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What kind of a Necromancer do you want to be? In this article, we’ll discuss a few archetypes of Necromancy, compatible classes and spells to achieve your archetype’s goals, and logistical tactics for your Necromancer to employ.
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0:00
Are you a fan of the macabre? Do you want to play a spooky character but you don't quite have the
0:05
build set up just yet? Although there is a necromancy school in Dungeons and Dragons
0:11
there isn't quite a necromancy class or a build. However, across several of the classes
0:16
there are many options that work perfectly for a necromancer build. In this video
0:22
we'll go over motivations, logistics, class builds, things that you can think about for
0:27
playing a necromancer, so let's take a deep dive six feet under
0:40
The typical necromancer that everyone thinks about is the character who builds an undead
0:46
army or raises a few undead for their own purposes. However, historically there have been many different categorizations of necromancy typically
0:56
defined as the practice of magic in which the dead is summoned in body or in spirit to foretell
1:02
future events, impart knowledge, live once again, or to be used and utilized as weapons. For instance
1:11
Odysseus traveled to the realm of the dead, King Saul commanded the witch of Endor to summon the
1:16
spirit of Samuel, and mages in medieval times believed they could use the spirits via necromancy
1:22
for illusions or to gain knowledge of the afterlife. So in this video, I'll explore four
1:27
different types of necromancers and give some ideas about how to build those out for yourself
1:33
The first build we're going to explore is the Lord of the Undead, and this is your typical
1:38
raise all undead creatures, or if you have a discrimination against which type you want to
1:44
raise, consider that as well. But raising an undead army is your goal as this type of necromancer
1:50
There are some preliminary questions I would ask myself before deciding what type of necromancy I want to pursue
1:56
Consider your campaign setting. Is raising the dead acceptable or taboo? And what complications could arise from building a character who endeavors to do this
2:07
For instance, will this put a target on your party's back unnecessarily, and is that something you want to happen
2:12
Will there be inter-party conflicts about the morality of raising the dead
2:16
What are your purposes for raising the dead? And do you have any rules for who you raise discriminately
2:23
For instance, you only raise the souls of the bad guys because you think their souls are in unrest for as long as I keep them up here
2:31
So here's further punishment for the bad guys versus raising a good soul who might just want peace and rest after their death
2:39
Or is your view of necromancy such that you're giving the opportunity for a creature to live again, to have eternal life
2:47
therefore raising only good or moral people or people that you love and care about
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That's something that you would consider versus this is a punishment. I'm using them for selfish
2:57
purposes. They have no souls, et cetera. Think about how you as a character view necromancy
3:03
and the undead before you decide what purposes you have for them. As a necromancer, do you intend to
3:10
control the living as well as the dead? Do you raise the dead for your deity, for your god
3:16
or is it for scientific research in your own edification or understanding of life and death
3:22
And finally, how would you use the undead? As servants for yourself? As a way to gain knowledge
3:28
As weapons? Consider these things. And now let's talk about the motivations you might have. As a
3:33
necromancer, you might want to take over the world. You might want to use your undead army to scare
3:38
people into living according to the way that you think they should live. You might have more noble
3:43
purposes such as protecting those who can't protect themselves because this these undead creatures are
3:49
just fodder they can just be a wall to protect those who are actually still living do you want
3:55
to use the undead as guards for a town or possibly your lair do you want to make money off of your
4:00
undead by building an army and becoming like a mercenary for hire who has this huge army behind
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them you can get anything done good way to rake in some gold along those same lines your undead
4:11
could provide menial manual labor just become a quick way for you to gain some gold or even just
4:18
help out a struggling town. You might also want to use your undead to take revenge on your enemies
4:23
or destroy an evil nation. If your character has been a loner their whole lives, you might consider
4:29
raising some undead pals just to have some friends and some companions around. Do you want to build a
4:34
network of spies or do you just want to wreak havoc among the world and create chaos and
4:40
fear. When you're building out this archetype, what purposes do you want for your undead army
4:46
