Necromancers are among the most taboo magic users within Dungeons & Dragons and beyond. Toying with that which has died, reanimating the corpses and guiding them like puppets to carry out one’s bidding is an incredibly uncomfortable concept for a lot of people. In some campaign settings, necromancy might even be outlawed — an allure that makes the magic involved that much more tempting to some.
Creating a Necromancer requires careful consideration as the player steps back to analyze their reasons for choosing a class specialization that’s bound to turn heads. Fortunately, many necromantic magic users tend to be eccentric enough that they hardly notice the disdain of others as they guide their army of undead soldiers into battle.
Best Classes for the Necromancer
While there are several classes that provide the tools a player needs to practice necromancy, one class does it best: the Wizard. Choosing the School of Necromancy for one’s Arcane Tradition grants access to some of the most powerful necromantic spells in the game. This school also reaps life from death, often allowing the Wizard to siphon hit points from those who fall prey to their magic and granting them resistance to necrotic damage.
The School of Necromancy allows the Wizard to begin animate the dead at level six, raising undead thralls who follow their commands for 24 hours. At the end of that period, they can cast it again to maintain control over their thrall, and at higher levels, they can cast it on additional creatures to build a little army of undead minions. Upon reaching level 14, control over undead extends to other undead creatures, even those created by other magic users, which means it won’t be long before that army grows.
Other classes who make decent Necromancers are Death Domain Clerics, Circle of the Spores Druids, Warlocks and some Paladin builds. In the end, it depends on the player’s preference and the backstory driving them to reanimate the dead in the first place.
Best Races for Necromancers
When building a Necromancer, picking a race is entirely dependent on the class chosen. Those going for the Wizard build will want to choose one that buffs their Intelligence. Gnomes and Vedalken both start out with +2 INT, which will get them closer to maxing that stat. Firbolg and Kalashtar are great choices for those walking the Cleric path because they gain +2 Wisdom, which is their most important stat. Druids would do well in either of the previously mentioned races because their core stats tend to be INT and WIS.
Warlocks are Charisma-based spellcasters, so choose a race that boosts their CHA. Half-Elves, Tieflings, Satyrs, Aasimar, Changelings, Yuan-Ti Purebloods or Verdan will give the character an automatic +2 CHA during character creation.
The Best Spells for Necromancers
One of the intriguing things about becoming a Necromancer is the motivation behind that choice, and the spells the player chooses will reflect that motivation. Those driven by a longing to overcome death itself will find great solace in the healing nature spells like Spare the Dying, Gentle Repose, Life Transference, Revivify, Resurrection and True Resurrection can provide. These spells grant the caster the power to defy death if they so choose.
Casters seeking power and domination will find their means in spells that not only defy death, but bend it to their will. Animated Dead, Speak With Dead, Summon Undead, Danse Macabre, Raise Dead and Create Undead are the first steps toward building a power-hungry Necromancer’s army of mindless zombies and skeletons. There is also incredible power to be found in manipulative spells like Feign Death, Spirit Shroud, Shadow of Moil, Tether Essence, Finger of Death and Soul Cage that allow the caster to take advantage of their control over the thin strand between life and death.
They also have access to festering plague and disease in spells like Blight, Curse, Ray of Sickness and Eyebite. In some cases their power is strong enough to manipulate time itself, forcing enemies to rapidly age as they crawl ever closer to their inevitable grave.
Best Feats for Necromancers
When it comes to choosing feats for the Necromancer, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of sacrificing a stat boost. It isn’t always easy to find a good feat that also offers a boost in a necessary stat, but Resilient does just that. Not only does it allow the player to choose one core stat and boost it by +1, but it also grants them proficiency on skill saves made with that stat.
Ritual Caster is another great option because it allows magic users to cast a certain number of spells as rituals, saving those precious spell slots for when they really matter. Spells like Feign Death and Gentle Repose are just two of the useful necromancy spells that can be cast as a ritual. War Caster is another powerful option because it grants casters advantage on Constitution saving throws to maintain their concentration. It also allows them to cast spells without somatic components and use their reaction to cast a spell as an attack of opportunity, so long as the spell has a casting time of one action and targets only the creature trying to escape.
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