D&D (2024) A Revised Necromancer Subclass?

[Remathilis]

We haven't seen how the summon spells and Animate Dead will get revised. Though with it might be they have the Summon Spells from the PHB (the go look in the Monster Manual types) with some from Tasha's Summon Spells (with their own statblocks). Or they could go the route of just having the Tasha's Summon Spells.

What they might or might not do with summoning type spells would definitely affect both the Necromancer and the Conjurer as subclasses.

WotC's design paradigm for this has been all over the place.

1. Druids use MM stat blocks
2. Rangers use unique beastmaster templates
3. Find Familiar might be MM stats (implied in UA7 chain pact) or templates (last UA shown)
4. Tasha's summons (templates) are in
5. We haven't got confirmation Conjure X spell (MM stat blocks) are out.
6. Find Steed was a template last we saw, but Find Familiar might have been reverted (see 3) so that might change too
7. No word on Animate Dead or Create Undead (stat blocks)
8. Ditto polymorph and shapechanging magic.

At this point, it is impossible to assume they will unify summons/minions/pets/shapechanging into any sort of coherent design.

 

[Tonguez]

Here is Wiktionary's definition of the work Abjure:

Verb[edit]​

abjure (third-person singular simple present abjures, present participle abjuring, simple past and past participle abjured)

1. (transitive) To renounce upon oath; to forswear; to disavow. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][2] quotations ▼
   To abjure allegiance to a prince.
   To abjure the realm (to swear to abandon it forever).
2. (transitive, obsolete, historical) To cause one to renounce or recant. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][2]
3. (transitive) To reject with solemnity; to abandon forever; to repudiate; to disclaim. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][2] quotations ▼
   To abjure errors.
4. (transitive) To abstain from; to avoid; to shun.

So, based on these definitions, an Abjuration Wizard is . . . an Oathbreaker Paladin? Now I'm even more confused than I was before.

Abjure origin is late Middle English: from Latin abjurare, from ab- ‘away’ + jurare ‘swear’ - To Swear Away fits for Recanting an Incantation

Abjurers are my favourite Wizard, High Dex for AC as you go in with Shield, Mage Armour, Counterspell Dispel Magic and Antimagic Feild to shut down enemy spellcasters. Then theres Remove Curse, Banishment, and all those Wards and Barriers. Arcane Ward is a rechargeable source of temp HP. Projected Ward makes you helpful to the party

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If a person's Necromancer has the same spell load-out as any other caster... that's the player's decision to not stay on theme, not because it's a problem with the class. It's not WotC's job to force players to stay on theme by restricting or shortening spell lists.

If a player just "can't help themselves" and takes Fireball and always uses Fireball (even though they are a Necromancer) because it's the "best 3rd level spell"... then that's the player caring more about optimization than they do playing a character. That's not WotC's fault nor their responsibility to fix.

2e had banned schools for specialists. Necromancers were disallowed from using enchantment and illusion, so they always could cast fireballs. I still found that tradeoff charming back then. Heped to enforce a certain type of caster.

 

[Aldarc]

2e had banned schools for specialists. Necromancers were disallowed from using enchantment and illusion, so they always could cast fireballs. I still found that tradeoff charming back then. Heped to enforce a certain type of caster.

I disliked it in 3e, but seeing a lot of "samey" wizards in 5e for the past 10 years across different tables has increasingly warmed me up to the idea.

 

[Mephista]

Wizards and subclasses - a bit of a deconstruction.

So, there are six full casting classes. Three support (cleric, bard, druid) and three ... blasters? mages? (warlock, wizard, sorcerer). Lets go with mages. This contrasts with the martials split into three tanky classes and three skirmisher classes.

As I said above, cleric, druid and bard are all primarily support classes. Healing and buffing is what these three are known for. But beyond that, each of the three classes has a different focus beyond healing and buffing. Clerics are kind of the iconic White Necromancer archetype - their iconic Channel Divinity has the power to Turn Undead (or, in previous editions, the power to control); they also have the most spells that directly deal with speaking to ghosts or those passed on, and Radiance magic is a common weakness of undead. Druids have quite a bit of an elemental theme going on, especially if you include wood as a fifth element. The lands, the environment, nature, call it what you will. Bards, obviously, are directly connected to mental-themed abilities, such as illusions, enchantments and touching on the psionic a bit.

