Necromancers

[Holocron Coder]

So... how do?

I have started a campaign where the "big bad" is a necromancer starting out multiple levels ahead of the players, and he will be leveling at slightly-less speed (allowing them to catch up eventually). I prefer to have some sort of crunch to back the guy, if it comes down to it, but I'm not above homebrew or having giving him access to 'item of necro'.

But either way, is there really any support for necromancers in 5e, or a guide to build a decent one?

[CNagy]

If he's going to end up with a lair, you can give him an item that mimics the effect of the previous edition spell Invisibility to Undead. Then he won't have to actively control everything in his lair in order to move around without danger. Necromancers are pretty bad news for a lot of parties, though, because they can create mass amounts of undead which are all fortified by the Necromancer's 6th level arcane tradition feature.

[Holocron Coder]

From what I've seen, though, all he can do is make skeletons and zombies. Ghouls don't even kick in until much later levels, and by then the ghoul CR is low compared to the party

[Demonic Spoon]

There is no reason why you need to build your big bad as a player character. In fact, because of bounded accuracy, a single high-level PC (your big bad) will never be threatening to a group of mid-level PCs.

Instead of trying to build a high level PC, just create an NPC that has the abilities that are appropriate for it, and figure out what its CR should be per the guidelines in the DMG. That means that your necromancer should be able to create whatever kinds of creatures are narratively appropriate, whether or not the necromancer Wizard subclass is capable of creating those things. Maybe this is because he knows some ancient rituals, or maybe he has some powerful magical artifact, or some inborn power that PCs just don't have.


and by then the ghoul CR is low compared to the party

A horde of ghouls can still be pretty powerful against a high-level party if there are enough of them. Remember that characters without CON save proficiency (so, most non-warriors) are still very much threatened by that DC 10 CON-save to avoid being paralyzed. Again, bounded accuracy.

[CNagy]

It's the numbers that make the threat. The Necromancer has time to raise entire tombs, most of which do not have to be under his command to be useful. A group of Zombies screening a group of Skeleton archers, all of them with increased HP and damage, can ruin the day of a party many levels higher. Especially if you equip them with armor.

But you might have the Necromancer entering into alliances with intelligent undead, as well, in order to have creatures present that are challenge level appropriate. In fact, the Necromancer might end up with the undead equivalent of a party; free-willed and intelligent undead who benefit by banding together around a (currently) mortal Necromancer. The guy could be making a play for eventual lichdom.

[Sigreid]

There appears to be a conscious decision that was made to make it outside the normal rules to allow players to do this. If I wanted to do it, the big bad would have access to rituals that allow for the building of an undead army. Just be careful about letting them fall into your player's hands.

[Sception]

There are not set mechanical rules for PC's raising and controlling armies of the undead in the same way that there are not set mechanical rules for PC's raising and leading any other sort of army. D&D is geared towards party scale adventures and dungeon delves, and such large scale military ventures don't really fit into that default. It's not that large scale D&D campaigns or adventures are unthinkable, but they belong more in their own 'mass battle' supplement with mechanics specifically tailored to such things. PC necromancer control of armies of undead likewise belong in such a mass battle context, and the existing necromancy spells are geared towards party scale adventures. Within that context, they are actually quite powerful, again thanks to bounded accuracy, aid actions, etc. Skeleton bows may provide pretty weak attacks, and the skeletons themselves are very vulnerable to area damage, but a third level spell per day, even one that can be shut down, which provides multiple extra attacks per round, all day, without concentration, with only one bonus action per combat (not even per round) to activate? That's a pretty big deal in this edition, so long as the game is sticking to that party-scale focus.

The takeaway, however, is that what you want - an npc animating armies of the dead, with servants that operate semi-independently and are on their own respectable challenges to the party - is going to require you to reach outside of the mechanics available to player characters. While PC vs PC encounters are more functional in 5th than in 4th, in the end the mechanics of 5th edition still by default rely on a pretty big divide between the rules for PCs and NPCs.

