Hello! So I just started a game for the first time and I made a necromancer. I found a D&D wiki to help me build it but I'm a bit confused about some things. The wiki said that the necromancer was similar to a sorcerer and suggests that I build it like one but then it suggests that I use the wizards spell list. The amount of cantrips known, spells known/learned and features are completely different. Also, even though it says to build it like a sorcerer, it's Necro build doesn't have any sorcery points. So I'm told it's a rat but to treat it like a hamster and what I actually got was a gerbil. So my question is, is there a "proper way" to build a necromancer? So far I've just been following what the wiki says as far as cantrips and features and learnable spells are concerned but I can't really find any concrete answers to what school of magic or affinity or the like a necromancer fit's into. I can see both working well as a starting point but since I can't find anything that says one way or the other, any advice would be much appreciated.
First piece of advice: don't trust D&D wikis - there is at least one out there which doesn't achieve much other than to house (seemingly intentionally) broken rules content and bad advice, and to create confusion among new players who might not realize that it isn't even remotely official or supported by Wizards of the Coast.
Second piece of advice: In 5th edition, the necromancer is a sub-class of the wizard class. To build an effective necromancer, nothing more needs done than to choose the wizard class, select the school of necromancy when you get that option (at 2nd level), and to choose spells which interact with the special features of the necromancer sub-class (which are pretty straight forward; spells that deal damage, especially if they are necromancy spells, and spells that create or enhance undead).
Thanks for the reply! I've been treating my character like a wizard (5e) so I'm glad that I chose that setup. The wiki that I've been using (aside from some minor differences in phrasing with some things) has been the same as the books. My DM has the 5e books but it says nothing about what features the necromancer should have or how many cantrips/spells I can do. Does the necromancer have it's own features and what not or is it just a wizard that likes the dead.
Thanks for the reply! I've been treating my character like a wizard (5e) so I'm glad that I chose that setup. The wiki that I've been using (aside from some minor differences in phrasing with some things) has been the same as the books. My DM has the 5e books but it says nothing about what features the necromancer should have or how many cantrips/spells I can do. Does the necromancer have it's own features and what not or is it just a wizard that likes the dead.
Open your copy of the Player's Handbook to pages 118-119. The School of Necromancy starts in the lower-right corner of page 118 and continues into the upper-left corner of page 119. If you don't know what you're looking at, turn to page 115 and look at the paragraph-and-change under the "Arcane Tradition" heading, also in the upper-left corner.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Keep in mind. You don't have to be a "Wizard" class with the subclass "Necromancer". It's an obvious starting off point.
You can also take pretty much any spell casting class and focus on necromantic spells (preferable any that has animate dead at 3rd lvl spell).
The rest of it is flavor and style.
Right; another natural option is a cleric of the Death domain (which--I mention for the benefit of the original poster--is in the Dungeon Master's Guide).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
FullMetalBunny - I noticed that almost every class has some necromancy spells in them and I figured it basically came down to how you want to play. I was just having a hard time figuring out if there was JUST a necromancy class because it seemed like I had to multi-class into it. I'll be buying my own copy of the player's guide on this site, I just have to wait to get paid. Again, thanks for all the help guys. May your dice always roll in your favor
Depending on how you choose to define a necromancer, I think you could construct one using any class without even multiclassing (once you have all the sub-class options from XGtE and such). The Magic Initiate feat could get you a handful of extra necromantic magic tricks for colour.
Barbarian - Ancestral Guardian: Summoning spirits of the dead to empower and protect you, and demanding answers to your scrying.
Bard - Whispers: Select all available necromancy spells, play some doleful funereal instrument and summon dark powers from the realms of the dead. Very Phantom of the Opera.
Cleric - Death: Self-explanatory
Druid - Land Underdark or the new Spores option: Death is just an aspect of life. You have appointed yourself to keep the circle of life turning, violently.
Fighter - Eldrich Knight and ask your DM to allow you to take Necromancy rather than Evocation spells: A proper Death Knight.
Monk - Long Death: Let the powers of death flow through your fists.
Paladin - Oathbreaker: Follow the path of death to become a Dread Lord.
Ranger... OK, this one is harder to manage. No Ranger Necromancer options it seems.
Rogue - Arcane Trickster and ask DM to swap Enchantment for Necromancy: Move silently as the grave and bring death in the shadows.
