@@patrickslayter9946it depends on the Dm . Most games I’ve played the dm forced you to do that to maintain balance . Cause if not you just roll everything and everyone in a campaign .
@@patrickslayter9946 I guess you would be technically correct you dont have to be near them when the 24hrs elapses. Just leave them in a middle of town to wreak havoc. then recast to exert control save the town and be crowned a hero
finger of death. it gives you permanently controlled zombies. it only works on things that were living before you got to it. it also happens to have to be humanoid, so animate dead could be for zombie and skeleton trolls a giants, while finger of death is the filler of the army.
if you want to be truly evil (lvl 17 wizard), gather a group of kobolds (which are humanoids) and cast finger of death on them whenever you can. upon them turning into an undead permanently under your control, you cast true polymorph on them to have unlimited dragons as your pets. *atlast, the kobold has achieved their dream of becoming a real dragon*
Unfortunately True Polymorph's, "Creature to Creature," option is limited to the creatures CR/Level or lower. Finger of Death is however the best option for infinite undead.
You can't do that my friend but if your dm let's you do that, then you could first turn into an atropal. That's giving you endless CR 5 undead permanents under your control! Turn them into wyrmlings and wait 20 years. Bam!! Young dragon's, and since necromancers of such lvl don't care about aging, it's up to the dm's timeline how op your kingdom will become!!
While you get a 6th lvl spell slot, you can't learn any wizard spells over 3rd lvl. Your max spell lvl for a class is dependent on the lvls in that class, even though you can up cast it to be any spell slot.
That seems like a lot of work to just get a bunch of zombies and skeletons. Being level 12ish before your main thing comes online is rough. My build is simply a necromancer wizard Reborn. Once you hit 17th level you can start building an army of wights using 8th level create undead and 9th level geas to maintain permeant control. Then after building them up you send them out while staying in contact with rary's telepathic bond, sending and use scrying to get eyes on the battlefield and maintain order with a simulacrum true polymorphed into a death knight at the head of the host once you hit 18th level. Once these wights kill some humanoids with their life drain that's up to 12 zombies per wight. The wights themselves are sitting at a hefty 65 hp, with 1d8+8 dmg. So if you spend a year doing this that's 365 wights, 730 if you take meta magic adept twin spell. They march out and they kill 12 a piece that's 4,380 zombies with 365 wights or 8,760 zombies with 730 wights all being led by a death knight that will turn into a weaker version of you if reduced to 0hp.
Don’t forget that you’ve also got Command Undead at 14th level of that build. Throw a feeblemind in for good measure and you can potentially make it impossible for your target to escape your control. If you’re using a true poly simulacrum, might as well have them also use that feature before the Polymorph for an extra high power monster on the stack.
@@jb123581 The reason I didn't include it is because it's up to your dm on what goodies you can snag. The top contenders for that are Nightwalker, Greater Death Dragon, Mummy Lord and Adult White Draco Lich. Using your own ability and Simulacrum to snag two on this list is a HUGE power spike. Having your death knight simulacrum riding a greater death dragon basically makes you discount Lord Soth. Then with a Mummy lord to get access to divine magic and a lair guardian. The other thing to consider is using fabricate to make armor and weapons for all those wight soldiers if we're not going by a strict dm.
@@ThisCrits It's good to hear it's getting out there. I've been speaking about it for years on all these Necromancer videos and various forums. Necromancy is the best school of magic because all the crazy things you can pull off with prep from making armies to making yourself pretty much impossible to kill. Another fun school I know how to make world ending character is conjuration wizard. Conjuration can get almost as crazy as necro your just less survivable with stronger minions.
@mylesdrake2949 could you direct me to a guide for this build please? I've got a campaign coming up soon and I want to fully understand it before we begin
@@ThisCrits As my response got deleted again... Yes you can produce costly spell components. I won't link to the tweet again, as my response got taken down twice already
Or spell casters with fire that incinerate the corpses and leave you nothing to animate. I love the RP potential tho of common folk and NPCs hating the idea of necromancy. The more powerful you get the more they hate you and refuse to tolerate you 🤣
there was a time, another wizard used a fire spell, and incinerated the thing i wanted to reanimate (the spell fire spell was used when the target was alive)
This is fine and dandy, but it's a lot of work for just a few zombies AND you need to constantly use spell slots to keep them. Here is a build I told a DM I'd like to use at some point if I got the chance (and was strictly told no way in hell) to basically become an undead overlord: * 20 levels of Necromancy Wizard * Make sure you have the spells Simulacrum, True Polymorph, Feeblemind, and (preferably) Finger of Death * Create Undead is a possible avenue, but leaves some room to be desired as the ways to keep what you make through this spell in the long term tends to be awkward. Depending on how your DM rules undead interaction, in which weaker undead gravitate and listen to stronger ones, it may still work to your benefit. But that's a house rule, as I don't believe there is anything in vanilla D&D which states that. You can start your venture into becoming an undead overlord at level 15, which is the lowest possible level you can get Feeblemind. First, you and your party must locate and burn through a Greater Death Dragon's legendary resistances so you can cast Feeblemind on it. The party gives whatever debuffs it can to make sure it sticks. Next, use the Command Undead feature from the reaching 14th level of necromancer wizard to bind it to