By choosing this subclass, the Wizard forsakes the flexibility of conventional conjuration magic in exchange for absolute dominion over the grave. This path carries the following constraints:
Nexus Exclusivity: The mental burden of tethering souls to the material plane is absolute. While you have active units summoned through the Bone Crucible, you cannot cast spells that summon or create other creatures (such as Summon Elemental, Conjure Minor Elementals, or Draconic Spirit). If such a spell is already active, it ends immediately when the Bone Crucible ritual is completed.
Specialist’s Identity: You have traded the role of a "Generalist Mage" for that of an Architect of Immortality. Your magic does not seek to understand the natural world, but to claim authority over what remains of it.
Somber Presence: Your connection to the Crucible manifests physically. You might exhibit pale skin, eyes that glow faintly in the dark, or a persistent drop in temperature around you. Non-sentient animals may become restless in your presence, sensing the void you carry within.
Level 3: Grim Harvest
You gain the ability to reap life energy from creatures you kill. Once per turn, when you kill one or more creatures with a spell of level 1 or higher, you regain hit points equal to twice the spell’s level (three times if it is a Necromancy spell). You don't gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead.
Level 6: Bone Crucible & The Rule of Four
You have mastered the art of consolidating necromantic energy into elite servants. You gain the following benefits:
Crucible Ritual: Once per Long Rest, you can perform a 10-minute ritual to summon up to four undead units. During this ritual, you must expend spell slots of level 3 or higher to create a CR Pool (see the Sacrificial Conversion table).
The Rule of Four: You can control a maximum of 4 undead units at any time. Any effect (like Finger of Death) that would create a new undead beyond this limit fails. While these units are active, you cannot have other summons active.
Summoning Limits: The combined CR of your units cannot exceed your CR Pool, nor your Wizard level, with a hard cap of CR 16.
Optional Sacrifice: During the ritual, you may sacrifice any undead you control. Their CR is added to the ritual's CR Pool. If you sacrifice a spirit from the Summon Undead spell, it contributes CR points equal to the spell level used to cast it.
Any creature summoned through the Bone Crucible is subject to the following tactical and biological constraints:
Action Economy: In combat, these units share your initiative count, but they take their turns immediately after yours. They can move and use their Reaction on their own, but the only action they take on their turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a Bonus Action on your turn to command one or all of them to take an action in their stat block or another action.
Reaction Tether: A summoned unit can only use its Reaction if you expend your own Reaction to command it. If you have already used your Reaction during that round, your units cannot use theirs.
Static Vitality: Creatures summoned by this feature do not have Hit Dice and cannot regain Hit Points through rests, spells, or magical effects unless a specific trait in their stat block or a Necromancy feature explicitly allows it.
The Bone Crucible Default List
You can choose to summon creatures from this list or any undead creature you have defeated or researched that meets the Crucible Restrictions.
CR 1: Ghoul
CR 2: Ghast
CR 3: Sword Wraith Warrior
CR 4: Ghost
CR 5: Wraith
CR 6: Bodak
CR 7: Giant Skeleton
CR 8: Sword Wraith Commander
CR 9: Frost Giant Zombie
CR 10: Frostmourn
CR 11: Parasite-infested Behir
CR 12: Boneclaw
CR 13: Spectral Cloud
CR 15: Tempest Spirit
Additional Feature: The Scavenger's Codex (Research)
To summon a creature not found on the Bone Crucible Default List, you must first assimilate its essence into your necromantic repertoire. You can add a new undead blueprint through the following methods:
Necropsy & Essence Harvest: You must have participated in the creature's defeat. Within 1 hour of its death, you spend 10 minutes studying its remains and residual necrotic flow to "record" its biological and magical structure.
Forbidden Treatises: You may learn a blueprint by studying ancient grimoires or anatomical diagrams of specific undead. This requires an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the creature's CR. On a failed attempt, the difficulty increases by 2 and accumulates with subsequent failures.
