While all witches study the spiritual connection between the Ethereal and Material planes, Occult withes use this knowledge to channel supernatural and otherworldly powers of the Ethereal to break down the boundaries of Life, Death, and Fate. Often seen as mysterious and dark, these witches are not necessarily so. Witches of the Occult have unlocked natural secrets unknown to other witches, and use such knowledge to understand the grand and unfathomable shape of the Ethereal.

All witches channel the spiritual energies of the Realm Beyond, of Death; Occult witches feel the closest connection with the spiritual, and often find themselves a magnet to small hosts of spirits, be they the spirits of the departed or the spirits of the natural and ethereal worlds.

Occult Savant

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

Additionally, at 10th level, you are able to add spells from any class' spell list to your spellbook, provided those spells are of the school of necromancy or divination.

Commune with the Ethereal

At 2nd level, you gain the ability to enter a meditative state in which you can see and hear into the Ethereal Plane. You can see up to 60 feet in shades of gray, and anything beyond that distance is muddled. Your physical body cannot see or hear anything on its plane, however anything you speak out loud can be heard on both planes.

When you use this ability, if you are holding an item that had personal meaning to a deceased person, you may call to the spirit of the individual, potentially summoning their spirit to your location for 1 hour. The Spirit does not have to be willing, but if it is unwilling, it must make a Wisdom saving throw or be summoned and bound to you against its will. The spirit must be capable of being summoned and cannot be in any way bound, sealed, or trapped in such a way as to prevent this summoning. If the spirit is not summoned for any reason, you are unable to determine if such a spirit exists.

The spirit retains all of its mental abilities, knowledge, and memories, but is intangible and unable to affect anything beyond the ethereal plane without your direct assistance. The spirit is bound to follow your commands. If you willingly dismiss it as a bonus action, or if the time limit runs out, the spirit is banished from whence it came.

You may summon a spirit using this feature once, and must complete a long rest before you are able to do so again.

Undead Vestiges

At 6th level, you add the animate dead spell to your spellbook if it is not there already. When you cast animate dead, you can target one additional corpse or pile of bones, creating another zombie or skeleton, as appropriate. Additionally, you may use the spell instead on a few scraps of cloth to summon a lesser specter, with the following changes from a normal specter:

• The specter's maximum hit points are 15.
• The specter's Life Drain ability damage dice are reduced to 1d6 from 3d6.

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 weapon damage rolls.

Inured to the Ethereal

Beginning at 10th level, 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. You have resistance to necrotic damage, and your hit point maximum can’t be reduced.

Rite of Exorcism

Starting at 14th level, you can use magic to exorcise the ethereal animating force of living or unliving creatures creatures. As an action, you can choose one creature 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, its spirit is briefly exorcised it becomes stunned for 1 minute. If the creature is an undead with an intelligence of 5 or lower, it is destroyed.

When you destroy undead in this way, you may harvest the spiritual and ethereal force that animated it. You may choose to gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the creature's max hit points (up to a number equal to twice your Wizard level), or to regain a number of spell slots whose levels cannot be higher than 3rd, and whose total level equal the creature's challenge rating (minimum 1).

When you use this feature, you must take a long rest, or use a spell slot of fourth level or higher to do so again.