you. It'll automatically fail barring divine intervention from the D&D Gods as it won't be able to make the save. Congrats, you now have the first of three major undead that will make this army! The Greater Death Dragon is going to become the marshal of your cannon fodder as it's breath weapon doesn't have a limit to how many undead it can have under it's control. Thus, as long as it has a graveyard, a village of peasents, or anything else that is high in numbers it can keep creating zombies without limit. Those zombies are also under the GDD's control at all times, so even if they are across the planet they are still able to be wrangled in if need be. Next, you need to have access to both Simulacrum and True Polymorph, which can be accomplished at level 17. This one is a lot more straight forward and not nearly as much of a pain in the ass as step one. Create a Simulacrum of yourself, either have yourself or it use True Polymorph, and turn that sucker into whatever undead you think you might need. Feel like you need more chaff? Another GDD would be perfect. Maybe you want some more brawn? An Adult Red Dracolich, Death Knight, or Ghost Dragon are great choices. Need an informant into a nearby kingdom you are planning to invade? Make it into either an Atropal for as many wraiths as you could ever want, a Shadow Assassin for stealth/disruption, or a vampire to start creating a nest of bloodsuckers for when the time is right. Finally, you have yourself! The best part is that, what you just did to the Simulacrum you could also do to yourself if you wanted to! However, I would recommend getting to max level to either become a Demilich or Nightwalker if you plan to do it to yourself. The Demilich lets you keep your spellcasting to a degree, so I would recommend that over the Nightwalker (especially since the Nighwalker's AOE field of damage is indiscriminate of allies and enemies. All that work just to wipe out your army by taking an afternoon stroll) but it's up to you. Alternatively, you could stay as you and use Finger of Death to start making psuedo-Death Knights. Problem is that these zombies still suck at higher levels. The stats of a zombie made by a level 20 Necromancer Wizard are: Base AC - 8 HP - 42 Slam - 1d6 + 7 This isn't all that impressive. HOWEVER, if you decide to add magic equipment to these undead it can be a little bit better. Like ourselves, we can give them 3 magic items that they can attune to along with whatever regular equipment we'd like. Keeping it rather simple (nothing above uncommon grade), we can easily bump up what we are working with. For magic items, I'd recommend using a +1 shield (adds +3 to AC), a +1 longsword, and one more item that is up to your personal preference. Could be a cloak of protection (additional +1 if you want a tank), criclet of blasting (to give them some range), or an additional weapon so they have seperate damage types (slashing from a longsword, bludgeoning from a hammer as an example). After that, we only really need to grab maybe one or two non-magical items to make them workable in a higher level setting. As their strength is rather low, as well as their overall AC, we can grab them mithril plate armor so their AC becomes a base of 18 and the strength requirement becomes an afterthought as mithril negates the usual need of a 15 in strength to properly wear plate armor. Finally, maybe keep a cloak on them with a large hood so they can't be easily recognizable in a city if the need arises to enter one without killing the populace. So, with that all in mind, our main new stat blocks are as follows: Base AC - 18 (21 - 22 depending on items) HP - 42 Slam - 1d6 + 7 Longsword - 1d8 + 7 (1d10 +7 if using both hands) Plus whatever you add as your third magic item. These enhancements bring them in the CR 5 range, so a kill-squad of around 10 of these beefed up zombies would be no laughing matter. Additionally, if you give them better gear they will obviously be better than CR 5. Plus, they are permanent and don't require any additional spell slots to keep around unlike the undead made from create undead and similar such spells or any additional gimmicks to keep them around. So, following the above guideline, you could easily amass a large undead army and conqure a kingdom with relative ease. The main drawback is that a majoirty of your undead will come from either only your Greater Death Dragon or your Simulacrum. Which means that, if either of them are either destroyed or break free of Command Undead (which would require something akin to a wish spell after it has been hooked), you'd lose your army in the blink of an eye. Now, as a final note, IF your DM uses the "Undead naturally follow the strongest undead in the room" mentality, you'd still be fine even if the zombies are no longer under your direct control. Using True Polymorph, you become a Demilich and just wrangle them all back in order. It'd also make Create Undead worth it as the smarter undead made from the spell could be used more effectively than regular zombies, even after you 'lose control' of them. But, again, that's all dependent on the DM's house rules. Overall, I prefer this build over the one in your video simply because it adds the potential for more undead with less micromanaging. Additionally, you also get access to higher tier undead which is a nice plus. Let me know what you think!
I just finished reading this comment. I like the build idea, my only hesitancy is it requires a lot of leniency from the DM. I try to keep my builds possible without need of the DM allowing things. But I like the theorycrafting aspect of it!
@@ThisCrits Fair enough, though I'm pretty sure the only thing in this that the DM specifically would need to be lenient on would be that final part with the undead behavior AFTER one of your main undead perish. The rest of it is raw, if I'm not mistaken, and just requires the party to be on board with finding at least the initial Greater Death Dragon and find enough shops to arm the zombies you get from Finger of Death. If you are talking about the potential scaling of this and how much that'll annoy the table, that for sure would require the DMs leniency and I wouldn't be surprised if this was either banned outright on that grounds alone or turned the PC into the BBEG lol.