Sorcerer - Shadow, Warlock - Undying, Wizard - Necromancy: Do all the Necromancy!
Depending on how you choose to define a necromancer, I think you could construct one using any class without even multiclassing (once you have all the sub-class options from XGtE and such). The Magic Initiate feat could get you a handful of extra necromantic magic tricks for colour.
Barbarian - Ancestral Guardian: Summoning spirits of the dead to empower and protect you, and demanding answers to your scrying.
Bard - Whispers: Select all available necromancy spells, play some doleful funereal instrument and summon dark powers from the realms of the dead. Very Phantom of the Opera.
Cleric - Death: Self-explanatory
Druid - Land Underdark or the new Spores option: Death is just an aspect of life. You have appointed yourself to keep the circle of life turning, violently.
Fighter - Eldrich Knight and ask your DM to allow you to take Necromancy rather than Evocation spells: A proper Death Knight.
Monk - Long Death: Let the powers of death flow through your fists.
Paladin - Oathbreaker: Follow the path of death to become a Dread Lord.
Ranger... OK, this one is harder to manage. No Ranger Necromancer options it seems.
Rogue - Arcane Trickster and ask DM to swap Enchantment for Necromancy: Move silently as the grave and bring death in the shadows.
Sorcerer - Shadow, Warlock - Undying, Wizard - Necromancy: Do all the Necromancy!
Oh I plan on doing a necro for each class 😈 I just wanted my first one to be a basic one. This info will be quite helpful
Don't forget that a lore bard is another amazing option for a necromancer! I plan on trying one myself.
6th lvl Additional Magical Secrets: core is Animate Dead. Next spell is up to you. Perhaps Vampiric Touch or Life Transference.
10th lvl Magical Secrets: core is Danse Macabre. Next spell is up to you. Maybe Negative Energy Flood or Enervation.
14th lvl Magical Secrets: core is Finger of Death. You can take any other spell after that.
I got the initial concept from "Drow Bard" on YouTube. The video talks about a "Dirge Singer" from earlier editions. I am tweaking the idea from the video into something more me, but it's a great base!
I had a death domain cleric build, but after a little playing around, I'm leaning more toward a Divine Soul Sorcerer and picking (nearly) all of the necromancy spells from both the sorcerer and cleric spell lists. This guy just "feels" more like a necromancer to me.
This thread inspired me to start building necromancers on a character generator app I have. I liked the cleric enough that I started making the character sheet. Lizardfolk death cleric with a background as a Zhentarim Faction agent (Adventure League is calling, they want you to drop some books). Point buy 14 str, 14 dex, 12+2 con, 8 int, 15+1 wis, 8 cha. Skills: insight, deception, medicine, persuasion, stealth, survival. I'm thinking that I would ask the DM for a dwarf-stonecunning-like skill for intelligence checks regarding death.
For cantrips, I'd go with Toll the Dead, Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, and probably Guidance (possibly negating the need for the bonus int checks on death). His lizardfolk quirk would be the one about learning to laugh. I haven't fleshed out much more yet, but I'm feeling like this would be an interesting character to play. This gives a good excuse to dump strength and go dex+finesse and max the stealth off-healer that can still soak some damage (18 AC in scale mail with a shield vs 17 AC in natural armor and shield as is, bumping up to as high as 20 AC in natural armor if I max dex.), but that didn't feel quite right for this character. Still sneaking and deceiving people to avoid knowledge of his necromatic extra curricular activities felt on par, but only because he has acknowledged that some folk get squeamish about that kind of thing.
Depending on how you choose to define a necromancer, I think you could construct one using any class without even multiclassing (once you have all the sub-class options from XGtE and such). The Magic Initiate feat could get you a handful of extra necromantic magic tricks for colour.
Barbarian - Ancestral Guardian: Summoning spirits of the dead to empower and protect you, and demanding answers to your scrying.
Bard - Whispers: Select all available necromancy spells, play some doleful funereal instrument and summon dark powers from the realms of the dead. Very Phantom of the Opera.
Cleric - Death: Self-explanatory
Druid - Land Underdark or the new Spores option: Death is just an aspect of life. You have appointed yourself to keep the circle of life turning, violently.
Fighter - Eldrich Knight and ask your DM to allow you to take Necromancy rather than Evocation spells: A proper Death Knight.
Monk - Long Death: Let the powers of death flow through your fists.
