Necromancer Build?

[Jaxter Gronaldi]

I need help with a good Necromancer build, using stats from PHB. I have UA and core. Any advice? I'm looking for a undead army kind of feel. Wizard maybe? I dunno.

[NecroDancer]

The wizard is probably the "strongest" option but the death cleric (DMG) has more versatility.

However a lore bard is the most tubular necromancers.

[Sariel Vailo]

I got a minion for you
http://mfov.magehandpress.com/2017/05/flesh-sculptor.html?m=1 flesh sculptor

[Naanomi]

Necromancer Wizard is probably the best minion-oriented caster. You can use almost all of your Spell slots on your preference of Animate and Create Undead (I honestly just prefer more and more skeletons); and you'd still have access to most of the good rituals.

Race doesn't matter much... yuan-ti can wander around with their minions unharmed in cloudkill; High-Elves get four extra hours a night to clean up and disguise their minions; V Human can pick up a relevant feat (Alert, so you can be more sure of giving your minions orders near the beginning of each round?)

Pick up Fabricate and Blacksmithing Tools or Gemcutting Tools (the former for equipment, the latter for Material Componants for Create Undead); it will save you a bundle in the long run. Also consider Land Vehicle Proficiency; hauling around bodies and bones for when you need them.

When you get high enough level, you can snag a perminant minion with command Undead; providing they are stupid enough. Three really stand out to me:
-Ghost, for being incorporeal and all the scouting benefits that has; and possession of enemies is fun
-Mummy Lord, for having access to spells and legendary actions
-White Dracolich: unbeatable in power overall; and even Ancient White Dragons are stupid enough to keep on a leash

The concept works well, and is quite powerful, but it does slow the game down a lot; make sure. The GM and other players are OK with that

[Lombra]

Definately wizard, all its perks work towards building stronger undeads.

[SharkForce]

Necromancer Wizard is probably the best minion-oriented caster. You can use almost all of your Spell slots on your preference of Animate and Create Undead (I honestly just prefer more and more skeletons); and you'd still have access to most of the good rituals.

Race doesn't matter much... yuan-ti can wander around with their minions unharmed in cloudkill; High-Elves get four extra hours a night to clean up and disguise their minions; V Human can pick up a relevant feat (Alert, so you can be more sure of giving your minions orders near the beginning of each round?)

Pick up Fabricate and Blacksmithing Tools or Gemcutting Tools (the former for equipment, the latter for Material Componants for Create Undead); it will save you a bundle in the long run. Also consider Land Vehicle Proficiency; hauling around bodies and bones for when you need them.

When you get high enough level, you can snag a perminant minion with command Undead; providing they are stupid enough. Three really stand out to me:
-Ghost, for being incorporeal and all the scouting benefits that has; and possession of enemies is fun
-Mummy Lord, for having access to spells and legendary actions
-White Dracolich: unbeatable in power overall; and even Ancient White Dragons are stupid enough to keep on a leash

The concept works well, and is quite powerful, but it does slow the game down a lot; make sure. The GM and other players are OK with that

at 15th level, you can use feeblemind to *make* an undead creature stupid enough :)

(also, bonus marks if you can bring along an oathbreaker paladin somehow).

[Chugger]

Necrodancer, your safety dance riff is amazing! I'm still laughing! :smallbiggrin:

[Naanomi]

at 15th level, you can use feeblemind to *make* an undead creature stupid enough :)

(also, bonus marks if you can bring along an oathbreaker paladin somehow).
I prefer for my minions to 'communicate in some intelligible way'...

[Quoxis]

I prefer for my minions to 'communicate in some intelligible way'...

Only so long as it takes your minions to form labor unions and demand fair work hours and paid vacancy.

Jokes aside:
Necro wizard is all about building undead armies, gets more for less and makes them stronger by themselves.
Death cleric is mechanically more about being better at offensive necromancy, as in dealing necrotic damage, but they can easily be necromancers AND use their class specific buffing spells (bless as the most obvious example) on their undead minions - which are objectively weaker than the wizard's, but depending on what you use your spells on you can be at least as efficient with them.

Now imagine if you multiclassed those two... :smallwink:

[Sir cryosin]

at 15th level, you can use feeblemind to *make* an undead creature stupid enough :)

(also, bonus marks if you can bring along an oathbreaker paladin somehow).

Find a high level oath breaker paladin and simulacrum.

[MrFahrenheit]

Necromancer wizard, definitely. Even at late game stages, your minions possessing the capability to help all of your allies (and I mean all of them...you'll have enough minions) is completely worth it.

There are two ways that I see you can go with this:

Option A: The "regular" necromancer...take whatever spells make sense, especially being sure to take necromantic school spells for the boosts they give you.