I actually cut that part out because with it the video was pushing 20+ minutes. Effectivley, it allows you to ignore poison resistance but NOT poison immunity. So many creatures are resistant to poison that it makes it super worth to get. And since your zombies have poison immunity they wont get damaged by your poison damage. So, insert dragonsbreath poison damage, cloudkill, or any other poison spells you can think of! You could also potentially give the poison to your ghoul "generals" to make them deal extra damage as well!
To ba a little stronger only go 2 wizard for evocation and the rest of the wizard levels put into cleric this allows you to have twilight aura and aoe without killing your undead.
Hi DM here. I'm allowing a necromancer as an enemy npc. My group will fight her in a graveyard/her lair. However she is a recurring npc that will get stronger over the campaign. There is no way for the group to win as she will flee or something. I wanted something like she was trying to create a beholder with magic and science, it's not quite done but she is trying to activate it, I am unsure how to do something like this. It would be a combat situation as she will have summoned lots of undead, but I wanted something else they would have to do so she has time to flee.
Firstly, they need a guaranteed get out of jail free card. In my experience players often tunnel for the big bad so if you dont have that card they will get stuck in combat for at least some amount of time. So give them so sort of teleport/dimension door, etc so they can move quickly. This is a must of your players will ruin your plans because thats just what players do hahaha Anyways, here my thought. What if your necromancer had heard a story of a beholder being slain in whataver graveyard your in. They were trying to use it as a means of learning or animating it again but, on no the players whow up. Naturually, the necromancer would be prepared so they had a barrier around them, and that barrier was sustained by 4 powerful undead being used as conduits to power the barrier and funnel energy into the beholder. If the players detroy all the conduits than the barrier falls and the ritual fails, but no matter what the necromancer teleports away after 3 conduits have fallen. That was they are in no real danger as they will get away before they can be hit. And in case the party have some sort of teleportation abilities just pop a hallow spell underneath so they can't, just make sure to narrate and describe the runes underneath the barrier.
@@ThisCrits Very cool. Was thinking of some barrier. Also what about the spells blight and curse? I was going to use lair actions to raise the dead, 1d6 per her level. And very much agree with the players never do what we as dms want or expect lol. Thank you.
Update. I have 8 pillars with each having a single rune, 1 for each of the school of magic. To lower the barrier they need to use a spell from each school at the corresponding pillar, all while fighting zombies. The barrier is everything proof unless the pillars are taken down...the 8 pillar isn't a pillar tho, it's the main gate and it's for the school of illusion, hiding in plain sight. Thank you for the ground work idea.
So would an good strategy be out of 43 undead 4 zombies and 6 skeleton with bows and 1 ghoul split in 3 groups with the last group of zombies and skeletons holding back as a last line of defense
Sorcery Points You have 2 sorcery points, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Sorcery Points column of the Sorcerer table. **You can never have more sorcery points than shown on the table for your level.** You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.
That's why I mentioned order of operations is important. Use points to cast animate dead, convert Warlock slots to Sorcerer points, use points, short rest to regain Warlock slots, convert, repeat. That way you never cap out and can continually use your points.
@@ThisCrits of course, works by raw... especially if you have the greater restoration to get rid of exhaustion... but like you said most DMs are probably against it
What would you recommend for early game? This is a nice end game goal but I was just wondering how to get the most out of my character while building towards the first build.
I would probably suggest straight warlock. That gets you core abilities and your 5th level lock slots. Although, the build doesnt lend itself well to actual gameplay due to the nature of how combat works with the amount of undead you would make.
would have been nice if you had a lvl by lvl guide in what to pick. I'm making a Necromancer for my Christmas one shot and I am stuck with what to choose as we are starting at lv10.
I have another necromancer guide I just released that has a level by level guide. If yu want this build specifically it uses 2 of the same classes which you could roughly follow!
Lvl20 necro wizard with animate dead and create undead is not bad. Lvl9 create undead can lead to some monsters that can turn other creatures into zombie
A question for all our experienced players and dms....could you have an infinite army by summoning humaniod undead, ordering one to "not resist" and casting Finger of death on that one undead, resting, regaining control over the remaining and repeating til you have killed and resurrected them as permanent undead, then again repeat the entire process again?
@@ThisCrits perhaps, but it beats making a huge army that you can only control for a day then they turn on you unless you use up all you spell slots keeping them in line.
You can’t cast 6th level spells with this build. Unless the dm specifies, there’s not enough levels of any of the three classes that let you get up to 6th level spells. 5th level by way of warlock, but that’s it.
It can't be added through normal leveling spell because both are 6th level spells and you don't naturally learn 6th level spells with this build. It would require finding them and manually copying them into you spellbook. I'm not sure how to work around it on dndbeyond but I'll take a look and see what i can find!
Unfortunately you can't use the 6th lv slot for any 6th lv spells. None of your caster are high enough to get 6th lv spells even though you get the slot.
@@ThisCrits according to the multi-class rules in the PHB it has to do with no one casting class being of high enough level to learn those spells even though you have access to the slot. Of course, the DM has final say on what is actually allowed. We are in optional rule territory after all.
@@christophermurray9777 Really? That is a huge bummer and at least to me makes no sense. Lol I guess its one of those obscure rules very few people know about.
@@ThisCrits Its not really an obscure rule. Its right there in the multiclass section... which you should read if you are multiclassing. You just dont know the rules and you shouldnt be making multiclassed builds until you do.