Cognitive Load: Your mind can only retain a number of researched blueprints outside the Default List equal to your Intelligence Modifier (minimum of 1). During a Long Rest, you may replace one known blueprint with another you have previously recorded in your spellbook.
Spell Slot Level
CR Points
3rd = 0.5
4th = 1.0
5th = 1.5
6th = 2.0
7th = 2.5
8th = 3.0
9th = 3.5
Crucible Restrictions
Any creature summoned that is not on the Default List must meet the following criteria:
Mental Threshold: The creature's Intelligence score must be 12 or lower.
Exclusions: No Legendary Actions, Legendary Resistances, or Lair Actions.
No Sub-commands: Summoned creatures cannot control other creatures through their traits. Any creature created by a summoned unit immediately dissipates at the end of the current turn.
Evanescence: Upon reaching 0 Hit Points or after 24 hours, the units dissipate into ash. If you are Incapacitated or die, the units immediately take the Dodge action and attempt to retreat to the nearest safe location, disappearing after 1 minute if you do not regain consciousness
When you reduce a creature to 0 HP with a Necromancy spell, you harvest its soul. You add 50% of the enemy’s CR (25% if killed by a non-necromancy spell) to your next Bone Crucible ritual pool performed within the next 24 hours. You don't gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead.
Level 10: Necrotic Adaptation
Your mastery over death has refined your resilience against its energies.
You gain resistance to Necrotic damage. Additionally, you are immune to Necrotic damage dealt by undead creatures summoned through your Bone Crucible feature.
Furthermore, your maximum hit points cannot be reduced while at least one of your summoned undead units remains active.
Level 14: Sacrificial Mastery
Your understanding of the cycle of life and death is absolute. Every spell slot sacrificed during the Bone Crucible ritual provides a +0.5 CR bonus.
Dear Design Team,
I am submitting this Necromancer subclass proposal with a clear balance philosophy in mind, particularly aligned with the 2024 design direction emphasizing clarity, bounded scaling, and meaningful trade-offs.
The central mechanic, the Bone Crucible, is intentionally structured around power redistribution rather than power accumulation. When the Wizard performs the ritual, they are not adding an additional full character to the party—they are sacrificing the majority of their higher-level spell slots in exchange for a persistent undead unit (or units) whose combined CR cannot exceed their Wizard level, with a hard cap of CR 16.
This creates a deliberate “all-in” versus “strategist” dynamic:
• The “Colossus” Option – A single high-CR undead (e.g., CR 16 at level 16+) provides sustained martial pressure without concentration. However, it is highly vulnerable to control effects such as Maze, Banishment, Forcecage, or Plane Shift. Without Legendary Resistances and with very low mental saves, it can be neutralized by high-level spellcasters. If that happens, the Wizard—having expended most spell slots—cannot meaningfully counterplay.
• The Distributed Option – Multiple mid-CR undead divide enemy attention, increase target saturation, and create tactical redundancy. While individually weaker, they reduce volatility and are less vulnerable to a single control spell ending the Wizard’s entire investment.
This tension is intentional. The subclass rewards encounter awareness and strategic forecasting. It is powerful in prolonged, martial-heavy encounters but meaningfully countered by high-level arcane control. It does not invalidate other Tier 4 Wizards, who retain superior magical flexibility, battlefield control, and reactive spellcasting.
Additional safeguards reinforce this balance:
• 1/LR ritual limitation.
• Shared CR pool capped by Wizard level.
• No Legendary Actions, Legendary Resistances, or Lair Actions.
• No summon stacking; the subclass is mutually exclusive with other summoning spells.
• Immediate behavioral collapse if the Wizard is incapacitated.
• Bonus Action and Reaction tethering to restrict action economy.
Importantly, this design avoids exponential scaling. It is a high-risk, high-reward trade model rather than a multiplicative force amplifier. The subclass changes the Wizard’s role profile but does not increase total party resource economy beyond reasonable Tier 4 expectations.
The goal is not to create a superior Wizard, but a specialized one—an Architect of Immortality who exchanges magical versatility for persistent necromantic presence, with clear and punishable weaknesses.
Thank you for your consideration.
