A search for the impossible

If there is one credo that rings true for even the most powerful, it is that all mortals must die - whether sooner or later. These sinister figures, however, prefer later over sooner: necromancers are those who have somehow learned to manipulate the essence of life itself.

Through their techniques, they take it from those they deem undeserving, control it to their own liking, and sometimes even give it to those who could further their efforts. Most necromancers live their life in pursuit of immortality, whether for themselves or a loved one. Though they live by the credo of inescapable mortality, the ultimate goal that their skills are a means towards is often to beat that exact clock they know so well ticks for everyone.

A Unique Talent

Contrary to popular belief, necromancers are not necessarily evil-doers, nor do all of them seek to subjugate others. In fact, some of them seek to use their powers for good: a poor understanding of their skills as well as their use of frightening undead monstrosities has simply led to a more generalized fear of their capacities. In reality, necromancers are a varied set of people. There is, however, one thing all of them have in common: each necromancer has some form of power over the vital essences that move any living creature - and they seek to use this to their advantage. Whether strayed wizards, aspiring acolytes or even blessed priests of gods of life, necromancers aim to achieve their goals by manipulating the very core of any creature's being.

Creating a necromancer

In creating a necromancer, there is one important fact to consider: ‘how did you come into contact with necromancy, and why do you use it?'. Were you a young wizard who discovered their talent for manipulating life essence was more effective than blasting enemies with evocation spells? Did you grow up in a demon-worshipping cult that required the storing of life essence for satanic rituals? Or perhaps the source of your talent is unknown and mysterious? And what is the appeal of Necromancy to your character? Is it simply 'power over others', or did you perhaps lose a loved one to disease and felt the inability to prevent their death frustrating?

Quick Build

You can make a necromancer quickly by following these suggestions. First, Wisdom should be your highest ability score. Make Intelligence your next-highest if you want to excel at spell casting and plan to take up the Creed of Tomes archetype. Choose Constitution instead if you plan to emphasize either the summoning of undead minions or the manipulation of health pools. Second, choose the Acolyte or Sage background. Third, choose the Chill Touch and Thaumaturgy cantrips.

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Class Features

As a necromancer, you gain the following class features.

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a quarterstaff or (b) a sickle
• (a) a component pouch or (b) an arcane focus
• (a) a priest’s pack or (b) a scholar’s pack

Alternatively, you can choose to start with 4d4 x 10 gp and opt to spend some or all of that money on starting equipment.

Tip for DMs:

If you are using exotic weapons in your game, such as the ones created by Walrock Homebrew, add the iconic 'Scythe' to a Necromancer's standard weapon proficiencies.

Cantrips

You know two cantrips of your choice from the necromancer spell list. You learn additional necromancer cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the necromancer table.

Spell Slots

The Necromancer table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these necromancer spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell False Life and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast False Life using either slot.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know four 1st-level spells of your choice from the necromancer spell list.

The Spells Known column of the Necromancer table shows when you learn more necromancer spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the table. For instance, when you reach 3rd level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the necromancer spells you know and replace it with another spell from the necromancer spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your necromancer spells, for your magic draws upon your innate link to the essence of life that sits within all creatures. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a necromancer spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Ritual Casting

You can cast any necromancer spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag.

Spellcasting Focus

You can use an arcane focus (found in PHB chapter 5) as a spellcasting focus for your necromancer spells.

Vitality Shift

All 1st level Necromancers have a certain control over the life forces that flow through each living being. As an action, you may touch a willing creature in order to either drain their vitality, or give them yours. You may take an amount of hit points of up to four times your Necromancer level and either remove it from your target's pool and add it to your own, or vice versa. Hit points transferred this way can not cause either pools to go beyond their maximum amount of hit points.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier (minimum of one charge). When you finish a long rest, you regain all expended uses.

Necromantic Creed

At 2nd level, you choose one of three necromantic creeds to adhere to: the Creed of the Departed, the Creed of the Siphon, or the Creed of Tomes. These Creeds give you features at 2nd level and again at the 6th, 10th, 14th and 20th levels. Each creed is detailed at the end of the class description.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Eternal Youth

At 18th level, you have so much experience manipulating the essence of life that you are able to regain some of your childhood vigor. You become proficient in constitution saving throws, immune to poison and disease, and whenever you use your vitality shift feature, you can choose to also transfer an amount of years of age of up to your Necromancer level between yourself and the recipient.