@@thedevilorwhatever I think they just get the benefits of not needing to eat/drink/sleep. I don't remember anything about exhaustion. That beign said I don't know much about the race lol
now the question is... how can that army move through the dungeon? I mean, first time you find a narrow corridor you are screwed. you either take forever to go through it or leave half your minions behind. I also can't think of a party that will be happy traveling with an army of undead to retrieve the sacred treasure that was stolen.
Fun fact, no rule specifies that you cant buy equipment for your undead, give them skeletons longswords, shields, longbows and armor, expensive? Yes useful? Absolutely
I don't think I would say it "counters" a build but radiant damage does prevent zombie's undead fortitutde. Honestly, it depends on the type of build. If theres lots of undead, AoE spells like flame strike just completley obliterates low level undead. Its its a necromancer in terms of necromancy spells, silence, counterspell, and anything that can break concentration!
@@ThisCrits right, but just because you have a spell slot doesn’t mean you can learn and prepare a spell from that level. This is a classic multiclassing problem when taking multiple spell casting classes.
@@jb123581 Thats another bonus of the Wizard. While you don't "automatically" learn a 6th level spell from your wizard levels, you can still "learn" 6th level spells by copying it into your spellbook. This assumes that it is available obviously but thats one of the reasons Wizard is so powerful.
@@ThisCrits I think you’re mistaking their ability to copy spells as a means to gain access to spells they just shouldn’t be able to get when they’ve multiclassed that heavily. PHB, page 164. Spells known and prepared. “You determine which spells you know **and can prepare** for each class individually as if you were a single classed member of that class….” Spell slots. “If you have more than one spellcasting class, this table might give you spell slots of a level higher than you can know or prepare. **You can use those slots, but only to cast your lower level spells.**”
Whoever cares to read this my better judgment in necromancy if you can do double class have some type of fighting class so when you are in trouble and you're dead can't help you or they're against you you can have some chance to live cuz honestly the regular way of necromancy your kind of weak physically
@@ThisCrits true you won't have much options on spawning creatures or other and correct me if I'm wrong I believe cleric your can use the spell create undead and ues whites so have a few of those and have them killed and built a army for you so you can focus on them make them stronger with armor and weapons so being in the front lines with them they kill do what they do you kill resurrect those have fallen and heal yourself or your whites I know this a long text if you have your skeletons and zombies in the Front have the skeletons behind the zombies like tied with a rope or just have the skeleton hold on so one zombie and skeleton together if can give your skeletons good weapons and ues the zombies as armor and have the zombies grapple the enemy so they bite them while the skeletons is stabbing them while doing that they have too try to roll to get out of the grasps of the zombies
Um, hate to be "that guy" but how are you getting create undead? It's a 6th level spells and you're a sixth level wizard and a fifth level sorcerer and a 9th level warlock. None of your classes give you access to any sixth level spells. Multiclassing full casters does give you access to a single 6th level slot, but not any 6th level spells. you know up to 3rd level sorcerer spells and 3rd level wizard spells and 5th level warlock spells. Sorry, Charlie.
Thats anotehr reason why Wizard is so important in this build. Alongside auto learning on leveling, Wizards have the ability to "learn spells" by copying them into their spellbook. WHile they wouldn't "automatically" learn a 6th level spell, they could still copy it into their spellbook assuming they have access to it. And to be fair, assuming a PC gets to a high enough level, its not unlikley they would have access to resources to find thing kind of information on their adventures.
@@ThisCrits There is an errata that clarifies that you cannot copy spells that you cannot prepare, and in the multiclassing rules it is stated when preparing you look at the level of spell slots you have access to as if you were single classed. I think the coffee lock portion in the second half has a similar problem where the sorcerer portion of the build isn’t actually high enough level to get greater restoration. This is broadly a problem with multiclassed casters and there’s no accepted way to get around it so that’s why most caster multi classes stick to 1-3 levels in one and all the rest in another.
Nope! You undeads is only under your controll for 24 hours. So unless you ware going for unleashing the zombie apocalypse on your game world, this will not give you unlimeted amounts of undead. You need to go high in one class to get true polymorph. Transform into a young red shadow dragon. Any humanoid brought to 0 HP by your breath attack instantly raise as a shadow (cr ½), permanently under your controll. With that strategy you could get unlimeted amounts of undead, permanently under your controll. A huge mob of shadows attacking would be utterly terrifying for any opponent, as there is no save vs their strength drain. If they hit, you get drained. Drained to 0 strength, you die (and become a shadow yourself in a few hours).
Maybe I didn't explain it well enough becuase functionally it can create unlimited undead, it really just depends on how long you store your temp spell slots. The shadow dragon idea was one that al ot of people suggested but I thought the coffeelock was a more fun build to talk about. That being said, its all hyperbole because this kind of stuff would never happen in an actual game lol
I do literally mention this specific point in the video as well as provide an actual useful build alongside the meme of "unlimited undead" Did you watch the entire video?
Yes but unfortunately with the popularity of BG3, I come across new players wanting to play it that way and find DnD other way boring so this kind of helps as DM to help in their builds
Just remember, the more undead you make, the more you have to cast Animate Dead to maintain control over them.
You don't HAVE to recast to maintain control. 😈
@@patrickslayter9946it depends on the Dm . Most games I’ve played the dm forced you to do that to maintain balance . Cause if not you just roll everything and everyone in a campaign .