To achieve this type of necromancer there are four classes that work really well for it Of course the wizard school of necromancy where spell costs are halved and they can raise extra undead with additional
4:59
hit points and damage modifiers. As a bonus, at level six this type of wizard can learn animate
5:05
dead for free. Another class you would consider is the druid, circle of spores. This is our
5:11
environmental-friendly green build, where a druid will animate fungal microbes and be able to
5:18
control these spore creatures. Similar to animate dead, but better for the environment. Of course
5:25
a warlock would be a great choice for this build as well, though it'd be on a much smaller scale
5:31
You'd be more like an undead farmer, where you're just kind of cranking these out little by little
5:36
not huge massive armies, but you've got a solid consistent process of creating undead starting at
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level nine using Dance Macabre. You can create a horde of five undead for one hour at a time
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Plus for each short rest warlocks regain their spell slots. And finally for a cleric you can
5:57
choose the death domain which will give you a lot of abilities sort of like a general of an army
6:02
It just gives you some really strong battle leader abilities. If you've got this mass amount of undead to control
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you don't just have to use them for attacking small attacks, you know, like hitting with their short sword or whatever for like four damage
6:16
That, I mean, that's worthwhile in some cases, but there are some other examples of how to use your skeleton or your zombie
6:23
or your spores on your turn. Set off traps, use them as bodyguards, as shields for yourself
6:30
Use them as pack mules to carry all of your loot or your good stuff
6:34
Use your undead to give your allies the health action, which gives them advantage on ability checks
6:40
Gain extra hit points from them by using vampiric touch. Disguise yourself as one of the undead and just kind of like covertly hide amongst them
6:50
and use like one of them as a puppet to be the spokesperson so that your enemies don't
6:55
know who truly is commanding this army. Although skeletons and zombies can't speak
7:00
if they're still fresh, they can look like regular people. And they can act like regular people if you give them a command
7:06
or if they're within your circle close enough to you where you can command them to do something
7:11
So you can make them look like just regular people hiding amongst the villagers and then suddenly, bam, attack
7:18
You can also use your undead army, sort of like a companion or a familiar
7:23
to go and gather herbal components for yourself or to go open up a treasure chest in a dungeon to go take some items while you're holding off the bad guys
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It's free labor. This build, I would say, is the most sought-after use of necromancy, and it's definitely worthwhile
7:42
There are many things that you can do as an undead lord necromancer
7:47
Our second archetype to explore is a pursuer of knowledge. Perhaps you wish to call upon the dead to gain information about life and death
7:54
There is a tenuous wisp of understanding between those two realms, and maybe your goal is to understand that a little better
8:01
This archetype usually has strengths outside of combat, in a role-playing sense, or even in your campaign development sense
8:09
And there are a few questions you might want to ask yourself. First, what is your end goal? Do you wish to seek immortality? Do you wish to sell the secrets of immortality at a great price
8:18
Or are you curious just simply about knowledge? Are you, in this build, beholden to a god? Is this your divine manifest from your deity
8:27
Is magic a tool or a lifestyle? Think using it scientifically to understand things
8:34
or it's the way that you live and breathe and move. What can you do to become a better support
8:39
in battle? And finally, do you worship death as a god? These could be things that really flesh out
8:45
your character and give you a great understanding of how you want to act in your campaign. You could
8:51
even try to optimize this build by understanding the separation between life and death is so thin
8:57
that you want to focus on healing those who are dead or close to dead. You could also be obsessed
9:03
over death, such as a serial killer or a doctor with a god complex. Or you might want to become
9:09
an advisor to powerful beings like kings or nobles, similar to Wormtongue and Lord of the Rings
9:16
So there are two specific classes that fit this build pretty well. First is the Cleric
9:21
specifically the Knowledge Domain. Seek after your god for the knowledge you wish to acquire
9:26
about life and death. You can even speak to the dead to see what they know. With your Channel
9:30
Divinity, read thoughts. You can even discover secrets from other beings in your realm. Maybe
9:36
they know some stuff but they won tell you so you can just figure it out yourself And at level five you can call upon the dead to learn secrets from them The second class to fit this is the wizard Honestly any school works for this but I think that the transmutation school actually is pretty genius for this