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By choosing this subclass, the Wizard forsakes the flexibility of conventional conjuration magic in exchange for absolute dominion over the grave. This path carries the following constraints:
Nexus Exclusivity: The mental burden of tethering souls to the material plane is absolute. While you have active units summoned through the Bone Crucible, you cannot cast spells that summon or create other creatures (such as Summon Elemental, Conjure Minor Elementals, or Draconic Spirit). If such a spell is already active, it ends immediately when the Bone Crucible ritual is completed.
Specialist’s Identity: You have traded the role of a "Generalist Mage" for that of an Architect of Immortality. Your magic does not seek to understand the natural world, but to claim authority over what remains of it.
Somber Presence: Your connection to the Crucible manifests physically. You might exhibit pale skin, eyes that glow faintly in the dark, or a persistent drop in temperature around you. Non-sentient animals may become restless in your presence, sensing the void you carry within.
Level 3: Grim Harvest
You gain the ability to reap life energy from creatures you kill. Once per turn, when you kill one or more creatures with a spell of level 1 or higher, you regain hit points equal to twice the spell’s level (three times if it is a Necromancy spell). You don't gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead.
Level 6: Bone Crucible & The Rule of Four
You have mastered the art of consolidating necromantic energy into elite servants. You gain the following benefits:
Crucible Ritual: Once per Long Rest, you can perform a 10-minute ritual to summon up to four undead units. During this ritual, you must expend spell slots of level 3 or higher to create a CR Pool (see the Sacrificial Conversion table).
The Rule of Four: You can control a maximum of 4 undead units at any time. Any effect (like Finger of Death) that would create a new undead beyond this limit fails. While these units are active, you cannot have other summons active.
Summoning Limits: The combined CR of your units cannot exceed your CR Pool, nor your Wizard level, with a hard cap of CR 16.
Optional Sacrifice: During the ritual, you may sacrifice any undead you control. Their CR is added to the ritual's CR Pool. If you sacrifice a spirit from the Summon Undead spell, it contributes CR points equal to the spell level used to cast it.
Any creature summoned through the Bone Crucible is subject to the following tactical and biological constraints:
Action Economy: In combat, these units share your initiative count, but they take their turns immediately after yours. They can move and use their Reaction on their own, but the only action they take on their turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a Bonus Action on your turn to command one or all of them to take an action in their stat block or another action.
Reaction Tether: A summoned unit can only use its Reaction if you expend your own Reaction to command it. If you have already used your Reaction during that round, your units cannot use theirs.
Static Vitality: Creatures summoned by this feature do not have Hit Dice and cannot regain Hit Points through rests, spells, or magical effects unless a specific trait in their stat block or a Necromancy feature explicitly allows it.
The Bone Crucible Default List
You can choose to summon creatures from this list or any undead creature you have defeated or researched that meets the Crucible Restrictions.
CR 1: Ghoul
CR 2: Ghast
CR 3: Sword Wraith Warrior
CR 4: Ghost
CR 5: Wraith
CR 6: Bodak
CR 7: Giant Skeleton
CR 8: Sword Wraith Commander
CR 9: Frost Giant Zombie
CR 10: Frostmourn
CR 11: Parasite-infested Behir
CR 12: Boneclaw
CR 13: Spectral Cloud
CR 15: Tempest Spirit
Additional Feature: The Scavenger's Codex (Research)
To summon a creature not found on the Bone Crucible Default List, you must first assimilate its essence into your necromantic repertoire. You can add a new undead blueprint through the following methods:
Necropsy & Essence Harvest: You must have participated in the creature's defeat. Within 1 hour of its death, you spend 10 minutes studying its remains and residual necrotic flow to "record" its biological and magical structure.
Forbidden Treatises: You may learn a blueprint by studying ancient grimoires or anatomical diagrams of specific undead. This requires an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 + the creature's CR. On a failed attempt, the difficulty increases by 2 and accumulates with subsequent failures.