@@patrickslayter9946 I guess you would be technically correct you dont have to be near them when the 24hrs elapses. Just leave them in a middle of town to wreak havoc. then recast to exert control save the town and be crowned a hero
@@andrewjohnson5407that’s not what he is saying. Let them free near towns or anywhere with people.
finger of death. it gives you permanently controlled zombies. it only works on things that were living before you got to it. it also happens to have to be humanoid, so animate dead could be for zombie and skeleton trolls a giants, while finger of death is the filler of the army.
if you want to be truly evil (lvl 17 wizard), gather a group of kobolds (which are humanoids) and cast finger of death on them whenever you can. upon them turning into an undead permanently under your control, you cast true polymorph on them to have unlimited dragons as your pets. *atlast, the kobold has achieved their dream of becoming a real dragon*
That is arguably the most ridiculous D&D fact I have ever heard hahahaha
Unfortunately True Polymorph's, "Creature to Creature," option is limited to the creatures CR/Level or lower. Finger of Death is however the best option for infinite undead.
You can't do that my friend but if your dm let's you do that, then you could first turn into an atropal. That's giving you endless CR 5 undead permanents under your control! Turn them into wyrmlings and wait 20 years. Bam!! Young dragon's, and since necromancers of such lvl don't care about aging, it's up to the dm's timeline how op your kingdom will become!!
Baby Draco Lichs ❤
While you get a 6th lvl spell slot, you can't learn any wizard spells over 3rd lvl. Your max spell lvl for a class is dependent on the lvls in that class, even though you can up cast it to be any spell slot.
Not needing to eat, breathe, or sleep sounds like a lich! I've always wanted to be a lich.
Congrats your now a lich! hahaha
remember that you can also remove your fatigue.
your only weakness will be that you can die. other than that, enjoy lichdom.
So get a Create Wondrous Item feat, create a phylactery and apply the template.
What did u say? Dnd5 babbies dont have templates?
My favorite self-help and beauty regiment video.
Thats me! The #1 self-help and beauty youtuber!
That seems like a lot of work to just get a bunch of zombies and skeletons. Being level 12ish before your main thing comes online is rough. My build is simply a necromancer wizard Reborn. Once you hit 17th level you can start building an army of wights using 8th level create undead and 9th level geas to maintain permeant control. Then after building them up you send them out while staying in contact with rary's telepathic bond, sending and use scrying to get eyes on the battlefield and maintain order with a simulacrum true polymorphed into a death knight at the head of the host once you hit 18th level. Once these wights kill some humanoids with their life drain that's up to 12 zombies per wight. The wights themselves are sitting at a hefty 65 hp, with 1d8+8 dmg. So if you spend a year doing this that's 365 wights, 730 if you take meta magic adept twin spell. They march out and they kill 12 a piece that's 4,380 zombies with 365 wights or 8,760 zombies with 730 wights all being led by a death knight that will turn into a weaker version of you if reduced to 0hp.
Thats another crazy build for Necromancer I have seen a lot of!!! I really like the idea behind it and might even make a video about it later!
Don’t forget that you’ve also got Command Undead at 14th level of that build. Throw a feeblemind in for good measure and you can potentially make it impossible for your target to escape your control. If you’re using a true poly simulacrum, might as well have them also use that feature before the Polymorph for an extra high power monster on the stack.
@@jb123581 The reason I didn't include it is because it's up to your dm on what goodies you can snag. The top contenders for that are Nightwalker, Greater Death Dragon, Mummy Lord and Adult White Draco Lich. Using your own ability and Simulacrum to snag two on this list is a HUGE power spike. Having your death knight simulacrum riding a greater death dragon basically makes you discount Lord Soth. Then with a Mummy lord to get access to divine magic and a lair guardian. The other thing to consider is using fabricate to make armor and weapons for all those wight soldiers if we're not going by a strict dm.
@@ThisCrits It's good to hear it's getting out there. I've been speaking about it for years on all these Necromancer videos and various forums. Necromancy is the best school of magic because all the crazy things you can pull off with prep from making armies to making yourself pretty much impossible to kill. Another fun school I know how to make world ending character is conjuration wizard. Conjuration can get almost as crazy as necro your just less survivable with stronger minions.
@mylesdrake2949 could you direct me to a guide for this build please? I've got a campaign coming up soon and I want to fully understand it before we begin
For the Coffeemancer. You should befriend a creation bard to make your material component to not go bankrupt. For 100 gp a 5th level bard is enough
Does that actually work for gold value? If so thats nuts lol
@@ThisCrits As my response got deleted again... Yes you can produce costly spell components. I won't link to the tweet again, as my response got taken down twice already
@@glarak9819 I didn't even know you responded hahaha I must have some link setting turned on sorry about that!
@@ThisCrits All good. That's sensible with all the bots. Anyway Crawford tweets are not hard to find if you're trying to find an existing one
As a DM I'd force a player to keep track of how many bodies you've actually come across and were able to raise.
Or spell casters with fire that incinerate the corpses and leave you nothing to animate.