9:53
At level 14, you get the restore youth ability, and that's like trying to grasp at this eternal life concept
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Your level 6 spell, Soul Cage, can bind a soul to yourself for your own study
10:05
This necromancer might still animate one or two undead just to have a helping hand in gaining information or doing scientific research more or less
10:13
It would also be helpful to pick up skills like herbalism or medicine checks to help out with this
10:19
This necromancer might also try to gain control over other beings in order to figure out how they work, how they move, how to use them for your own purposes in life and death
10:28
So choose spells that work well with these motivations. The third type of necromancer to explore is the oracle
10:35
Someone who wants to develop this healthy, active relationship with the dead
10:39
You could just desire guidance from the dead by summoning them, asking them questions, getting answers
10:44
Or maybe you wish to speak to loved ones and to learn about the future. Perhaps you started this character as a fortune teller or someone with a traveling circus who tells fortunes for a penny
10:56
but has decided, I really have a talent. I think that I can use my skills for good
11:01
Or maybe you were a temple acolyte and you realized my place is beyond just this place of worship
11:07
I need to go help people in the world. But then that begs the question, why did you start adventuring
11:12
Why did you leave your humble beginnings as this oracle and choose a party to go, you know, help out or whatever
11:21
What are your motivations? Why did you leave to go help? What's your call to adventure
11:25
And what is your role in the party? likely it's going to be a support role but maybe you become an advisor to these people to help them
11:34
on their journey and then finally how do you do in combat are you okay handling yourself or are you
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someone who just kind of stays on the outskirts but like shoots from afar you should be very
11:47
knowledgeable in religions and advise the party in that regard or maybe you need some more excitement
11:52
in your life and you left wherever you were with your adventuring spirit to go behold the things
11:58
of the world. Or maybe you discovered that you have this talent for speaking to the dead
12:02
communicating with them, but in your religion that is frowned upon. So you left the deity that you
12:07
served in order to develop this talent of speaking with the dead. There are four class
12:12
builds that fit the oracle archetype. The first one is actually a barbarian. In Xanathar's Guide
12:18
everything they released a new subclass, the ancestral guardians. And although they don't have
12:22
magic for themselves, they do have access to some magic as they consult their ancestors. As a cleric
12:29
if you're just straight cleric or multi-classing as cleric, I recommend the arcana domain. Arcana
12:35
clerics gain high level wizard class spells at level 17 and additional necromancy style spells
12:42
such as spirit guardians, augury, commune, speak with dead, and astral projection. Another class you
12:49
could explore is the druid circle of shepherds. Similar to the barbarian ancestral guardian
12:54
this class calls upon spirits of nature for aid. The druid circle of twilight is also a good option
12:59
This is an unearthed arcana, last I checked, which seeks to keep the dead on their side of the veil
13:06
while still contacting them for guidance. Twilight druids can cast speak with dead without any
13:11
material components which would save you a lot in battle or in your gameplay and they can do this
13:17
once per long rest and another class option would be the warlock using the great old one as a patron
13:23
they can use contact other plane and whispers of the grave invocation to play this oracle build
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whichever class you choose focus on spells that give you guidance from otherworldly beings or from
13:36
people and creatures beyond the veil. Decide if you want to ask for spirits to help you in combat
13:42
and choose a background such as Acolyte, Cloistered Scholar, Sage, or Hermit to give you some bonus
13:48
abilities and boosts to stats. For more ideas based on this build, I have another video that
13:54
will link about playing a witch and we kind of explore the seer build of a witch and I think
14:00
that goes really well along with this oracle build. The final type of necromancer to explore
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is a homunculus crafter. As this type of necromancer, you're constructing this body and
14:11
imbuing a spirit into it. Maybe your character has lost a loved one and want to bring them back
14:18
but the only way you can think how is like a Dr. Frankenstein style of reincarnating this being
14:25
or maybe you wish to reincarnate a powerful being into a new vessel. Your goal as a homunculus
