What is the best way to represent a somewhat tanky necromancy themed character?

[togapika]

I'm looking at building a 5e character themed around necromancy/undead. Doesn't have to be undead himself, but I want to be tanky enough to be in melee without worrying a huge amount. I looked at Death Cleric and Oathbreaker paladin as well as the obvious necromancy wizard, though that's probably too squishy for my taste. I don't have any particular weapon or skill that I'm after, though I like the idea of wearing armor made of bone, but since that's just flavor, I can probably find a way to do that. I would at least like more options in combat then just "move up and basic attack", though from what I've seen of 5e that issue has mostly gone away?

I don't need super high levels of optimization, I've just not played 5e much at all and don't want to run into any major pitfalls and at least pick the best way of representing my concept.

[Sherlockpwns]

You hit on the obvious two, death cleric gives you some serious firepower from cantrips and channel. It also is the most likely viable candidate for vamp touch, since you can pour your added damage into that attack and heal from it. It's a fun gimmick. At level 6 you can do it twice for 3d6 + 17, healing for half, which can help keep you in the fight.

Other than that you get all the cleric things, from damage to utility to healing. It's a very flexible class.



Oathbreaker is more the traditional Frontline. High ac, high burst damage, nice extra cc effects.

Only thing I will say is typically both of these require DM approval to use.

Oh and if you are new, I'd avoid trying to do too much with raise dead. It's a fine spell, but requires you keeping tabs on many pawns at once. You don't want to slow the game down trying to move around a dozen units. Stick with curses and blindness and negative energy, full of flavor without the micromanagement.

[Vorpalchicken]

How about a zealot barbarian, dealing bonus necrotic damage and doing stupid death tricks?

[GlenSmash!]

Artificer/Necromancer will have more survivabilty than the regular Necromancer. Especially with an Iron Defender taking some hits, or a Homunculus giving Temp HP.

[LibraryOgre]

What about a variant Eldritch Knight Fighter, swapping Necromancy in for Evocation? You're a tanky necromantic spellcaster.

[Potato_Priest]

The long death monk is rather tanky, and somewhat necromancy themed.

If you have Xanathar's guide, the grave cleric is significantly tougher than the death cleric thanks to heavy armor and making allies immune to critical hits- though their offense suffers comparatively without the cantrip feature.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

Look into both the undying and hexblade warlocks. With proper invocation and spell investments along with pact of the blade, you essentially have what your looking for. Likewise there is also the spore druid to consider. That may require a few levels of multiclassing but is doable.

[MagneticKitty]

Look at shepherd druid, reflavor all of your summons to he undead. Zombie animals, and strange zombie creatures (fey). Later elementals... Not sure how to flavor these.. Maybe zombie mages or possessed constructs. But there's potential.

[Throne12]

I just got done playing a war cleric if Odin. That created Draugr. That at the end of the campaign had changed his out look on Valhalla and was tricked by Loki to become a trickster cleric and a lich.

It was a he was a great character I built him for melee and used slots for spirit guardians, spiritual weapon, create undead, raised undead, guiding bolt, silence, command. On and last session I got to use conjure Celestial. And I got a DM wild mage that up casted it letting me summon a battle forge angle as a valkyrie.

So if you want a tanky necromancer play cleric.

You can also use spells like warding bond , aid, bless, to buff a undead.

[Damon_Tor]

Skeleton-mech.

Be a deep gnome necromancer wizard and use one of your skeletons as a mount. But here's the kicker: don't ride ON the skeleton, ride INSIDE the skeleton. Ride in its ribcage. This should give you 3/4 cover at all times, combined with mage armor and the shield spell, that should make you quite tanky indeed. The enemy will be forced to either target your skeleton first, making it's hitpoints into a pseudo-ward for you, or to target you both with AoE effects, which you resist as a gnome.

[strangebloke]

Mountain Dwarf Wizard. Take the "Heavily armored" Feat and smack people with booming blade. It's not like you actually needed high intelligence to control your undead minions, right?

...obligatory nod to the Spore Druid too.

[togapika]

What about a variant Eldritch Knight Fighter, swapping Necromancy in for Evocation? You're a tanky necromantic spellcaster.

I was originally looking at Death Cleric for Reaper and their Touch of Death, but I realized that there's only 3 necromantic cantrips so far, and channel divinity isn't usable super often. How do you think a variant like that would play? I'm wondering how useful the necromantic spells would be to an eldritch knight type character


Skeleton-mech.

Be a deep gnome necromancer wizard

Interesting idea, but I think I'd rather be more of a necromantic knight style then something squishier but protected by undead

[Damon_Tor]

I was originally looking at Death Cleric for Reaper and their Touch of Death, but I realized that there's only 3 necromantic cantrips so far, and channel divinity isn't usable super often. How do you think a variant like that would play? I'm wondering how useful the necromantic spells would be to an eldritch knight type character



Interesting idea, but I think I'd rather be more of a necromantic knight style then something squishier but protected by undead

You could always take the Abjuration school and refluff everything to fit your needs. Your Abjurer's Ward, along with your Mage Armor and Shield spell and what not, is a shell of bone that forms around you to protect you from harm. When you Counterspell someone, it's a zombie hand covering their mouth or jerking their hands away to mess up the spell.

Of course you can do all this and still use actual Necromancy spells. In fact, you can do this and still use the Skele-Mech I suggested earlier. Layers upon layers of defenses, all without sacrificing your wizard progression.

[Dimers]

I would've suggested Long Death monk too, though that's tougher in endgame than it starts out.

I also recommend the revenant sub-race from the Gothic UA, especially on a dwarf base.

[LibraryOgre]

I was originally looking at Death Cleric for Reaper and their Touch of Death, but I realized that there's only 3 necromantic cantrips so far, and channel divinity isn't usable super often. How do you think a variant like that would play? I'm wondering how useful the necromantic spells would be to an eldritch knight type character


Not a clue. It just seemed the most obvious combination for a tanky necromancer.

[Vogie]

Here's a Whackadoo idea - Primeval Guardian Ranger 5-6 / Death Cleric X, reflavoring the guardian form as some sort of undead or eldritch form. You'll get:

Medium Armor
Extra attack with additional 1d6 piercing and 1d8 necrotic damage at levels Ranger 3/ Cleric 8, respectively
Reach on all attacks in your transformed state
Free THP each turn in your transformed state (2 if you stop at Ranger 5, 3 if you go to Ranger 6)
Access to Necromancy spells through Cleric spellcasting, and everything key'd off wisdom.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Somewhat tanky Necromancy Character? Bone Knight. Unfortunately, it's from Morgrave's Miscellany and a lot of the Eberron stuff is more like UA content than anything playtested-- the balance isn't always great (though Bone Knight wasn't better balanced than most of it, unlike, say Warforged).

I don't know if they're going to be in the new official Eberron book or not.