Meanwhile, lets take a look at the three mages. Unlike the healer classes being split into three clear themes with their magic... well, wizard can pretty much cast whatever a warlock or sorcerer can, with only a small list of exceptions. The default, "simple" subclass for each of the three mages are an elemental blaster - fiend, evoker, dragon. They all have illusionist variants too (fey, illusion, abberant) as well as necromantic (hexblade/undead/undying, necromancer, divine/shadow). All things that we had split between three classes with the healers. With the mages, its all just kind of mixed together for each of the three.

IMHO, the only real difference between wizard, warlock and sorcerer is in the class features, not as much the spell lists. Even in the case of warlock and sorcerer, with smaller lists, most of the difference is made up by the subclass additions. When 90% of the class is defined by their spells... that's a bit of an issue, imho.

Now, we could argue that we should break the wizard, warlock and sorcerer down into separate spell lists, but I don't think that's realistically going to happen. Just like I don't expect to see a significant differences in spell lists. We're going to end up keeping at least one necromancer-themed subclass for each mage class.

I'd also say that this model is also going to continually hamper any inovation with the wizard.

 

[Aldarc]

Thinking about it, one possibility would be for the Wizard Necromancer get its own version of Improved Find Familiar that lets it be "undead" or that even uses the stats for a skeleton or some other lesser undead, maybe with a level-scaling stat block. It would give the Wizard Necromancer subclass a way to feel like a necromancer out of the gate.

 

[Kobold Stew]

This is currently possible for the 1st-level chain warlock.

 

[Mephista]

The different necromancy subclasses all step on each others' toes all the time.

5e Necromancer stole the Fiend Warlock's THP generation (inferno warlock had it in 4e too, and was known as Fiendish Resistance in 3e), and the ability of evil clerics to Rebuke Undead.

Shadow Sorcerer basically cribbed the Devil's Sight / Darkness combo from warlock too, and summoned a big shadow familiar. And later stole shadow monk's shadow step ability.

Death Cleric was all about being a necrotic energy blaster. Not their usual wheel house - that's what the mages usually do.

Lets not forget about the Spore Druid, who was kind of necromancer-adjacent too!

There's not a whole lot of variety in the "dark magic" classes, and we're spread across five casters and two martials.

 

[Neonchameleon]

The problem here is that as ever the wizard subclass is a hat on a hat, in this case the hat of undead themed spells on the hat of access to all arcane spells.

Of the rest:

• The Shadow Monk is a ninja. They aren't in the way
• The Cleric has hat-on-a-hat problems (clerics do in general) but the Death Cleric is a dark blaster to mirror the light cleric's laser blasting. Not what I'd have gone with but fine.
• The Shadow Sorcerer should be the pasty faced squishy who commands the dead - but with Necromancer already in the way they needed the Hound of Ill Omen not something more versatile. Unfortunately they are a pre-Tasha's sorcerer and need a rewrite
• The Undying Warlock was ... a mistake
• The Undead Warlock is a Death Knight. They work and don't clash with the rest except maybe the Death Cleric
• The Spore Druid is an adjacent archetype and rhyme but aren't in the way

 

[Undrave]

Make it a pet class, something a bit similar to how the Sheppard Druid does it. Add a Necromancy Cantrip that lets you turn the life you suck out of enemy into either extra AC or temp HP, then make it so you can apply that benefit to any undead within range instead of you. Add a level 1 spell that creates a zone of grasping skeletal hands bursting from the ground! Add a new Flying Skull familiar that can pull the Fly By Help shenanigan of the Owl. Maybe a ‘summon wailing spirit’ spell that creates zones (1 per upcasted level) of psychic damage and instead of giving them concentration duration, make them dismissible if the enemy wastes an action on it.