Option B: The "I'm a DM in my other campaign" necromancer...load your spellbook with those necromantic spells like with option A, but always be sure to take whatever summoning spells are available to complement your undead army, before rounding out your spellbook with whatever else. Be a real zookeeper with this build.

[Twizzly513]

I'm playing an evil campaign right now, where I am playing a necromancer wizard. If you want minions, wizard is the only way to go. That said, I will happily share my undead army plans with you, beside only build options.

I'm using skeletons because they actually have a bit of intelligence in them (like picking up their weapons when they drop them or actually opening a door instead of slamming the door) and a higher AC. Skeletons can also use bows, which is nice.
You can animate as much as you want, but you can't control it all, so grab plenty of bags of holding and portable holes filled with uncontrolled undead to drop onto enemy troops from above if you cast Fly or have a flying carpet. Portable hole has to be put on a surface I believe, so bags of holding may be preferred, but the portable holes can be used for long term storage since they hold more.
If you kill a humanoid use the spell Finger of Death, they are a zombie PERMANENTLY under your control. Abuse that, for sure.
You could seek out some golem manuals to supplement the undead in your army. Your DM might also allow the creation of animated armor/helmed horrors or shield guardians.
As far as your command undead, some good ideas are upthread. I considered keeping a vampire or death knight under Feeblemind constantly since they are friendly to me from Command Undead, and Feeblemind says that they can recognize friends and follow and protect them. A vampire could make vampire spawn, although you wouldn't be able to really control them. CR 5 is tempting, though...
You could also have a bag of holding/portable hole filled with small living creatures like squirrels or commoners, then use Fireball or (preferably, since it's necromancy and you'd heal more) Circle of Death to heal a ton from your Grim Harvest feature.
A couple Pearls of Power can give you a small boost in animating/control asserting if you have free attunement slots.
Definitely also become a lich, and become a half-dragon for good measure. You could put a vampire under a Geas spell to turn you into a full fledged vampire if you feel like you want to do that, too.

I hope I brought something to the table you hadn't thought of, happy harvests :smallbiggrin:

[IrishCyborg]

I'm playing an evil campaign right now, where I am playing a necromancer wizard. If you want minions, wizard is the only way to go. That said, I will happily share my undead army plans with you, beside only build options.

I'm using skeletons because they actually have a bit of intelligence in them (like picking up their weapons when they drop them or actually opening a door instead of slamming the door) and a higher AC. Skeletons can also use bows, which is nice.
You can animate as much as you want, but you can't control it all, so grab plenty of bags of holding and portable holes filled with uncontrolled undead to drop onto enemy troops from above if you cast Fly or have a flying carpet. Portable hole has to be put on a surface I believe, so bags of holding may be preferred, but the portable holes can be used for long term storage since they hold more.
If you kill a humanoid use the spell Finger of Death, they are a zombie PERMANENTLY under your control. Abuse that, for sure.
You could seek out some golem manuals to supplement the undead in your army. Your DM might also allow the creation of animated armor/helmed horrors or shield guardians.
As far as your command undead, some good ideas are upthread. I considered keeping a vampire or death knight under Feeblemind constantly since they are friendly to me from Command Undead, and Feeblemind says that they can recognize friends and follow and protect them. A vampire could make vampire spawn, although you wouldn't be able to really control them. CR 5 is tempting, though...
You could also have a bag of holding/portable hole filled with small living creatures like squirrels or commoners, then use Fireball or (preferably, since it's necromancy and you'd heal more) Circle of Death to heal a ton from your Grim Harvest feature.
A couple Pearls of Power can give you a small boost in animating/control asserting if you have free attunement slots.
Definitely also become a lich, and become a half-dragon for good measure. You could put a vampire under a Geas spell to turn you into a full fledged vampire if you feel like you want to do that, too.

I hope I brought something to the table you hadn't thought of, happy harvests :smallbiggrin:

I just read this, I love having a bag of squirrels to kill for hp! I'm so going to do that!

[druid91]

So, as mentioned above. Necromancer Wizard is Key. Not really in the mood for a solid guide, so here's a few random tips.

1.) Skeletons are your Offense, Zombies are your defense. A front line of Zombies in armor backed up by Skeletons with either Bows or Spears is better than either alone.

2.) NEVER animate more undead than you can safely control. And also never Animate Undead first thing in the morning. You want to be able to wake up properly before having to worry about your undead going renegade. The time limit is 24 hours, so if you animate them at 2 AM monday, you had better be able to maintain at 2 AM tuesday.

3.) Wights are totally worth it if/when you get Eighth level spells. But otherwise Create Undead is pretty much a trap. Ghouls are not enough of a force multiplier to be worth the cost of entry. However, casting it as an eighth level spell nets you two Wights, who are good on their own, but also possess the ability to create and command up to 12 zombies apiece as long as you can stomach feeding them victims.