I love the RP potential tho of common folk and NPCs hating the idea of necromancy. The more powerful you get the more they hate you and refuse to tolerate you 🤣
Thats really funny lol. My players have a portable hole they use to throw "usable" bodies in hahaha
I tried, but my players found a way around it xD
there was a time, another wizard used a fire spell, and incinerated the thing i wanted to reanimate (the spell fire spell was used when the target was alive)
This is fine and dandy, but it's a lot of work for just a few zombies AND you need to constantly use spell slots to keep them. Here is a build I told a DM I'd like to use at some point if I got the chance (and was strictly told no way in hell) to basically become an undead overlord:
* 20 levels of Necromancy Wizard
* Make sure you have the spells Simulacrum, True Polymorph, Feeblemind, and (preferably) Finger of Death
* Create Undead is a possible avenue, but leaves some room to be desired as the ways to keep what you make through this spell in the long term tends to be awkward. Depending on how your DM rules undead interaction, in which weaker undead gravitate and listen to stronger ones, it may still work to your benefit. But that's a house rule, as I don't believe there is anything in vanilla D&D which states that.
You can start your venture into becoming an undead overlord at level 15, which is the lowest possible level you can get Feeblemind.
First, you and your party must locate and burn through a Greater Death Dragon's legendary resistances so you can cast Feeblemind on it. The party gives whatever debuffs it can to make sure it sticks. Next, use the Command Undead feature from the reaching 14th level of necromancer wizard to bind it to you. It'll automatically fail barring divine intervention from the D&D Gods as it won't be able to make the save.
Congrats, you now have the first of three major undead that will make this army! The Greater Death Dragon is going to become the marshal of your cannon fodder as it's breath weapon doesn't have a limit to how many undead it can have under it's control. Thus, as long as it has a graveyard, a village of peasents, or anything else that is high in numbers it can keep creating zombies without limit. Those zombies are also under the GDD's control at all times, so even if they are across the planet they are still able to be wrangled in if need be.
Next, you need to have access to both Simulacrum and True Polymorph, which can be accomplished at level 17. This one is a lot more straight forward and not nearly as much of a pain in the ass as step one. Create a Simulacrum of yourself, either have yourself or it use True Polymorph, and turn that sucker into whatever undead you think you might need. Feel like you need more chaff? Another GDD would be perfect. Maybe you want some more brawn? An Adult Red Dracolich, Death Knight, or Ghost Dragon are great choices. Need an informant into a nearby kingdom you are planning to invade? Make it into either an Atropal for as many wraiths as you could ever want, a Shadow Assassin for stealth/disruption, or a vampire to start creating a nest of bloodsuckers for when the time is right.
Finally, you have yourself! The best part is that, what you just did to the Simulacrum you could also do to yourself if you wanted to! However, I would recommend getting to max level to either become a Demilich or Nightwalker if you plan to do it to yourself. The Demilich lets you keep your spellcasting to a degree, so I would recommend that over the Nightwalker (especially since the Nighwalker's AOE field of damage is indiscriminate of allies and enemies. All that work just to wipe out your army by taking an afternoon stroll) but it's up to you.
Alternatively, you could stay as you and use Finger of Death to start making psuedo-Death Knights.
Problem is that these zombies still suck at higher levels. The stats of a zombie made by a level 20 Necromancer Wizard are:
Base AC - 8
HP - 42
Slam - 1d6 + 7
This isn't all that impressive.
HOWEVER, if you decide to add magic equipment to these undead it can be a little bit better. Like ourselves, we can give them 3 magic items that they can attune to along with whatever regular equipment we'd like. Keeping it rather simple (nothing above uncommon grade), we can easily bump up what we are working with.
For magic items, I'd recommend using a +1 shield (adds +3 to AC), a +1 longsword, and one more item that is up to your personal preference. Could be a cloak of protection (additional +1 if you want a tank), criclet of blasting (to give them some range), or an additional weapon so they have seperate damage types (slashing from a longsword, bludgeoning from a hammer as an example).
After that, we only really need to grab maybe one or two non-magical items to make them workable in a higher level setting. As their strength is rather low, as well as their overall AC, we can grab them mithril plate armor so their AC becomes a base of 18 and the strength requirement becomes an afterthought as mithril negates the usual need of a 15 in strength to properly wear plate armor. Finally, maybe keep a cloak on them with a large hood so they can't be easily recognizable in a city if the need arises to enter one without killing the populace.
So, with that all in mind, our main new stat blocks are as follows:
Base AC - 18 (21 - 22 depending on items)
HP - 42
Slam - 1d6 + 7
Longsword - 1d8 + 7 (1d10 +7 if using both hands)
Plus whatever you add as your third magic item.
These enhancements bring them in the CR 5 range, so a kill-squad of around 10 of these beefed up zombies would be no laughing matter. Additionally, if you give them better gear they will obviously be better than CR 5. Plus, they are permanent and don't require any additional spell slots to keep around unlike the undead made from create undead and similar such spells or any additional gimmicks to keep them around.
So, following the above guideline, you could easily amass a large undead army and conqure a kingdom with relative ease. The main drawback is that a majoirty of your undead will come from either only your Greater Death Dragon or your Simulacrum. Which means that, if either of them are either destroyed or break free of Command Undead (which would require something akin to a wish spell after it has been hooked), you'd lose your army in the blink of an eye.
Now, as a final note, IF your DM uses the "Undead naturally follow the strongest undead in the room" mentality, you'd still be fine even if the zombies are no longer under your direct control. Using True Polymorph, you become a Demilich and just wrangle them all back in order. It'd also make Create Undead worth it as the smarter undead made from the spell could be used more effectively than regular zombies, even after you 'lose control' of them. But, again, that's all dependent on the DM's house rules.