Paladin - Oathbreaker: Follow the path of death to become a Dread Lord.
Ranger... OK, this one is harder to manage. No Ranger Necromancer options it seems.
Rogue - Arcane Trickster and ask DM to swap Enchantment for Necromancy: Move silently as the grave and bring death in the shadows.
Sorcerer - Shadow, Warlock - Undying, Wizard - Necromancy: Do all the Necromancy!
Ranger would probably be something akin to a beast master whose companion is an undead version of something. Favored enemies could be celestials, Fey, or something else that would want to kill the undead. Favored terrain would probably be swamp or Underdark, but could logically be wherever the companion would be plentiful. Ask for Find Steed to be added to the Ranger spell list and reskin it as a skeletal horse. Haven't thought about other spells, but you could build a minimal package of necromancy spells focusing on rot that would work. The flavor would be a more martial version of the druid necromancer.
I'm currently playing this guy in our campaign. I'm only level 7 at the moment, but this is what he'll look like when he grows up. Not entirely a Necromancer, but Finger of Death is a must.
I'm currently playing this guy in our campaign. I'm only level 7 at the moment, but this is what he'll look like when he grows up. Not entirely a Necromancer, but Finger of Death is a must.
ddb.ac/characters/9031295/o6Yfnp
Too bad the Death Cleric couldn't use Finger of Death with improved reaper (too high of spell for the feature even if you could manage the multi class in a way to get it or have all necromancy spells added to your spell list.
Hello! So I just started a game for the first time and I made a necromancer. I found a D&D wiki to help me build it but I'm a bit confused about some things. The wiki said that the necromancer was similar to a sorcerer and suggests that I build it like one but then it suggests that I use the wizards spell list. The amount of cantrips known, spells known/learned and features are completely different. Also, even though it says to build it like a sorcerer, it's Necro build doesn't have any sorcery points. So I'm told it's a rat but to treat it like a hamster and what I actually got was a gerbil. So my question is, is there a "proper way" to build a necromancer? So far I've just been following what the wiki says as far as cantrips and features and learnable spells are concerned but I can't really find any concrete answers to what school of magic or affinity or the like a necromancer fit's into. I can see both working well as a starting point but since I can't find anything that says one way or the other, any advice would be much appreciated.
Welcome to the forum!
First piece of advice: don't trust D&D wikis - there is at least one out there which doesn't achieve much other than to house (seemingly intentionally) broken rules content and bad advice, and to create confusion among new players who might not realize that it isn't even remotely official or supported by Wizards of the Coast.
Second piece of advice: In 5th edition, the necromancer is a sub-class of the wizard class. To build an effective necromancer, nothing more needs done than to choose the wizard class, select the school of necromancy when you get that option (at 2nd level), and to choose spells which interact with the special features of the necromancer sub-class (which are pretty straight forward; spells that deal damage, especially if they are necromancy spells, and spells that create or enhance undead).
Thanks for the reply! I've been treating my character like a wizard (5e) so I'm glad that I chose that setup. The wiki that I've been using (aside from some minor differences in phrasing with some things) has been the same as the books. My DM has the 5e books but it says nothing about what features the necromancer should have or how many cantrips/spells I can do. Does the necromancer have it's own features and what not or is it just a wizard that likes the dead.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Keep in mind. You don't have to be a "Wizard" class with the subclass "Necromancer".
It's an obvious starting off point.
You can also take pretty much any spell casting class and focus on necromantic spells (preferable any that has animate dead at 3rd lvl spell).
The rest of it is flavor and style.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Matthias_von_Schwarzwald - Cool, I'll look there.
FullMetalBunny - I noticed that almost every class has some necromancy spells in them and I figured it basically came down to how you want to play. I was just having a hard time figuring out if there was JUST a necromancy class because it seemed like I had to multi-class into it. I'll be buying my own copy of the player's guide on this site, I just have to wait to get paid. Again, thanks for all the help guys. May your dice always roll in your favor
Depending on how you choose to define a necromancer, I think you could construct one using any class without even multiclassing (once you have all the sub-class options from XGtE and such). The Magic Initiate feat could get you a handful of extra necromantic magic tricks for colour.
Barbarian - Ancestral Guardian: Summoning spirits of the dead to empower and protect you, and demanding answers to your scrying.
