Necromancer

The School of Necromancy explores the cosmic forces of life, death, and undeath. As you focus your studies in this tradition, you learn to manipulate the energy that animates all living things. As you progress, you learn to sap the life force from a creature as your magic destroys its body, transforming that vital energy into magical power you can manipulate.

Most people see necromancers as menacing, or even villainous, due to the close association with death. Not all necromancers are evil, but the forces they manipulate are considered taboo by many societies.

Necromancy Savant

Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the gold and time you must spend to copy a necromancy spell into your spellbook is halved.

Any necromancy spell not on the wizard spell list is added to the wizard spell list for you and all necromancy spells you know are automatically prepared and do not count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. Other wizards cannot copy these spells from your spellbook unless they are also necromancers.

Grim Harvest

At 2nd level, you gain the ability to reap life energy from death and bend it to your will. You have a pool of necrotic energy called Reaper Dice represented by a number of d6s equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of 1).

As a bonus action, you can choose a creature you can see within 120 feet of you to gain temporary hit points. Expend and roll a reaper die and add your wizard level, the target gains temporary hit points equal to the total, double that amount if the target is one of your undead minions. If the target is unconscious, it also gains 1 hit point.

If you or one of your minions critically hit a creature or a creature rolls a natural one on a saving throw against one of your spells, you regain a use of this feature. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

The reaper die becomes a d8 at level 6, a d10 at level 10, and a d12 at level 14.

Undead Thralls

At 6th level, you add the animate dead spell to your spellbook. Animate dead is always prepared and does not count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you already have this spell in your spellbook, you instead learn another necromancy spell of third level or lower of your choice.

When you cast animate dead, you can target additional corpses or piles of bones, creating additional zombies or skeletons, as appropriate. The number of additional targets equals half your proficiency bonus, rounded down.

Whenever you create an undead using a necromancy spell, it has additional benefits:

• The creature’s hit point maximum is increased by an amount equal to your wizard level.
• The creature adds your proficiency bonus to its attack and damage rolls.

These features also apply to the Create Undead spell when you gain access to it.

Inured to Undeath

Beginning at 10th level, you have resistance to necrotic damage, and your hit point maximum can’t be reduced. Your spells and abilities ignore resistance to necrotic damage and treat immunity as resistance. You have spent so much time dealing with undead and the forces that animate them that you have become inured to some of their worst effects.

Command Undead

Starting at 14th level, you can use magic to bring undead under your control, even those created by other wizards. As an action, you can choose one undead that you can see within 60 feet of you. That creature must make a Charisma saving throw against your wizard spell save DC. If it succeeds, you can’t use this feature on it again. If it fails, it becomes friendly to you and obeys your commands until you use this feature again.

Intelligent undead are harder to control in this way. If the target has an Intelligence of 8 or higher, it has advantage on the saving throw. If it fails the saving throw and has an Intelligence of 12 or higher, it can repeat the saving throw at the end of every hour until it succeeds and breaks free.