Level
6th
Casting Time
10 Minutes
Range/Area
Touch
(5 ft. *)
Components
V, S, M *
Duration
Until Dispelled
School
Necromancy
Attack/Save
DEX Save
Damage/Effect
Combat (...)
This spell replaces the standard Animate Dead spell for Wizards of the School of Necromancy. You use this spell to bind a previously forged Gem of the Dread Retinue into humanoid remains.
I. The Forging Ritual
To create a Gem of the Dread Retinue, you must perform a specialized 1-hour ritual. During this time, you must use a polished onyx gem worth at least 300 gp. As you chant, you must spend and roll 3 of your Hit Dice, taking necrotic damage equal to the total rolled. This damage represents the life-force required to forge the link and cannot be reduced or prevented in any way. Once forged, the Gem is dormant until it is charged.
II. Charging and Soul-Tuning
A Gem must be "charged" to animate a sidekick. During a Long Rest, you can spend 10 minutes of that rest focusing on a Gem to "charge" it or to change the level of the spell slot currently locked within an active Gem.
- Locked Slots: To charge the Gem, you select one spell slot of 1st level or higher. This spell slot becomes locked and is unavailable for your use until the Gem is released or the sidekick is destroyed.
- Slot Recovery: If the link is willingly broken or the sidekick is destroyed, you regain the locked slot after your next Long Rest.
III. Binding the Retinue
You perform a 10-minute ritual to bind a charged gem into humanoid remains (a pile of bones or a fresh corpse), animating them into a Skeleton or Zombie Sidekick of the Warrior, Expert, or Spellcaster class.
- Binding Rejection: If the remains are unsuitable (non-humanoid, cremated, or severely incomplete), the ritual fails. The magical feedback deals 1d6 necrotic damage to you per level of the locked slot, and the gem becomes dormant until your next long rest.
- Gem Recovery: If a sidekick is reduced to 0 hit points, the body is destroyed, but the Gem remains. You can recover the Gem and bind it to new remains via a 10-minute ritual.
- Equipment: The sidekick appears with no equipment. You must provide all armor, weapons, and gear. The sidekick is proficient with any equipment granted by its sidekick class.
IV. The Soul Link
- Leveling: The sidekick’s level is equal to twice the level of the spell slot locked within its Gem, but its level can never exceed your own Wizard level.
- Necrotic Budget: The combined levels of all active sidekicks (Permanent and Unstable) cannot exceed twice your Wizard (Necromancy) class level. If you create a sidekick that exceeds this budget, a previous sidekick of your choice immediately collapses.
- Capacity: You can maintain a maximum of 4 permanent sidekicks at once.
- Shared Soul (Attunement): You and your sidekicks share a single pool of Attunement slots (typically 3). You may have a sidekick attune to a magic item during a short rest, but it consumes one of your available slots. A single sidekick can only be attuned to one magic item at a time.
- Spectral Tether: The Gem must stay within 1 mile of you. If separated for more than 1 hour, or if you willingly break the link (no action required), the sidekick becomes inanimate.
V. Interaction and Combat
- Limited Autonomy: The sidekick can determine the best way to execute an instruction, but it possesses no personal initiative. Unless given a verbal command on your turn (no action required), the sidekick takes the Dodge action and stays within 5 feet of you.
- Arcane Vessel: The onyx gem functions as a spellcasting focus for the sidekick it animates. Furthermore, when creating a Spellcaster sidekick, you may permanently swap its base Strength score with either its Intelligence or Wisdom score to reflect its mental focus.
- Guardian Protocol: If you are reduced to 0 hit points but remain alive, your sidekicks prioritize your survival above all else. They will disregard damage and opportunity attacks to reach you as fast as possible, provided a path exists that does not result in certain destruction. Warriors provide cover and defend your body; Experts or Healers use actions to stabilize you with Healer's Kits or spells like Spare the Dying.
- The Zombie’s Stench: Zombie sidekicks emit a powerful stench of rot. Unless heavily masked, their presence is unwelcome in civilized settlements, resulting in Disadvantage on Charisma checks at the DM's discretion.
Unstable Animation (Sub-Feature)
If you lack a Gem of the Dread Retinue, you may cast this spell using any humanoid remains with the following changes:
- Duration: 1 hour, after which the remains turn to fine dust.
- Slot Usage: The spell slot is spent normally (not locked).
- Volatile Collapse: When the sidekick reaches 0 HP or the duration ends, it explodes. Each creature within a radius of 5 feet plus 5 feet for every slot level above 1st must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Spell Save DC, taking 1d6 necrotic damage per slot level on a failure, or half as much on a success.
- Instability: If the sidekick starts its turn with less than half its maximum HP, roll a d20. On a 1, it becomes hostile to all living creatures until it explodes.
- Limit: You may only have one Unstable Animation active at a time.
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