Bard - Whispers: Select all available necromancy spells, play some doleful funereal instrument and summon dark powers from the realms of the dead. Very Phantom of the Opera.
Cleric - Death: Self-explanatory
Druid - Land Underdark or the new Spores option: Death is just an aspect of life. You have appointed yourself to keep the circle of life turning, violently.
Fighter - Eldrich Knight and ask your DM to allow you to take Necromancy rather than Evocation spells: A proper Death Knight.
Monk - Long Death: Let the powers of death flow through your fists.
Paladin - Oathbreaker: Follow the path of death to become a Dread Lord.
Ranger... OK, this one is harder to manage. No Ranger Necromancer options it seems.
Rogue - Arcane Trickster and ask DM to swap Enchantment for Necromancy: Move silently as the grave and bring death in the shadows.
Sorcerer - Shadow, Warlock - Undying, Wizard - Necromancy: Do all the Necromancy!
Don't forget that a lore bard is another amazing option for a necromancer! I plan on trying one myself.
6th lvl Additional Magical Secrets: core is Animate Dead. Next spell is up to you. Perhaps Vampiric Touch or Life Transference.
10th lvl Magical Secrets: core is Danse Macabre. Next spell is up to you. Maybe Negative Energy Flood or Enervation.
14th lvl Magical Secrets: core is Finger of Death. You can take any other spell after that.
I got the initial concept from "Drow Bard" on YouTube. The video talks about a "Dirge Singer" from earlier editions. I am tweaking the idea from the video into something more me, but it's a great base!
https://youtu.be/LDORDu74fvE
That's the link to the original video. I highly suggest checking out his other "unconventional builds." They have given me a lot of inspiration
I love this thread
I had a death domain cleric build, but after a little playing around, I'm leaning more toward a Divine Soul Sorcerer and picking (nearly) all of the necromancy spells from both the sorcerer and cleric spell lists. This guy just "feels" more like a necromancer to me.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
This thread inspired me to start building necromancers on a character generator app I have. I liked the cleric enough that I started making the character sheet. Lizardfolk death cleric with a background as a Zhentarim Faction agent (Adventure League is calling, they want you to drop some books). Point buy 14 str, 14 dex, 12+2 con, 8 int, 15+1 wis, 8 cha. Skills: insight, deception, medicine, persuasion, stealth, survival. I'm thinking that I would ask the DM for a dwarf-stonecunning-like skill for intelligence checks regarding death.
For cantrips, I'd go with Toll the Dead, Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, and probably Guidance (possibly negating the need for the bonus int checks on death). His lizardfolk quirk would be the one about learning to laugh. I haven't fleshed out much more yet, but I'm feeling like this would be an interesting character to play. This gives a good excuse to dump strength and go dex+finesse and max the stealth off-healer that can still soak some damage (18 AC in scale mail with a shield vs 17 AC in natural armor and shield as is, bumping up to as high as 20 AC in natural armor if I max dex.), but that didn't feel quite right for this character. Still sneaking and deceiving people to avoid knowledge of his necromatic extra curricular activities felt on par, but only because he has acknowledged that some folk get squeamish about that kind of thing.
Ranger would probably be something akin to a beast master whose companion is an undead version of something. Favored enemies could be celestials, Fey, or something else that would want to kill the undead. Favored terrain would probably be swamp or Underdark, but could logically be wherever the companion would be plentiful. Ask for Find Steed to be added to the Ranger spell list and reskin it as a skeletal horse. Haven't thought about other spells, but you could build a minimal package of necromancy spells focusing on rot that would work. The flavor would be a more martial version of the druid necromancer.
I'm currently playing this guy in our campaign. I'm only level 7 at the moment, but this is what he'll look like when he grows up. Not entirely a Necromancer, but Finger of Death is a must.
ddb.ac/characters/9031295/o6Yfnp
Too bad the Death Cleric couldn't use Finger of Death with improved reaper (too high of spell for the feature even if you could manage the multi class in a way to get it or have all necromancy spells added to your spell list.
So what race would you recommend for necromancy wizard
I think a kobold necromancer brings up some cool imagery.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I found a online book of some pretty good spells, and a lot of necromancy spells.https://kupdf.net/download/book-of-lost-spells-necromancer-games_59b9466708bbc5ec30894cae_pdf
When the DM smiles, it is already to late.
i think you should make a drow wizard so that you can use the drow magic effect
jack l p