Necrotic Wizard

The journey one takes toward being a necromancer starts somewhere, and this is it. These wizards are ones who delve into the more necrotic and the side of magic viewed darker than others. Harnessing necrotic energies to such an extent that it begins to imbue their very body and soul, giving them an unmatched edge in magic relative to the undead compared to that of other wizards. Though this isn't without price, as most who take this road end up imbued with so much necrotic energy that they end looking similar to the undead they summon.

Necrotic Aura

Your study and dive into the necrotic arts have imbued you with necrotic energy in both body and spirit. You have learned to manipulate this energy and shape it to create undead from that energy and magic alone. These undead are tied to your very being so they follow whatever orders you give, and last as long as you live unless they perish themselves, in which case they will fade into the nothingness they were created from. Their strength depends entirely on that of the caster, as the more powerful the caster is, the more powerful and numerous undead they can summon in one instance. As this does sap magic from the caster, using this skill too many times in a single day can be taxing and wear even the strongest down on a physical and mental level.

Undead Affiliation

You are now committed and honing your craft to necromancy. You now have an easier time and don't need to put as many resources into learning more necrotic spells and due to your growing necrotic aura and nature, you can now somewhat naturally understand undead and even try to pacify undead that aren't in the command of another.

At level 10 you gain a better command of even undead not created by you as you can command them and get them to serve you, with undead over CR 5 needing more convincing or may need to be recruited by force.

Necrotic Specialist

You have now honed your craft to the point your regarded as a specialist in creating undead. Once per long rest, you have the ability to speed up the summoning/creation of undead made via magic to be done almost instantaneously rather than its normal casting time. And upon reaching level 14, your skills improve enough to use this ability twice between long rests.

Lord of Undeath

Your aura of necrotic energy has grown to the extent that you have learned to extend it to stop those who die close to you from reaching true death, as any creatures who's life end close to you are brought back as undead under your control. These undead are similar to those you create though if they bare flesh it may start to deteriorate due to the necrotic energy possessing them until it turns to bone. They do require to be alive in some respects, so those already undead, constructs, or aberrations will not come back from death.

 

Corpse Guard

You've come to master your necromancy and aura of undeath, now to the point of transferring pain. Any of your undead close enough can take some of the pain for you, but if this were to kill them then the rest of the pain returns back to you unless there's another undead close enough to also take the blow.