D&D 5E How Would You Build And Play A Necromancer

I'll just address the spells, as just two necromancy spells feels a bit light for a necromancy.

Ray of Sickness and Vampiric Touch seem like some natural additions to avoid being the one-trick pony that is the Animate Dead guy. Also to help boost your Grim Harvest feature. You might want False Life or Bestow Curse in the mix, too. I really like the thought of the altruistic necromancer casting Life Transference, too.

What cantrips are you considering?

*Forgot about the cantrips... facepalm*
Cantrips are also pretty basic: Prestidigitation, Toll The Dead, Chill Touch, and Minor Illusion. 2 for flavor/marginal benifiet, and 2 for damage.

I also looked at each of those spells while I was making the character. I was thinking of having the 1st level one be ray of sickness, but I figured since I wouldn't be able to upcast it very often it's usefulness was probably limited and could be achieved with ray of enfeeblement. I also kind of liked vampiric touch, but then i thought about it.... if they're in melee, I'm in a lot of trouble and I would need to get out of dodge (that's why thunder step is up there). As for life transference, I was considering it quite a bit for that very reason (I'm trying to be a bit of a grey necromancer), however I'm not sure what the party comp is yet since not everyone has made their characters. I know for fact there is 1 conquest paladin, and there is one guy in particular who likes playing cleric. Not sure if he'll keep the trend going or if he'll switch it up on me but in the case that he doesn't, life transference is both a yikes in damage for a wizard (I have 48 HP) and it wouldn't even hold a candle to either of their heals. Also not sure how it reacts with the next feature where you are resistant to necrotic damage, but I assume it would half the damage and by that half the healing too

Strongly dislike vampiric touch. It does less damage than a cantrip, it requires you to wade into melee, and if you are taking enough damage to need the healing, you'll lose concentration in short order, so what's the point? It's a truly terrible spell and Grim Harvest does not make it better. If you want to deal damage with a 3rd-level spell slot, throw a fireball.

In fact, I would not even consider Grim Harvest when making spell picks. It's a nice bonus when you get it, but you're a wizard with an army of meat shields. You shouldn't need that much healing in the first place.

I've been giving a lot of thought to playing a necromancer myself lately, when I wrap up my current campaign and get to play again. My theory, which I shall have to test in actual play, is that a necromancer should specialize in battlefield control. You have a horde of durable, slow-moving meat shields who can be ordered to attack, grapple, or shove; your goal should be to bring the enemy into their reach, or keep the enemy from escaping.

(You can also go skeletons instead of zombies. Skeletons offer far better damage output due to ranged attacks and higher attack bonus, but you sacrifice so much in durability - an area attack can easily wipe them all out, where the zombies have at least a chance to weather one blast. And skeletons aren't nearly as good at grappling and shoving. I'm leaning toward zombies right now but could see going with skeletons instead.)

Spells in the 1-3 range that I like for a necromancer:

Grease: Block off an exit or an escape route that the enemy could use to evade the horde. Note that this spell does not require concentration.

Tasha's hideous laughter: Drop a flying enemy out of the sky into the midst of the zombies. (A flying creature that falls prone falls to the ground unless it can levitate.)

Blindness/deafness: Not really battlefield control, but good enough to take it anyway. Blindness on a failed save, multiple targets at higher levels, and NO CONCENTRATION? Yes please. For bonus points, it's a necromancy spell so it's on theme.

Slow: This is a really vicious debuff. Huge area, half speed, AC penalty, only one attack per round, no bonus actions and no reactions. The half speed and the AC penalty in particular will make zombies very happy.

I'm debating on stinking cloud. On the one hand, "poison cloud" effects are very nice for undead. On the other hand, the enemy has to start its turn inside the cloud to be affected - if they just run through, it doesn't stop them - so it's more a way to cripple someone who's already engaged with your zombies, rather than hold them in place so the zombies can get them.

Animate dead: Obviously you're going to take this, but I wanted to point out that while you can only create 1-2 undead per casting, you can maintain control over 4. As soon as you hit 5th level, you get three 3rd-level spell slots per day (two normal and a third from Arcane Recovery); so if you have corpses and a few days, you can build up to 8 zombies and still keep a 3rd-level slot in reserve.

On a non-spell-related note: Get proficiency with an herbalism kit so you can do some embalming pre-animation. Your fellow PCs will be so very grateful. More to the point, if they aren't stinking of rotting flesh, you can dress your zombies up in long robes and masks when you are in an environment where undead are not welcome (i.e., most environments). It's not foolproof but it could come in handy. When you get to 9th level, definitely pick up seeming.

On cantrips: Obviously toll the dead is any necromancer's go-to damage cantrip. Also, I highly recommend mold earth. It's not much for combat, but any time you need to dig up a grave, you just wave your hand. And if you need to stash your undead buddies while you go into town, you can bury them in short order.

And one more interaction to point out: The conquest paladin is going to be your absolute best friend. Whenever your zombies are reduced to 0, they get a saving throw to not be destroyed. If they're standing next to the paladin, they get to add the paladin's Charisma bonus on that saving throw. This will add so much to their survival rate.

I'd personally think about 2 levels of cleric for grave or death domain. Having some healing capability could round out your role, and I love the flavor of a necromancer dabbling in theology.