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The Creed of the Departed

Though it is much more than just that, one phenomenon is most often associated with necromancy by the common folk: raising the dead. This field is exactly what the Creed of the Departed focuses on. Whether one undead Ogre or a horde of skeletons, those who join the ranks of this creed rely on the assistance of the lifeless to accomplish their goals. Necromancers within this Creed focus on improving their Undead Minions above all else. Since they usually pour some of their own lifeforce into the undead they create, they tend to be more frail and defenseless than other types of casters, relying instead on their creations to safeguard them.

Undead Minion

Starting at 2nd level, if you have at least one Necromancer hit die remaining, you can use an action to touch the corpse of any dead creature that is of one of the following types: aberration, beast, humanoid, monstrosity, plant, or undead. The creature can be no bigger than ‘medium’ size, and its CR can be no higher than your Necromancer level. When doing so, you will attempt to raise it as an an Undead Minion.

You expend a Necromancer hit die (roll and add your constitution modifier): the creature’s current and maximum health becomes equal to the result plus twice your Necromancer level.

Though the creature retains the proficiencies and any passive traits it had in life, it now counts as Undead and gains immunity to poison damage. Additionally, a newly created minion also takes the following penalties:

• It loses 4 points in each ability score (to a minimum of 1)
• It cannot cast spells, or use abilities that summon other creatures
• It loses any multi-attack ability it may have had
• If it had abilities with a limited amount of uses per day, each of these abilities can only be used once per day.
• It loses 10 feet of its walk, swim, and climbing speed (to a minimum of 5 feet).
• If the creature possesses a flying speed, it is halved, and cannot be used to ascend more than 5 feet off the ground

While the Undead Minion is within a 1 mile distance of you, you can telepathically give it orders that it will follow to the best of its ability. At will, you can command any Undead Minion under your control to return to you, even if it is further than 1 mile away from you. In combat, an Undead Minion takes turns on its own initiative, during which you can control it. It regards you and those not hostile to you as allies.

You only control the physical body of an Undead Minion: it retains the memory, personality and consciousness it had in life, but is forced to act as you command it to. While it can talk to you in a hostile manner, taunt you, and even lie to you, it is unable to thwart your plans directly by performing actions such as giving away your position to nearby enemies, revealing you to be a Necromancer to others, or leading you into a trap the Undead Minion itself is aware exists.

An Undead Minion that drops to 0 hit points instantly crumbles into dust. Otherwise, it lasts until the end of your next long rest, at which point you can choose to spend a number of hit dice equal to half the creature's CR (rounded down) to extend its lifespan until the end of your next long rest. Hit dice spent this way are lost, and no health is added to your minions' pool. If you are unable or unwilling to spend the required hit dice, your Undead Minion crumbles into dust. You cannot control more than one Undead Minion at a time: attempting to raise a second Undead Minion while already controlling one will cause the first one to crumble into dust. Additionally, at any moment, you can willingly decide to destroy your Undead Minion.

Finally, whenever you transfer hit points to an Undead Minion using the Vitality Shift feature, the amount of hit points the Undead Minion receives is doubled.

If a target corpse cannot be raised (due to effects such as the Gentle Repose spell), the hit die is lost and the ability fails, though you are made aware of the fact that the corpse cannot be raised. You may use this ability to revive beings that have been dead for an unlimited amount of time, but at the DM's discretion, additional restrictions may be imposed on the resulting Undead Minion if your target has been dead for longer than a week.

Shepherd’s Resolve

At 6th level, you improve your abilities to maintain your Undead Minions in a more solid condition. As such, when determining an Undead Minion’s hit points upon raising it, you now expend two Necromancer hit dice, instead of one, adding both results to the Minion's health pool. However, you are no longer able to raise an Undead Minion if you only have one hit die remaining.

Additionally, your Undead Minions no longer take the 10 feet land, sea and climbing speed penalty.

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Adept Awakener

Undead Minions raised by you may now make up to two attacks per turn, provided that the original creature had the ‘multiattack’ property. Additionally, your Undead Minions no longer take a penalty to their ability scores when you raise them. Finally, when determining an Undead Minion's hit points upon raising it, you may now choose to expend three hit dice instead of two.

Giant Rouser

You are now able to create Undead Minions out of corpses of large and huge-sized creatures, as well as out of creatures of the celestial, dragon, fey, fiend and giant types. Additionally, the maximum CR of creatures you can raise becomes equal to your Necromancer level plus your wisdom modifer. Finally, your Undead Minions can now ascend and descend freely while flying, though their original flight speed is still halved.

Undead Magnate

Your Undead Minions now last indefinitely and you can control a number of Undead Minions equal to your proficiency bonus before newer ones cause older ones to collapse, but you no longer add twice your Necromancer level to the result of the expended hit dice when determining a Undead Minion's hit points upon raising it. The Conduit Walkers feature may be used to deliver touch spells through any one of your Undead Minions.

