D&D 5E 5.0 necromancer

Part of this can be accomplished by some reflavoring of existing spells.

For example, take Fireball. Instead, you could reskin it as Army of the Dead. Same damage and area of effect, but instead of fire you deal necrotic damage. And instead of a fireball, the necromancer summons a literal horde of zombies and skeletons to assault everyone in the area, only to disintegrate or sink back into the ground a moment later.

Dancing Lights could instead be the flicker of ghosts manifesting to create light.

Magic Missile can be the screaming skulls of the damned summoned from hell.

You get the point.

But I agree that the necromancer specific archetype abilities are subpar. I would like to see a level 2 ability for a skeletal / zombie minion that you can create 1 / long rest by touching the dead body of a humanoid or beast up to large size. Can only have a max of 1, works similar to a familiar, but only has 1 hit point. This way its good for out of combat stuff, can potentially act as a mount, give the necromancer the feeling of being able to create undead before getting access to the Animate Dead spell, and does not create too much of an issue in combat.

I think that danse macabre, from XGtE, is a better approach for PC necromancers than animate dead. The ability to quickly animate a bunch of corpses and use them as cannon fodder - while not being able to stack up hordes of them, due to the limited duration and concentration requirement - is much better suited to the adventuring wizard, while preserving the flavor of the necromancer.

The main problem with danse macabre is that it's a 5th-level spell, which puts it out of reach until quite late in most campaigns. Not only that, but it requires 5 corpses to get full effectiveness. There really needs to be a lower-level version, ideally available from level 1, so that you can play your necromancer as a necromancer from the get-go. This might be as simple as "Lesser danse macabre: Like danse macabre, but it's a 1st-level spell animating a single corpse, plus one corpse for each spell level above 1st." Would have to test the balance on that one.

(There also needs to be an option for animating a wider variety of corpses--limiting it to Small/Medium ones is a bit crippling. What if you're fighting giants or something?)

Animate dead is a good worldbuilding spell, to justify how a necromancer could create hordes of permanent undead*. But a danse macabre-type spell is better suited for PC necros.

[SIZE=-2]*Which must then be controlled by some means, probably a conveniently smashable magic item. Alternatively, the necromancer could just turn them loose in an enemy kingdom to wreak havoc.[/SIZE]

[MENTION=58197]Dausuul[/MENTION] If you look at the conjure X spells, the lowest level is 3rd (same as Animate Dead). So I think that is realistically the lowest level you could go to summon/create allies in combat. This is why I think a Necromancer needs a 2nd level spell for a 1 HP minion.

Additionally, I agree about animate dead. The spell should allow creating small or medium humanoids, but it should allow animating beasts from small to large. This allows animating a mount, guard dog, or other kinds of creatures without breaking the spell.