School of Reanimation

Though similar to necromancy, the school of reanimation is a distinct entity, perhaps slightly less distasteful than its counterpart. Where necromancy uses dark magic to give life to the dead, reanimation seeks to use the now soulless corpses as minions, similar to how a puppeteer controls a marionette. The difference is small, but significant. However, due to the prevailing notion of necromancy and similar practices being inherently evil, reanimation is extremely obscure, so much so that most people have never heard of it.

Though it is uncommon for inherently good people to dabble in reanimation, neutral spellcasters may try their hand at it. It is, quite often, a very combat-oriented school of wizardry. Having a reanimation wizard nearby during combat can be incredibly useful, as they can raise their slain enemies and force them attack those they fought beside only moments before. 

Death Throes

A reanimation wizard can use a fallen enemy's last ounce of strength to their own advantage. Starting at 2nd level, when a hostile creature that you can see within 60 feet of you is killed, you can use your reaction to animate the creature's body, forcing it to move up to 5 feet and make one melee attack against a creature of of your choice. The creature must be large or smaller, as animating a body beyond such sizes requires a great deal of power that reanimation wizards cannot attain. The attack roll for this attack is equal to your spellcasting attack roll, and the damage is equal to 1D6 + your spellcasting modifier. The damage is bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing, as appropriate to the creature's held or natural weapons. The creature then dies. If the damage that killed the creature destroys its body (e.g. disintegrated) or otherwise renders it incapable of making a melee attack (e.g. lost its arms), a use is expended and there is no effect. This ability can be used a number of times equal to your spellcasting modifier per long rest.

At level 8, the damage becomes magical for the purpose of harming creatures with resistance/immunity to non-magical damage.

Undead Thralls

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. 

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 + spellcasting modifier
- The creature adds your proficiency bonus to its weapon attack rolls

While this feature is nearly identical to that found in the regular school of necromancy, note that undead created by a reanimation wizard have a bonus to their attack rolls, in comparison to those created by a necromancer that have a bonus to their damage rolls.

 

Conjure Undead

Starting at 10th level, your understanding of undead allows you to create husks using the Animate Dead, Danse Macabre, and Create Undead spells, if you have these in your spellbook. Rather than animating a corpse, you magically create undead from a piece of flesh or bone. The undead have identical statistics and for all intents and purposes are the same as undead typically animated this way. However, this form of casting does not require you to use full corpses, providing a method for summoning undead creatures "on-the-go."

Each zombie must be created by a separate piece of flesh/bone originating from a different body. If an undead is destroyed, another piece of flesh or bone from the same body may be used to create another undead. Additionally, the creature that the flesh belonged to need not be dead for the spell to work.

Aura of Reanimation

At 14th level, your expertise in controlling the forces of life have allowed you to begin exuding a constant 30-foot radius aura. If an undead under your control begins its turn within the aura, it gains a +10 bonus to its speed. While within this aura, an undead under your control deals an additional 1D6 damage on a hit, and its attacks are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances.

Additionally, if a large or smaller creature is slain while within the aura, you can use your reaction to cast Animate Dead on them, using a spell slot as normal.

Soul Harvest

As you begin to manipulate the life force of others, you can use such energies for your own purposes. Starting at 2nd level, when a hostile creature within 60 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points and killed, you can use a reaction to capture and temporarily store the soul of the creature. At any given time, you can have only 1 soul stored. Additionally, the soul is stored for a maximum of 1 minute, after which it escapes. This process does not harm the captured soul in any way. During this minute, you can "expend" the soul, drawing on its energy to gain the benefits of any of the following effects: 

-Soul Shield: As a bonus action, you can gain resistance to necrotic or radiant damage for 1 minute.
-Restorative Energy: As a bonus action, you can restore hit points to a creature within 30 feet equal to 1D4 + half your wizard level, rounded up.
-Channel Energy: When you deal damage to a creature, you can choose to expend the soul to deal additional damage equal to 1D4 + half your wizard level, rounded up. This damage is either radiant or necrotic, as chosen by you.
-Foster Life: If you are reduced to below zero hit points, you can expend the soul immediately to give yourself a bonus to death saving throws equal to your intelligence modifier. If you are successful on these rolls and stabilize, you automatically gain 1 hit point, but gain 2 levels of exhaustion as the process causes extreme fatigue.