Necromancers sleeping on negative energy flood spell?

[PallyBass]

Does negative energy flood have some juicy potential for creating zombies out of any non-humanoid creatures? Based on the wording of the spell online it reads that statistics for the zombie are in the Monster Manual http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/spell:negative-energy-flood . So is the spell limited to reanimating only beholder zombie, ogre zombie, and humanoid zombie? Or can it reanimate any creature that could reasonably become undead? What would you rule/ houserule at your table? I know there are templates for zombie in the DM guide and the idea of being able to zombify something like a dinosaur/ dragon/giant/etc would be awesome! Though the undead is not controlled so you would need a Oath breaker/ Necromancy Wizard to take control of them with their class abilities.

Also the second part sounds like an excellent buff of THP onto an undead minion. It does not state a time limit for how long the THP lasts so I assume until depleted or they long rest (which being undead maybe they don't need to?)

[Segev]

It's anemic damage for its spell level, and, as mentioned, grants no control. It can't be upcast. And it doesn't animate anything at all if it doesn't kill the target, so you can't even start with a corpse and use it.

It's just not a very good spell, unfortunately.

[PallyBass]

It's anemic damage for its spell level, and, as mentioned, grants no control. It can't be upcast. And it doesn't animate anything at all if it doesn't kill the target, so you can't even start with a corpse and use it.

It's just not a very good spell, unfortunately.


Agreed the damage is very low for a 5th level spell so it's only use would be as a "finishing blow" to a creature on deaths door to get the reanimation effect. What I want to know is how broad the scope is for what creatures can be reanimated when killed by the spell because I am uncertain based on the wording.

[Keltest]

Agreed the damage is very low for a 5th level spell so it's only use would be as a "finishing blow" to a creature on deaths door to get the reanimation effect. What I want to know is how broad the scope is for what creatures can be reanimated when killed by the spell because I am uncertain based on the wording.

I think in general its just supposed to make a Zombie stat block zombie, no matter what you kill with it. DM's discretion might allow for other flavors of zombie.

[TaiLiu]

5e restricts the capabilities of PC necromancers pretty severely. You can make a zombie out of literally any non-undead creature, but as others have mentioned, you don't control it (and there's no control undead spell or anything) and it's just a zombie, no matter what you animate. So it wouldn't be especially powerful anyway.

[PallyBass]

Bah! making a medium CR 1/4 zombie out of a dinosaur is lame. It would be better to upcast animate dead to make more. It's not worth using Negative energy flood then, the ability to make a unique and powerful zombie was the main sell for me on this spell.

[Schwann145]

Bah! making a medium CR 1/4 zombie out of a dinosaur is lame. It would be better to upcast animate dead to make more. It's not worth using Negative energy flood then, the ability to make a unique and powerful zombie was the main sell for me on this spell.

Welcome to 5e Necromancy. They went out of their way to make it lame. :(

[Leon]

Necrotic Water Beds ~ how to make a killing in the bed market