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crafter is to reincarnate one spirit into a construct or a body by whatever means necessary So ask yourself what is your purpose in creating this homunculus Is it to reunite with a lover to create a protege for yourself
14:45
such as Geppetto creating Pinocchio as a sun? That's kind of sketchy. Or do you wish to summon
14:51
a dark creature, a dark god into a being? How did this one goal that you had bring you to
14:57
adventuring with this party in your campaign? And what will you accomplish by adventuring
15:02
Are you just working to develop your skills or gain knowledge on how to create this homunculus
15:08
how to put a spirit into a body? Maybe you've tried and failed and you want to just create a more perfect homunculus vessel
15:16
And what is your alignment? You don't have to be evil per se. You can just have misguided understandings or motivations, but still like be a good person
15:27
at heart, morally, ethically. Also, your selfish desires could just corrupt you
15:32
And maybe your whole story arc is trying to find your way back into humanity
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Or maybe you really do think that you're doing God's work. So you are a lawful good or lawful neutral creature
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You may also wish to gain power by puppeteering a person of high influence, such as a king
15:53
Maybe you replace a king with your own construct. And this allows you to just puppeteer things going on in the world
15:59
Or maybe you're just creating these marionettes and you can send them out to take over the lives of small innocent people and just replace them out and then cause an uprising amongst the people based on these constructs that you have living in society
16:14
There are three specific classes for this build. The first one is the druid. Circle of spores
16:19
again, you can animate your own spores to go live amongst society. Or create bogans, which are
16:26
in, I think, 3.5 edition. They aren't really described in 5th edition, but it's like
16:31
mannequins made out of natural organic materials and then animated. Even though this doesn't exist
16:36
in 5th edition, I think you could still use some rules from 3.5 edition and just kind of
16:40
tweak it to fit into the fifth edition rules. A more obvious build for this type of necromancer
16:46
is the artificer who can actually create a homunculus servant which is skilled with tools
16:51
And finally the wizard's school of transmutation is a good option for this as well. Use seeming to
16:57
give your construct the appearance of the target that you wish to replace or manipulate. Consider
17:03
spells like clone, create homunculus, and you can do this at half the cost with the school of
17:08
transmutation. Plus you gain tinkering and alchemy skills. Also typically when you create a homunculus
17:13
in fifth edition it takes away half of your hit points but with the school transmutation for a
17:19
wizard their hit points can't be reduced so this is a great compromise of if you want to create
17:24
homunculi you don't need to reduce your hit points anymore. So additional skills to gain when you're
17:29
a homunculus crafter perhaps medical skills in case you want to go the route like Dr. Frankenstein
17:36
There's a spell in 3.5 edition called Soulbind, which doesn't exist in 5th edition
17:42
But basically when a spellcaster loses someone close to them and it's like a fresh new body
17:48
you can Soulbind the spirit into a construct like Fullmetal Alchemist, like Alphonse
17:54
He's bound to that suit of armor. This spell doesn't exist in 5th edition, but maybe your dungeon master can work something
18:01
out to create this mechanic. I would recommend having it use spell slots available, or maybe some material components
18:09
or a hefty gold cost, because this is kind of a big deal. There's also in 3.5 edition a monster living mannequins that would work well for this build
18:19
that maybe you can transpose it into 5th edition. Or the 5th edition warforged is a good option here
18:24
Also see the magic jar spell, where you can put someone into a jar
18:28
and see if maybe there's a way to use magic jar to bind the soul of a person into a construct
18:32
Also, maybe you'd like to create some golems using the manual of golems magic item
18:38
Talk to your dungeon master before you try to do some weird stuff on your own, but I'm
18:42
sure they'd be more than willing to build out this really cool idea. So there's our four builds for the necromancer
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Some of them are spooky, some of them are do-gooders, but all together there's a myriad
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of ways that you can become a necromancer in Dungeons & Dragons. I hope that discovering this video helps you think about how to enrich your campaign setting
19:01
and your character motivations for becoming a necromancer. And maybe they're just some weird ideas that you'd want to explore outside of the necromancy
19:09
that we discussed in this video. Overall, we hope you enjoyed it and we hope that you check up on flutesloot.com, our website
19:16
where we're posting articles weekly. Stay spooky and happy adventuring! Spooky scary skeletons
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