Basically, the servants you want your big bad to control? Just give them to him. You can give him unique rituals or some sort of artifact to justify it, but unless your party includes a necromancer asking 'why can't I do that', chances are they won't notice or ask or care, because everyone understands that for the campaign to proceed the villain has to have access to resources that players just can't individually emulate.


As for PC necro support in 5e, there's necro themed specializations for Wizard (in the PHB), and Paladin (in the DMB), both of which grant means of controlling undead below their level that they didn't create, but only temporarily. Classical necromancy (ie creating/controlling undead) spells are also available to Cleric, Bard, Warlock, and even Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster, though not full necromantic specialties (death domain cleric doesn't really count, as it adds nothing to their ability to create or control undead). Classical necromancy spells are very limited in 5e thus far - just Animate Dead (which only makes normal skeletons and zombies, and requires house ruling even to make normal variants like skeleton warhorses) and Create Undead, both of which, again, are quite useful in the normal adventuring context, but won't be overwhelming by any stretch.

Beyond that, not much. Nothing really in backgrounds, feats, or races to specifically push a necromantic theme. I haven't noticed any other spells that create undead, or any at all that buff ones you've already created. So no, there aren't really guides on optimizing necromantic characters in 5e yet, because there really aren't options enough to warrant that at this point. The few necromantic combos exist (command undead to create wights, have those wights create skeletons; have a necromancer specialist create melee undead and then have those undead fight within an oathbroken paladin's aura for stacking buffs to damage, etc) are kind of obvious and don't require a guide to elaborate on them.


On the one hand, this is to be expected. PC necromancy is rather off the beaten trail for D&D. It's always been more of an evil party / npc sort of thing, and those aren't the assumed default that you would expect to receive much focus in core products. It's always been the sort of thing we needed to wait for expansion material to really flesh out (though sadly in 4th edition that expansion material never came).

On the other hand, expansion material in 5e has been so slow, so thin on the ground, that I don't think we're going to be seeing them really get around to fleshing out PC necromancy, well, ever. Maybe one of those poorly written, clearly untested online 'dragon' articles.

Certainly nothing like 3rd edition's necromantic cornucopia. 3rd ed really was an outlier that way, in that PCs and NPCs were meant to function on the same mechanics, so anything an NPC could do, including commanding entire armies of the undead, a PC could do just as well. Templated animate dead, summoned ethereals, chain-controlled spawners, rebuke/command, command undead spell, corpse crafting, spell stitching, haunt shifting, awaken undead, undead lieutenant, polymorphed or planar bound corpses, multiple necro themed class options, prestige classes, and even the dread necromancer base class, there was just so much to draw from that you could have entire necromantic player parties all doing different and interesting things with their undead puppets, and between direct and indirect control (ie, gather necromantic apprentices via leadership who in turn 'command undead' your own spare creations), it was easy for even a single necromantic PC in their mid teens to command necromantic organizations numbering in the hundreds of individuals and thousands of hit dice. Without indirect control, dozens of individuals with hundreds of cumulative hit dice instead, and that's already utterly campaign busting for any normal D&D game.

Ah, those were the days. Anyway, I wouldn't expect a return of that in 5th edition, because again, the designers aren't trying to write PC rules to justify NPC narrative roles.

[SharkForce]

i believe the traditional method of giving an NPC abilities that the PCs aren't allowed to have is to give the NPC an artifact.

as a rule, even the 'good' artifacts have absolutely awful drawbacks that nobody in their right mind would ever want to risk. so just give your NPC an evil artifact with a terrible cost (making an unfavourable deal with orcus, or maybe the person using it will slowly decay into a zombie with no chance of being restored, a requirement to sacrifice something important to them, etc).

you can also do something similar with a ritual; have a ritual where if you sacrifice a family member to orcus, you can gain control of a mummy for a year and a day, or whatever.

also, if you're looking for something before create ghoul, the geas spell is a fairly effective means of coercing weaker undead to serve you.

[Malifice]

From what I've seen, though, all he can do is make skeletons and zombies. Ghouls don't even kick in until much later levels, and by then the ghoul CR is low compared to the party

Dont stat him up as a PC.

He can make whatever undead is good for the story.

Done.