Cognitive Load: Your mind can only retain a number of researched blueprints outside the Default List equal to your Intelligence Modifier (minimum of 1). During a Long Rest, you may replace one known blueprint with another you have previously recorded in your spellbook.
Spell Slot Level
CR Points
3rd = 0.5
4th = 1.0
5th = 1.5
6th = 2.0
7th = 2.5
8th = 3.0
9th = 3.5
Crucible Restrictions
Any creature summoned that is not on the Default List must meet the following criteria:
Mental Threshold: The creature's Intelligence score must be 12 or lower.
Exclusions: No Legendary Actions, Legendary Resistances, or Lair Actions.
No Sub-commands: Summoned creatures cannot control other creatures through their traits. Any creature created by a summoned unit immediately dissipates at the end of the current turn.
Evanescence: Upon reaching 0 Hit Points or after 24 hours, the units dissipate into ash. If you are Incapacitated or die, the units immediately take the Dodge action and attempt to retreat to the nearest safe location, disappearing after 1 minute if you do not regain consciousness
When you reduce a creature to 0 HP with a Necromancy spell, you harvest its soul. You add 50% of the enemy’s CR (25% if killed by a non-necromancy spell) to your next Bone Crucible ritual pool performed within the next 24 hours. You don't gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead.
Level 10: Necrotic Adaptation
Your mastery over death has refined your resilience against its energies.
You gain resistance to Necrotic damage. Additionally, you are immune to Necrotic damage dealt by undead creatures summoned through your Bone Crucible feature.
Furthermore, your maximum hit points cannot be reduced while at least one of your summoned undead units remains active.
Level 14: Sacrificial Mastery
Your understanding of the cycle of life and death is absolute. Every spell slot sacrificed during the Bone Crucible ritual provides a +0.5 CR bonus.
Dear Design Team,
I am submitting this Necromancer subclass proposal with a clear balance philosophy in mind, particularly aligned with the 2024 design direction emphasizing clarity, bounded scaling, and meaningful trade-offs.
The central mechanic, the Bone Crucible, is intentionally structured around power redistribution rather than power accumulation. When the Wizard performs the ritual, they are not adding an additional full character to the party—they are sacrificing the majority of their higher-level spell slots in exchange for a persistent undead unit (or units) whose combined CR cannot exceed their Wizard level, with a hard cap of CR 16.
This creates a deliberate “all-in” versus “strategist” dynamic:
• The “Colossus” Option – A single high-CR undead (e.g., CR 16 at level 16+) provides sustained martial pressure without concentration. However, it is highly vulnerable to control effects such as Maze, Banishment, Forcecage, or Plane Shift. Without Legendary Resistances and with very low mental saves, it can be neutralized by high-level spellcasters. If that happens, the Wizard—having expended most spell slots—cannot meaningfully counterplay.
• The Distributed Option – Multiple mid-CR undead divide enemy attention, increase target saturation, and create tactical redundancy. While individually weaker, they reduce volatility and are less vulnerable to a single control spell ending the Wizard’s entire investment.
This tension is intentional. The subclass rewards encounter awareness and strategic forecasting. It is powerful in prolonged, martial-heavy encounters but meaningfully countered by high-level arcane control. It does not invalidate other Tier 4 Wizards, who retain superior magical flexibility, battlefield control, and reactive spellcasting.
Additional safeguards reinforce this balance:
• 1/LR ritual limitation.
• Shared CR pool capped by Wizard level.
• No Legendary Actions, Legendary Resistances, or Lair Actions.
• No summon stacking; the subclass is mutually exclusive with other summoning spells.
• Immediate behavioral collapse if the Wizard is incapacitated.
• Bonus Action and Reaction tethering to restrict action economy.
Importantly, this design avoids exponential scaling. It is a high-risk, high-reward trade model rather than a multiplicative force amplifier. The subclass changes the Wizard’s role profile but does not increase total party resource economy beyond reasonable Tier 4 expectations.
The goal is not to create a superior Wizard, but a specialized one—an Architect of Immortality who exchanges magical versatility for persistent necromantic presence, with clear and punishable weaknesses.
Thank you for your consideration.