I have trouble playing my two favorite classes, rogue and paladin because their main abilities don't work properly in this game.

whenever I click on Smite evil, all I see is a glow around my paladin and then nothing happens.

Check your stats, pre and post special abilities. You should note an increase in base attack bonus and damage against evil. What is wrong with your rogue?

Smite Evil
Once per day, a paladin of 2nd level or higher may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma modifier (if positive) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per level. Thus when you cast this ability-spell, your hit and damage rolls are affected and thats it. If you are looking for gods wrath to rain down and deal damage to all evil does, have your Cleric cast Holy Smite.

And what does a Rogue have to do with smiting :hmm:

someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I found w/ my paladin because he had a 10 charisma score smite evil was completely useless and did nothing but show a fancy little animation

Yeah. You need a positive charisma modifier, ie. Char stat greater than 12. There is no change in your charecter record sheet in either case, so don't be bugged about that.

I do hope the quote I posted was wrong in one sence. Once per day, a paladin of 2nd level or higher may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. One freakin attack! I do hope its atleast one round, else pallies have been really shortchanged here.

"One freakin attack! I do hope its atleast one round, else pallies have been really shortchanged here."

Yea, the only way I could see its use is if you had a multiclassed paladin, for ex. a pallie/sorcie, w/ 18 charisma and sacrificed strength for other abilities like dex, con and wis .. of course this combo wouldn't make the best tank, more of casting pallie ... and you would need the extra smite, of course it takes a round or so, making it not very strategic

Would my (pure class) lvl 10 sorcerer benefit from a few pally-levels...?
I mean, the link is quite clear... I have loads of charisma with my sorcerer...

But what bonuses would he get? Would they be worth it or should I just continue with my pure class 'Magic Macho'...

His Charisma modifier will be added to all saves.
Pallies get immunity to fear at L2.
+1Str & +1Wis after getting the Cera Sumat, which will confer 25% magic resistance when weilded.

Take no more than 2 or 3 levels. But is your sorc LG?

Two levels is optimal for most Paladin mix-ins; you get the immunity to fear, the Charisma bonus to saves, but don't start running into the larger XP drains of more levels.