Overall, I prefer this build over the one in your video simply because it adds the potential for more undead with less micromanaging. Additionally, you also get access to higher tier undead which is a nice plus. Let me know what you think!
I just finished reading this comment. I like the build idea, my only hesitancy is it requires a lot of leniency from the DM. I try to keep my builds possible without need of the DM allowing things. But I like the theorycrafting aspect of it!
@@ThisCrits Fair enough, though I'm pretty sure the only thing in this that the DM specifically would need to be lenient on would be that final part with the undead behavior AFTER one of your main undead perish. The rest of it is raw, if I'm not mistaken, and just requires the party to be on board with finding at least the initial Greater Death Dragon and find enough shops to arm the zombies you get from Finger of Death.
If you are talking about the potential scaling of this and how much that'll annoy the table, that for sure would require the DMs leniency and I wouldn't be surprised if this was either banned outright on that grounds alone or turned the PC into the BBEG lol.
I'd like to see more about the strategy with poisoner feat and minions.
I actually cut that part out because with it the video was pushing 20+ minutes. Effectivley, it allows you to ignore poison resistance but NOT poison immunity. So many creatures are resistant to poison that it makes it super worth to get. And since your zombies have poison immunity they wont get damaged by your poison damage. So, insert dragonsbreath poison damage, cloudkill, or any other poison spells you can think of! You could also potentially give the poison to your ghoul "generals" to make them deal extra damage as well!
To ba a little stronger only go 2 wizard for evocation and the rest of the wizard levels put into cleric this allows you to have twilight aura and aoe without killing your undead.
Hi DM here. I'm allowing a necromancer as an enemy npc. My group will fight her in a graveyard/her lair. However she is a recurring npc that will get stronger over the campaign. There is no way for the group to win as she will flee or something. I wanted something like she was trying to create a beholder with magic and science, it's not quite done but she is trying to activate it, I am unsure how to do something like this. It would be a combat situation as she will have summoned lots of undead, but I wanted something else they would have to do so she has time to flee.
Firstly, they need a guaranteed get out of jail free card. In my experience players often tunnel for the big bad so if you dont have that card they will get stuck in combat for at least some amount of time. So give them so sort of teleport/dimension door, etc so they can move quickly. This is a must of your players will ruin your plans because thats just what players do hahaha
Anyways, here my thought. What if your necromancer had heard a story of a beholder being slain in whataver graveyard your in. They were trying to use it as a means of learning or animating it again but, on no the players whow up. Naturually, the necromancer would be prepared so they had a barrier around them, and that barrier was sustained by 4 powerful undead being used as conduits to power the barrier and funnel energy into the beholder. If the players detroy all the conduits than the barrier falls and the ritual fails, but no matter what the necromancer teleports away after 3 conduits have fallen. That was they are in no real danger as they will get away before they can be hit. And in case the party have some sort of teleportation abilities just pop a hallow spell underneath so they can't, just make sure to narrate and describe the runes underneath the barrier.
@@ThisCrits Very cool. Was thinking of some barrier. Also what about the spells blight and curse? I was going to use lair actions to raise the dead, 1d6 per her level. And very much agree with the players never do what we as dms want or expect lol. Thank you.
Update. I have 8 pillars with each having a single rune, 1 for each of the school of magic. To lower the barrier they need to use a spell from each school at the corresponding pillar, all while fighting zombies. The barrier is everything proof unless the pillars are taken down...the 8 pillar isn't a pillar tho, it's the main gate and it's for the school of illusion, hiding in plain sight. Thank you for the ground work idea.
So would an good strategy be out of 43 undead 4 zombies and 6 skeleton with bows and 1 ghoul split in 3 groups with the last group of zombies and skeletons holding back as a last line of defense
Anything above 10 is probably excessive hahah
Sorcery Points
You have 2 sorcery points, and you gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Sorcery Points column of the Sorcerer table. **You can never have more sorcery points than shown on the table for your level.** You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.
That's why I mentioned order of operations is important.
Use points to cast animate dead, convert Warlock slots to Sorcerer points, use points, short rest to regain Warlock slots, convert, repeat. That way you never cap out and can continually use your points.
@@ThisCrits of course, works by raw... especially if you have the greater restoration to get rid of exhaustion... but like you said most DMs are probably against it
In what order or when should I put levels into undead warlock, necromancy wizard, and aberrant mind sorcerer?
I would suggest starting off with wizard. It gives a good basis for the build to build off of.
At what point do you multiclass though?
sorry for the question but what stat array would you recommend
What would you recommend for early game? This is a nice end game goal but I was just wondering how to get the most out of my character while building towards the first build.
I would probably suggest straight warlock. That gets you core abilities and your 5th level lock slots. Although, the build doesnt lend itself well to actual gameplay due to the nature of how combat works with the amount of undead you would make.
My build for this is
Race reborn
14 necromancer
4 undead Warlock
2 shadow sorcerer
Aspects of moon
Devil sight
Mage armor expert
There are so many great ways to do this build! Reborn is a prefect race for this as well!
would have been nice if you had a lvl by lvl guide in what to pick. I'm making a Necromancer for my Christmas one shot and I am stuck with what to choose as we are starting at lv10.
