Unmaker's Necromancy (Beta)

You have thought about, studied, and seen first hand the powers of Necromancy. Something about it appeals to you; whether that be the thought of holding on to a loved one for all eternity, extending your own life, or building a slave army of soulless killers to take vengeance upon the world that birthed you, none can say for sure.

(This is a testing phase of updating the current 5e School of Necromancy. Many options may be the same as before, but the main differences should make the character more interesting. My personal homebrewed spells, some of which being updated 3.5 spells with minor changes, are included and are recommended to be used with this subclass.)

There are certain general rules involved with this subclass:

(1) Undead can not be risen from the same set of bones or flesh twice.

(2) Healing items and spells work on Undead thralls and do not damage them.

(3) You can summon a number of thralls equal to your character level/2 + your proficiency modifier. The only exception in this case is with Undead Lieutenant, which in it's description increases the amount of thralls available to you.

(4) Summoning more thralls than you have the ability to at your level requires you to choose one of your thralls to replace with the new one.

Necromancy Savant

Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the gold and time you must spend to copy a necromancy spell into your spellbook is halved.

Grim Harvest

At 2nd level, you gain the ability to reap life energy from creatures you kill with your spells. Once per turn when you kill one or more creatures with a spell of 1st level or higher, you regain hit points equal to twice the spell’s level, or three times its level if the spell belongs to the School of Necromancy. You don’t gain this benefit for killing constructs or undead.

Necromantic Enthrallment

At 6th level, you add the CREATE MINOR UNDEAD spell to your spellbook if it is not there already. When you cast it, you can target one additional corpse or pile of bones, creating an undead as detailed in the spell.

Whenever you create an undead using a necromancy spell:

   (1) It uses the average health of the creature.

   (2) The creature gains your proficiency to it's attack rolls, but none of your modifiers it's damage. 

   (3) It acts on your turn in combat, unless your DM says otherwise.

   (4) Challenge Rating 0 creatures that are non-combatant and have a maximum of 1 hit point do not count against your thrall maximum.

At this level, you also gain the ability Puppet Parry.

Puppet Parry

If you or an ally are being attacked, you can use your reaction to redirect the damage toward any thrall within 5 feet of the original target. You can choose to use this ability after the attack roll, but before the damage roll. This is only effective against physical attacks, not magic.

Skilled in Undeath

Beginning at 10th level, you have resistance to necrotic damage, and your hit point maximum can’t be reduced. You have spent so much time dealing with undead and the forces that animate them that you have become inured to some of their worst effects.

You gain the spell UNDEAD LIEUTENANT and AWAKEN UNDEAD in your spellbook if they were not there already.

Thy Name is Death

Starting at 14th level, you can use magic to bring undead under your control, even those created by other wizards. You gain access to the spells CREATE GREATER UNDEAD and IMPOSE YOUR WILL in your spellbook, if they were not there already.

Your Awakened Thralls can now use tools they knew in life with a standard of +5 to the skill they were proficient in. If the creature had expertise in life, it does not get it in undeath.