4.) If/when you get NINTH level spells. Invest in Geas, then use your control undead on things like Wraiths, and force them to submit to a ninth level Geas, commanding them to serve you faithfully. They won't be quite as willing to march into the dragons den as other things, however Wraiths can create and control Spectres. With a sufficiently large body of Wraiths secured away somewhere in your stereotypical mausoleum of death, you can field a sizable contingent of Spectres, and all the Wraiths need is a supply of freshly killed innocents to replenish losses.

[Eragon123]

I'm going to go against the grain a little bit and go into detail on a build that while mentioned has not gotten the attention it deserves IMO.

Lore Bard.

Well, there are many stories about a musical instrument being able to raise the dead and get them dancing on graves again.
Quite notably for tabletop I believe that it is one of the sample campaigns in Call of Cthulhu.

Now, there are three pillars in being a necromancer.

1. Raising the dead.
We use spells for this step.
Lore Bards learn these levels of spells outside of the usual bard spell list.
3: Animate Dead.
3:
5: Dance Macabre
5:
7 (6): Create undead
7: Finger of Death
9: Gate
9:

The above spells are all we need for the first pillar. Because now we have our army.

Pillar 2 enhancing the undead.
This includes anything from equipping them, buffing them, and making sure you use them in ways that maximize their effectiveness.
The necromancer does this through class abilities. You can attain much the same results through the feat Inspiring Leader. It may not cover the multitudes of undead but it does help with an (un)healthy chunk of it. Increasing their damage is a bit harder. But I did find a solution.

3: Animate Dead.
3: Crusader's Mantle
5: Dance Macabe
5:
7 (6): Create undead
7: Finger of Death
9:Gate
9:

This breaks one of my personal taboo's about poaching spells, but since I don't hear about this spell a lot online, I'm just going to assume that most paladin's forgot that they have it. >_>
This spell does have some limitations, namely 30ft radius and concentration; but if you want some (ironically typed) damage to try and compete with the wizard, here's how you can do it.

You can choose your expertise to be in smithing if you want to try your hand at making arms and armor for you horde but that depends on your DM.

And don't forget you CAN also spend bardic inspiration on your undead allies. Maybe on the ones who pull out of a hard situation and actually earn names.

Overall, since you can only concentrate on a single spell at a time, its hard to buff your entire army. Which leads us into the third pillar.

Debuff the other side.
A debuff on the opposing side acts like a buff to your side. And when you force multiply that across a small horde, that can be a lot of milage for your spell slot. Thankfully the bard spell list is FULL of these, its actually one of their original niches they are supposed to fill. One of my favorite spells for this is Blindness/Deafness and its already a freaking Bard Spell. You might want to be careful with some common debuffs (like Hypnotic Pattern) as undead usually have poor saves, but if you can get yourself properly positioned with the right spells, oh boy you will have plenty of spare bodies.

As for tactics, and which undead are best to pick and stuff, I mostly agree with the wisdom of the board above me. Have a mixture of undead. Be careful with your selection of undead especially at higher levels. I agree that necromancy shouldn't be done in the morning, it's clearly night work. Plus when you are done you have PLENTY of guards. They may have crappy perception but with enough dice they will get the job done.

Now if you are looking at the blank spell slots I left behind, well, those are free for the player to fill out. Maybe people want counterspell REALLY bad (to prevent enemy spellcasters from fireballing your babies) or maybe pick up Demiplane to store the raucous undead until they can be properly unleashed. Either way I just filled the list with the starting point of what I would pick.

Have fun (forcibly) raising people's spirits (and bodies).

[Quoxis]

How appropriate to perform thread necromancy on a necromancy thread.

[Millface]

I see so many of these...

For anyone who hasn't read one yet and clicks this to look at it:

There is no good necromancer build for 90% of campaigns, period.

You either go off-wizard and don't start summoning until level 9 or so, and your summons are paper, or you go wizard and you need 5+ minions to come anywhere remotely close to the DPR you could do with any other wizard, and at that number of minions you're going to start having trouble fitting them in dungeons, you can't bring them inside the vast majority of civilized areas, and you become a target for every do-gooding paladin who hears your name.

Not to mention the fact that every other player at the table would hate you even when the stars align and you have your army where you need your army when you need them and have to take 15 minutes on your turn in combat to roll a hundred sets of attack rolls and the subsequent damage rolls that come with it on top of the time it takes to maneuver that many minions on the grid.

I love the idea of a necromancer as much as the next edgelord, they just don't work in 5e. If you want to play a summoning class, play a Circle of the Shepherd Druid and summon animals and fey. By 7th level you already have Conjure Animals, Giant Insect, and Conjure Woodland Beings, plus the most relevant CoS abilities to make them stronger. Then, if you want, you can max druid or take 13 levels of whatever the hell other casting class you want. Hell, you could even take Necromancer Wizard if your sessions are 10 hours long and you have the time to spare.