Tip for DMs:

Initially, the Undead Minion feature may seem daunting and confusing, but it ends up playing out a lot simpler than it looks: most of text above simply establishes limits to what a Minion can do. Generally, when a player raises a minion, all that should be required from your end is to give them access to the stat block. From this point, they take a -2 penalty to all saving throws, their 'to hit' for attack rolls, their damage rolls, and their AC as long as the creature does not wear heavy armor. You can then roleplay the creature to your liking - or not at all. If there is ever any question as to whether a certain minion would be able to perform a specific type of action, the final decision is yours.

The Creed of the Siphon

If manipulating the essence of life is a skill, the Creed of the Siphon has turned it into an art form. Necromancers who veer in this direction spend most of their time practicing and honing their life-altering techniques, to a point where they gain an uncanny control over both their own health, and that of their enemies - or allies, if they so desire. Some continue to practice this skill through spells and prefer to fight from a distance, while others pick up a weapon and channel their siphoning skills in melee combat.

Initiate of the Tome

At 2nd level, you become an initiate in the Creed of Tomes and obtain a necromantic tome. As long as this tome is on your person, you gain the following benefits:

• You may cast the Prestidigitation cantrip as if you have it known, without it counting towards your cantrips known.
• You may cast the Mage Armor spell as if you have it known, without it counting towards your spells known.
• Whenever you cast a necromancer spell of at most 5th level, you may use your bonus action to make it a refined spell. Whenever you do so, add your intelligence modifier to any attack rolls made as part of the spell, and to the DC of any saving throw prompted by it. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
• You may use the tome as a spellcasting focus for your necromancer spells

Should your necromantic tome be lost or destroyed, you are able to create a new one. This process costs 20 gp and 2 hours of time for each necromancer level you possess.

Arcane Shift

Also starting at 2nd level, when using the Vitality Shift feature on a target who has the Spellcasting feature, you may choose to exchange one used spell slot of 5th level or lower for an unspent one of equal level instead of transferring hit points between you and your target. Similarly to hit points, this exchange can go in either direction, and neither you nor your target can obtain more spell slots than listed in your respective class tables.

Augur’s Acumen

At 3rd level, you unlock the Augur’s Acumen perks detailed at the end of the class description, and gain one of these immediately. When you gain certain necromancer levels, you gain additional Acumens of your choice, as shown in the ‘Acumens Known’ column of the necromancer table. Once obtained, you permanently gain the benefits of an Acumen.

Evercasting

At 20th level, you have learned how to morph life essence into magical energy when dealing a killing blow through magic. Whenever you use a spell to kill any number of creatures with a combined CR of 10 or higher, you regain one spell slot of any level up to 5.

Augur’s Acumen Perks

If an Augur’s Acumen has prerequisites, you must meet them to acquire it. You can learn the Acumen at the same time that you meet its prerequisites.

Black Ice

You learn the Armor of Agathys spell, without it counting against your spells known.

Additionally, whenever a creature takes damage from your Armor of Agathys spell, add your wisdom modifier to the damage the creature takes. A creature damaged this way cannot take any reactions until the start of its next turn.

Channeler

You learn how to be constantly aware of traces of life energy surrounding you. While you are conscious, you are always aware of any non-construct close to you, out to a radius of 10 feet. This includes creatures on the ethereal plane.

Dark Aegis

Prerequisite: 14th level

You can cast Dispel Evil and Good at will, without expending a spell slot. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Fervor of the Lost

Prerequisite: 6th level

Your studies have taught you about some simple rituals to brace your own life force. Whenever you would roll a hit die, you may choose to forego the roll entirely and instead proceed as if you had rolled the maximum amount.

Galerider

Prerequisite: 14th level

Through long hours of study, you have managed to master the ancient art of passive magical floating. Rather than walking, you gain the ability to glide one foot above the ground, allowing you to pass over difficult terrain that does not rise above that height without taking a movement penalty, and allowing you to move over liquid surfaces as if they were solid ground.

Additionally, while floating, you do not trigger any non-magical traps activated by floor-based mechanisms such as pressure plates. Otherwise, you move normally, as if you were walking. You can choose to activate or deactivate this ability at will, though it will disable immediately if no solid ground is within 1 foot beneath you. You cannot prevent fall damage through floating.

Intuitive Anatomy

As an action, you can examine a creature that isn’t a construct or elemental, or the corpse of any such creature. Whenever you do so, you learn the type of the creature you examined (aberration, fey, celestial, beast, etc.). Additionally, you make a Wisdom (Medicine) check, for which the DC is equal to 8 + the creature's CR (rounded up). On a success, you also learn the creature's current and maximum hit points.

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