Absolutely love the suggestions (especially the ones about embalming the zombies, mold earth, and the theological aspect of this)! now this presents a couple of good questions

1) Which is better, party buffing or enemy de-buffing? I'm inclined to think casting haste on the paladin over the course of a few turns will end up with a lot more output and more love to go around the table. On the other hand mass de-buffs are so good, they make enemies easier to hit for everyone, prevents damage, and is generally amazing, but they get a save every single turn. That's a lot less of an issue when you're playing a divination wizard and become the Thanos of the table when you say "Reality can be whatever I want". I suppose the benifiet increases exponentially depending on how many enemies are effected and how many people can get attacks on them.... I'm liking that a bit more now

2) Zombies, or skeletons? Zombies have a couple things going for them. They tank and they tank and still ask for more, and now that you pointed out the paladin's aura would effect them, I'm inclined to give him a small squad of them to flank his enemies and use the help action since their to hit and damage are less impressive than skeletons. Skeletons on the other hand have a marginally better to hit and damage, but they are ranged attackers. Being able to pincushion an enemy before they act is really good and it maximizes the potential for other melee bros to get involved, but they are a considerable bit more fragile. Both hate AOE but most zombies could probably take it at least once, maybe twice depending on their undead fortitude rolls. Skeletons seem like they would shatter to a single AOE, and not even a high level one.... like, I think a good burning hands gets the job done. But if they get to hit more and deal more damage when they do, the choice is a bit harder.... (You have definitely made me re think zombies though)

3) The last 2 levels of wizard are pretty bad so I'm liking the 2 level dip into cleric, but when do I do it? I don't have the spells list memorized but off the top of my head level 7 gives 4th levels like polymorph for supreme control, and summon greater demon which can be a pretty good accent to the undead squad. 9th level gives stuff like animate objects to bolster my selection of minions and wall of force for even more battlefield control. The wizard train just never stops giving.... until 19th level.

I think the biggest concern above all is:

How much are your minions going to bog down the game?

Because, frankly, they will, at least to some degree. In a game like mine which runs fast, it's very noticeable. When a player in my game wanted to play a necromancer, he had the good sense to ask me for my opinion on how many undead he could have at one time. I told him "When the game slows down unreasonably on your turn, then that's too many." So he generally stuck to 2 to 4 undead, tops, and it worked fine. Still slower than other players, but not so much that it was negatively impacting the game experience.

I was a player in another game wherein they had a necromancer who also cast summoning spells. It was terrible. I quit the game because, among other reasons, that player's turn would take an age to resolve and the player of that character was so self-absorbed that he didn't understand what the problem was as everyone else waited around for him to finish up.

So, I would have a discussion with your DM and the other players and ask for their opinion on this before you make any decisions about playing a necromancer. I would also do some critical thinking about my own abilities to see if I could pull it off without slowing down the game. Then I would ask the DM about using mob rules (DMG, page 250) to speed up resolution of my turns. After all, the goal of play is for everyone to have a good time and to create an exciting, memorable story during play. That's harder to achieve with a bunch of undead slowing down the game.

Dausuul said:

Strongly dislike vampiric touch. It does less damage than a cantrip, it requires you to wade into melee, and if you are taking enough damage to need the healing, you'll lose concentration in short order, so what's the point? It's a truly terrible spell and Grim Harvest does not make it better. If you want to deal damage with a 3rd-level spell slot, throw a fireball.

In fact, I would not even consider Grim Harvest when making spell picks. It's a nice bonus when you get it, but you're a wizard with an army of meat shields. You shouldn't need that much healing in the first place.

Click to expand...

One does not always "wade into melee". Sometimes melee comes to the PC, especially if a DM is paying attention and keeping things interesting. Not to mention that a wizard can deliver a touch spell via a familiar. Terrible spell? I suppose we can disagree there. Obviously, YMMV.

@Allistar1801, if you are just looking to optimize your build, you might consider re-posting over here:

https://www.enworld.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?363-Character-Builds-amp-Optimization


PS - I do really like your Mold Earth suggestion, however, [MENTION=58197]Dausuul[/MENTION]. "put away your shovels, people, I got this..."

Personally, I would not dip cleric as long as there were new wizard spell levels to be had. I'm addicted to the stream of new toys, and cleric toys just aren't as much fun for me. However, the necromancer is a very good subclass to dip with; any time you have a high-level spell slot and nothing good to put in it, you can always convert it to MOAR ZOMBIES. So, if you're going to dip, I say put your 7th or 8th level in cleric. That will get you access to all the 1st-level cleric spells, plus medium armor and shield proficiency (a huge bonus for any wizard), and a nifty domain ability.

The second level of cleric... well, Channel Divinity is nice, but you don't get much else for it and none of the CD options seem particularly necro-friendly. So I would leave that one to the very end.

As far as buffing versus debuffing: In general, wizards are much better at debuffs. However, haste is an exception and a very good spell. If you're going skeletons, then get haste, no question - ranged attackers don't care if they can catch up to the enemy. If you go zombies, I think the case for slow is stronger, because it benefits the entire party including your undead. Keep in mind that it also cripples the enemy's offensive capabilities, so you're soaking less damage. You could also just prepare both and use whichever one seems better at the time.

Skeletons versus zombies - for the reasons I listed, I favor zombies, but I will freely admit that I have yet to test this out and they might be far less effective than I think.