your choice in a 60’ cone.
Lightning Arrow does 4d8 lightning damage to your target and 2d8 lightning to anyone within 10’ of the target (Dex save for half). The only advantage here is that you can use the range of your weapon, which could be much longer range than a standard spell. These are both instantaneous and don’t compete for Concentration
4th level spells:
Paladin: Staggering Smite
One more smite spell. This one does 4d6 psychic (vs. Divine Smite 5d8) and the target makes a Wis saving throw or is stunned.
Ranger: Conjure Woodland Beings, Grasping Vine, Summon Elemental
All of these spells require Concentration, so the Ranger can only use one at a time and they can’t use Hunter’s Mark. That said, it gives the Ranger options.
Conjure Woodland Beings lasts 10 minutes, is a 10’ emanation and does 5d8 force damage (Wis save for Half). There is some cheese where you can do this damage multiple times per round (some of which would not fly in my games, but that is for another post), but even without that, it is pretty good damage.
Grasping Vine allows you to choose a spot where a vine sprouts from and can do 4d8 bludgeoning damage with a spell attack. It is a bonus action to cast and a bonus action to have it attack again on subsequent rounds, which conflicts with the Beast Strike attack, so probably not worth it.
Summon Elemental is similar to Summon Fey, but you get a medium elemental. It attacks with your spell bonus and does 1d10+8 damage (damage type depends on the elemental summoned) twice per round. Summon Fey would do 2d6+7 damage twice per round at this level, so it might be better to just up-cast that.
5th level spells:
Paladin: Banishing Smite, Destructive Wave, Summon Celestial
Starting with the last smite, Banishing Smite does 5d10 force damage (up-cast Divine Smite would do 6d8) and if it reduces the target to 50 HP or less it must make a Cha save or be banished for 1 minute. Then it comes back exactly like it was when it left.
Destructive Wave. Finally an AoE spell! It does 5d6 thunder, 5d6 radiant or necrotic damage and knocks prone creatures of your choice 30’ around you (Con save for half and not prone). It takes an action, but is worth it if you can hit enough enemies.
Summon Celestial lets the Paladin do what the Ranger has been doing for 8 levels already and summon a creature to help them fight. The usual spell attack to hit and attacks twice for either 2d6+7 radiant damage at range or 1d10+8 radiant damage in melee and gives 1d10 temp HP to itself or another creature within 10’.
Ranger: Conjure Volley, Steel Wind Strike, Swift Quiver
Continuing with their focus on AoE spells, Conjure Volley has a huge range (150’) and massive area (40’ radius!) and does 8d8 force damage (Dex save for half). Conjure Barrage could do 7d8 damage when up-cast, so Conjure Volley is the better choice. You can pick who you hit, just like with Conjure Barrage, so no worries about hitting friends!
Steel Wind Strike allows the Ranger to hit up to 5 targets in a 30’ radius around them with a melee spell attack doing 6d10 force damage each time, then teleport next to one of the targets. This takes an action, so the Ranger can set up Hunter’s Mark or have their Beast make two more attacks as a bonus action.
Swift Quiver unfortunately conflicts with both Hunter’s Mark by requiring Concentration and the Beasts attack by using a bonus action each round. Still, if needed, the Ranger could use the Attack Action, attack once with a bow, allow their companion to attack twice by giving up their second attack and attack twice more with their bow as a Bonus Action, but they are giving up 4d6 from Hunter’s Mark to do it.
Wrap up
And that’s all of them. This ended up being longer than I thought it would, but the point is that the Paladin has a LOT of smites and some other spells that hit a single target. That’s great, but Ranger has a lot of spells that can hit many targets, and when you are playing the game, that is going to feel great to blast half a dozen or more creatures with some decent damage.
Single target is a fine strategy in many cases, but if any of you have played any MMOs you know that when you get a bunch of trash mobs, you group them up and burn them down with AoEs because it is faster and more efficient. The same can hold true in D&D. If you have a boss with a bunch of support creatures, or NO boss and are fighting a pack of enemies, AoEs are going to do more damage and will shorten the fight.
I have seen it while DMing. I have will have a bunch of demons with over 100HP each and the party opens up with two or three AoEs and now they are all sitting at ~50HP each. Then the single target damage dealers move in and they start dropping one enemy each, every single round, instead of taking two or three rounds (or having two characters gang up to take out one a round). The enemies have gone from sturdy opponents, to one shot weenies, thanks to AoEs.
