Necro minions

[DevonMeep]

Is there somewhere it says how many creatures a Wizard can control at once? Or is It just as many as the animate dead and create undead spells create per cast?

[WickerNipple]

There's no limit. Keep burning spell slots and you can get a whole heckuva lot.

[JackPhoenix]

The main limit is that you must keep casting the spells just to keep them under your control. After some search, with level 20 necromancer with Animate Dead as the Signature Spell, and short resting each hour to recharge it, the limit seems to be: 54 skeletons/zombies

About 32 additional skeletons/zombies if you constantly make short rests

6 ghouls

2 ghasts/wights (+up to 24 zombies created by wights)

3 additional ghasts/wights or 2 mummies (+ up to 36 zombies created by wights)

1 ghast/mummy/wigh controlled via Command Undead (+ up to 12 zombies created by wight)

according to http://www.vampirecounts.net/threads/dnd-5-ed-necromancy.27844/

Zombies from Finger of Death stay under your control indefinitely, though

[Sigreid]

The main limit is that you must keep casting the spells just to keep them under your control.

Yeah, but if you're not particularly ethical you can always create a whole bunch you have no intention of maintaining control over and ruin a town or city's day. Provided you have access to enough corpses.

[Blood of Gaea]

Is there somewhere it says how many creatures a Wizard can control at once? Or is It just as many as the animate dead and create undead spells create per cast?

Consider a Sorcerer as well, the fact that they can Twin Spell Finger of Death, means they will gain a large scale permanent army faster.

Either way, if you're looking for some heavy hitters in your army, consider using a few 9th level Planar Bindings and have the bound creature lead your undead into battle for you.

[MaxWilson]

Consider a Sorcerer as well, the fact that they can Twin Spell Finger of Death, means they will gain a large scale permanent army faster.

Either way, if you're looking for some heavy hitters in your army, consider using a few 9th level Planar Bindings and have the bound creature lead your undead into battle for you.

Once you start playing seriously with Planar Binding, undead minions quickly become superfluous. I would recommend half a dozen Nycaloths for the Darkness + Devil's Sight combo, but watch out! they can Dispel their own Planar Bindings and become free-willed*! (For similar reasons they are a pain to bind in the first place. The two feasible routes I know of are True Polymorph and Feeblemind, and Feeblemind is easier.) Invisible Stalkers and Earth/Air Elementals are easier to get and still pretty useful.

Even at high levels you'll probably have a wight bodyguard (Controlled permanently via your 14th level feature) and a few zombies (animated by the wight, or by you using Finger of Death) just for flavor and fun, but you may well cease bothering to do a daily Animate Dead routine.

Two more quick notes:

1.) You can animate a horde of skeletons and drop them in a demiplane as a pocket contingency plan/Doomsday Device. I believe you can get about 150 skeletons in the demiplane at 20th level with about two days' of work. That allows you to unleash 150 uncontrolled skeletons' worth of bad news with a single 8th level spell. (I recommend disguising yourself somehow via Disguise Self or Mislead before opening the door.)

2.) You can create wights and Geas them to serve you instead of renewing the Create Undead spell. The 5d10 damage from a geas may or may not be enough to get them to actually obey you, but at least they are charmed and cannot attack you.

* Depending on how you got them in the first place, Dispelling the Planar Binding might also banish them back to their home plane. But if you got them from a True Polymorph, their home plane is right where they are already.

[Desamir]

At 20th Level:

3rd x 3 animate undead (4 each) = 12 skeletons/zombies
signature spell 1x animate undead = 4 skeletons/zombies
4th x 3 animate undead (6 each) = 18 skeletons/zombies
5th x 3 animate undead (8 each) = 24 skeletons/zombies
6th x 2 (3 each) = 6 ghouls
7th x 2, 1x finger of death = 1 zombie per day, 1x create undead = 4 ghouls
8th x 1 create undead = 2 wights (can control 12 zombies each) = 24 zombies
9th x 1 create undead = 3 wights (can control 12 zombies each) = 36 zombies



Command Undead Ability, Mummy Lord (only has 11 INT) his spells:

3rd x 3 animate undead (4 each) = 12 skeletons/zombies
4th x 3 animate undead (6 each) = 18 skeletons/zombies
5th x 2 animate undead (8 each) = 16 skeletons/zombies
6th x 1 animate undead (10 each) = 10 skeletons/zombie



Arcane Recovery:

5th x 2 animate undead (8 each) = 16 skeletons/zombies



For a grand total of:

1 mummy lord
5 wights
10 ghouls
60 zombies (controlled by wights)
146 skeletons or zombies (56 of which are controlled by the mummy lord)
plus 1 zombie per day from finger of death



Source (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?462738-Max-Army-of-Darkness-Necromancer-Math)

[Kurt Kurageous]

I actually made this into a campaign.

Some heretofore unknown necromancer discovers a mineral (called revenore!) that allows the necromancer to retain control of undead without recasting. Obviously this is a big threat, but...

He died before he could overrun the world. His underlings decided on a new plan. Just get rich/comfortable by using tireless undead to tunnel into places and steal stuff. Ironic, grave-robbed corpses robbing graves...

The revenore has an area effect and allows an empathic link.

Given infinite staying power, the next generation of necromancers start reanimating things that no one else would waste the time on just to gather the impressions they give of humanoid activity. Insects, dead trees, a dead mouse, the rope you use to lift water out of the well... the list is endless. They gain intelligence about whats going on, and then acts accordingly. To be discovered is to get unwanted attention.

Everything works great until the undermined graveyard of a major city collapses into a sinkhole that reveals...no corpses. The graveyard owners are mortified as many nobles are/were buried there...and need the culprits brought to justice or at least stopped.