Best spells for a Necromancer

[Klaus Teufel]

I'm playing a (deep)gnome necromancer, 5th level. What are the best/most thematic spells for him? Int 20, and I'm letting the party Warlock cast the Fireballs.

[Theron_the_slim]

If we go thematic, of course almost everything from the Necromancy School comes to mind.

Since you usually are using animate dead at least 1-2 times a day, you also shouldn´t prioritise other lvl 3 spells until you have more higher lvl spell slots to spend (which fits pretty well with your intentions of giving up the fireball thrower role)

If you want to go for the tricky/creepy guy (which I assume if I read gnome necromancer), 1 Spell comes especially to mind.
Grease.
The main idea is that it works very well with your Zombies, if you want to overwheelm your foes. Haveing 4-8 Zombies making grapple/help actions is (even with a +1 modifier pretty promising), and Grease helps with getting them prone (also, as long as they are grappled, they can´t move out of the greased zone, so even if they manage to save at first, the monsters in the zone have to repeat the save on every turn.
And the real beauty is, it doesn´t require concentration. So you have a pretty decent chance to take out 1-2 creatures for several rounds without concentration and further actions.

As additional spells I would suggest Tashas hideous laughter, Crown of Madness, Hold person or Phantasmal Force. (Just to put your concentration to work for that sweet extra crowd control)

With that and the usual stuff, some utility and Mage Armor, Shield, Counterspell, maybe Misty Step (here a little bit weaker than usuall, since you need your bonus action for Zombie commands), you should be good to go.

You are a mean little gnome ;)

[LichPlease]

It's an 8th level spell but Demiplane can be fun. Cast it on the ground and store your undead by having them drop in. Cast it on the ground later as a trap for a medium sized creature to fall through and be swarmed or cast it at a ceiling to have it rain undead.

[Dalebert]

Dragon Breath or Flaming Sphere are ways to take advantage of your kill-with-spell-heal ability since you can keep reusing them to deal dmg and a cantrip won't do it. You can have undead grapple and shove things into a flaming sphere.

Eventually you're going to want Seeming for when you're in a town adventure and want to keep your undead with you without freaking out the locals and having them attack your undead or even have you arrested.

Vampiric Touch is another nice spell for healing even though the dmg isn't great. You get the standard healing plus an extra 9 points if something dies from it. You can have a skeleton pull you back after an attack to get a free disengage. Or else do it while mounted for a similar benefit. Since you're a gnome, you can have a cheap medium sized mount which can go just about anywhere. Take advantage of that.

[Throne12]

Dragons breath casted on a skeleton is nice and cool to Imagine.

[The Jack]

Mending, prestidigation and mold earth.

Mending and prestidigation help you maintain your army. Prestidigation lets you clean them and avoid rust, mending lets you repair equipment and repair broken skeletons so you don't need to replace losses as often. Go with these two and your skeletons can have nice equipment.

Mold earth...
First, It's a quick spell for storing skeletons. Dig pit, put them in pit, bury pit, release...very situational. If you're mobile, you'll want a box or something, but for safety you should probably bury that box...

Second, with an amount of corpses, you're basically playing general. Mold earth will let you build cover, high ground, bridges or whatever for your dead group. In one casting, you can increase the AC of numerous warriors under your command.

[Asmotherion]

In 5e? Good luck with that. They had such a good spell list in 3.x that now they are a shell of their former selves.

Still, if you're cool with that:

-Chill Touch is, in my oppinion the best non Eldritch Blast Attack Roll cantrip.

-Animate Dead can, given time, give you the most interesting minionmancy spell in the game. It also comes with an "evil" label, so milenial snowflakes will criticize you for using it. Decide if that's a bonus or minus in game.

-Danse Macabre. Oven Ready army of undead, only more powerful than your regular minions. Yes please.

-Create Undead. If you think it's not worth the trade off, I have news for you: the undead you create, can make their own spawn, and since you control their creator, guess who their spawn answear to? That's right, Necromancer Badass. Spread the pleague like there's no tomorow. And you thought the title "Create Undead" was meant just for your own creation.

-False Life: It's no Armor of Agathys, but Temporary HP are always good for preventing you from getting yourself killed. Depending on your DM they may prevent you from rolling for concentration, which is also gold if it aplies (a very usual homerule).

-Bestow Curse (with a slot of 5th level or higher). Not only you don't need concentration anymore (thus, a melee attack won't break it), but some of this options can really criple the opponent. It's double edge, since you have to go melee to deliver it, but after that it's amazing.

-Eyebite: Fail a save and fall unconsious? that's what finger of death promises to do, and fails to deliver! More than that, you can rince repeat for a whole minute to more than one creature. All hail the real finger of death disguised as "eyebite".

-Clone: Are you and your party a fun of dying? If not, this is the perfect spell for you.

[Klaus Teufel]

These are great suggestions, although remember my character is only 5th level, and won't get Eyebite or the like for a while yet!

[AttilatheYeon]

Stinking cloud. You're undead minions are immune to it, the baddies prolly aren't. Plus when the party complains about the spell, you can blame it on the zombies! 😉