Choose a pile of bones or a corpse of a Medium or Small Humanoid within range. The target becomes an Undead creature: a Skeleton if you chose bones or a Zombie if you chose a corpse.
On each of your turns, you can take a Bonus Action to mentally command any creature you made with this spell if the creature is within 60 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move on its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature takes the Dodge action and moves only to avoid harm. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.
The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you’ve given it. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature again before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over up to four creatures you have animated with this spell rather than animating a new creature.
Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You animate or reassert control over two additional Undead creatures for each spell slot level above 3. Each of the creatures must come from a different corpse or pile of bones.
* - (a drop of blood, a piece of flesh, and a pinch of bone dust)
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Posted Jun 10, 2025At level 5 (the lowest level you can get this spell) both are extremely easy to kill. Zombies being slightly harder to kill doesn't matter because if they're on the front lines they're dying very quickly. Skeletons both deal more damage and can attack from range (meaning that they can be more than cannon fodder). The only minor benefit zombies have is being slightly better cannon fodder but then your zombies are dead and it takes a few days to re-summon them. Think about it this way, would you rather have 5 fodder or 5 skeletons doing decent damage? The choice is obvious imo.
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Posted Jul 1, 2025I think you can. If you check out the 2024 Skeleton sheet, you will see the pantomime table, and one of it is 'Mimics ways it entertained itself in life, such as acting, dancing, or reading.' So skeletons do remember the past lives.
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Posted Jul 3, 2025If you had say 2 3rd level spell slots you could cast it twice and animate two corpses. If you then had a long rest to recover your spell slots you could then use one animate dead to reassert control over the 1st two undead and then use animate dead again to produce a third. Then repeat this process the next day to have a fourth animated corpse....etc.
Theoretically it is the number of spell slots you can use to reassert control and create new animations that controls the size of your mini undead army.
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Posted Jul 16, 2025Would it be broken to create a Greater Animate Dead version of this spells that's 4th level and allows you to create Skeletons and Zombies from Large corpses like Skeletal Warhorse, or Skeletal or Zombie Ogres? I figure its weaker than Create Undead 6th level spell, or would this be too overpowered?
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Posted Jul 25, 2025Summons 3 Zombies with sword and shield
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Posted Aug 4, 2025Warlocks get pact slots whereas wizards get spell slots. The reason that warlocks don’t get animate dead is because it would be too op for them. Their slots get reset when they take a short rest, so they could cast the spell a few times and then take a rest, meaning they could summon loads and loads of skeletons and zombies, whereas wizards have one more spell slot, but only have their slots reset on a long rest, of which you can only take 1 per day, so they can’t mass summon as well.