I have another necromancer guide I just released that has a level by level guide. If yu want this build specifically it uses 2 of the same classes which you could roughly follow!
Hello. I have a problem of only limiting to 2014 rule book. How do I go about making the best Necromancer? Please
Lvl20 necro wizard with animate dead and create undead is not bad. Lvl9 create undead can lead to some monsters that can turn other creatures into zombie
A question for all our experienced players and dms....could you have an infinite army by summoning humaniod undead, ordering one to "not resist" and casting Finger of death on that one undead, resting, regaining control over the remaining and repeating til you have killed and resurrected them as permanent undead, then again repeat the entire process again?
Technically is it possible? Just quickly glancing it over it seems like it. But is it practical? No hahah
@@ThisCrits perhaps, but it beats making a huge army that you can only control for a day then they turn on you unless you use up all you spell slots keeping them in line.
You can’t cast 6th level spells with this build. Unless the dm specifies, there’s not enough levels of any of the three classes that let you get up to 6th level spells. 5th level by way of warlock, but that’s it.
what are the stats though?
okay.. the spell cas a really long range but... can I truelly see up to that distance??
We as humans can see pretty far, althought if you can cast that far I would make the assumption the caster could see otherwise its a pointless feat.
Hey I am trying to make this build but for some reason DND beyond is not showng Soul Cage, or Create Undead. Is there something Im doing wrong?
It can't be added through normal leveling spell because both are 6th level spells and you don't naturally learn 6th level spells with this build. It would require finding them and manually copying them into you spellbook.
I'm not sure how to work around it on dndbeyond but I'll take a look and see what i can find!
Do I put 9 levels in Warlock first or... what's the best method for level by level progression?
It really depends on what you want to focus on. I would suggest warlock because its the best "base" in the build.
Unfortunately you can't use the 6th lv slot for any 6th lv spells. None of your caster are high enough to get 6th lv spells even though you get the slot.
What about the possibility of learning a 6th level spell through a scroll or something like that?
@@ThisCrits according to the multi-class rules in the PHB it has to do with no one casting class being of high enough level to learn those spells even though you have access to the slot. Of course, the DM has final say on what is actually allowed. We are in optional rule territory after all.
@@christophermurray9777 Really? That is a huge bummer and at least to me makes no sense. Lol I guess its one of those obscure rules very few people know about.
@@ThisCrits yeah it's only mentioned in one place in the multi-class section.
@@ThisCrits Its not really an obscure rule. Its right there in the multiclass section... which you should read if you are multiclassing. You just dont know the rules and you shouldnt be making multiclassed builds until you do.
wouldn't reborn be a good race for this?
Honestly the race isn't that big a deal but yea it would be a good choice!
@@ThisCrits I mean you can't die from exhaustion as a reborn though can you?
@@thedevilorwhatever I think they just get the benefits of not needing to eat/drink/sleep. I don't remember anything about exhaustion. That beign said I don't know much about the race lol
now the question is... how can that army move through the dungeon? I mean, first time you find a narrow corridor you are screwed. you either take forever to go through it or leave half your minions behind.
I also can't think of a party that will be happy traveling with an army of undead to retrieve the sacred treasure that was stolen.
Yep! Thats one of the reasons I specifically said that its not really a "feasible" build.
@@ThisCrits but it can be done for the big bad guy. you just name him Ainz Ooal Gown.
Fun fact, no rule specifies that you cant buy equipment for your undead, give them skeletons longswords, shields, longbows and armor, expensive? Yes useful? Absolutely
Just take them off of your fallen enemies!
@@ThisCrits Yes, but they can also fabricate it if they have the right proficiencies
What is the best way to counter a necromancer build?
I don't think I would say it "counters" a build but radiant damage does prevent zombie's undead fortitutde. Honestly, it depends on the type of build. If theres lots of undead, AoE spells like flame strike just completley obliterates low level undead. Its its a necromancer in terms of necromancy spells, silence, counterspell, and anything that can break concentration!
You can't go a aberrant mind Sorcerer and Divine Soul sorcerer at the same time
How are you learning Soul Cage and Create Undead on the first build? You don’t have enough levels in any one class to pick it up.
Just because you have 1 spell slot doesnt mean you can only know 1 spell.
@@ThisCrits right, but just because you have a spell slot doesn’t mean you can learn and prepare a spell from that level. This is a classic multiclassing problem when taking multiple spell casting classes.
@@jb123581 Thats another bonus of the Wizard. While you don't "automatically" learn a 6th level spell from your wizard levels, you can still "learn" 6th level spells by copying it into your spellbook. This assumes that it is available obviously but thats one of the reasons Wizard is so powerful.
@@ThisCrits I think you’re mistaking their ability to copy spells as a means to gain access to spells they just shouldn’t be able to get when they’ve multiclassed that heavily.
PHB, page 164. Spells known and prepared. “You determine which spells you know **and can prepare** for each class individually as if you were a single classed member of that class….”
Spell slots. “If you have more than one spellcasting class, this table might give you spell slots of a level higher than you can know or prepare. **You can use those slots, but only to cast your lower level spells.**”
I like the video, I can't be the one to take it off of 666 though 😂
ITS BECOME TOO POWERFUL!
I don't get it, am i supposed to actually raise undead at techincally level 14????
You can summon undead pretty early on in levels, but the build really explodes in effectiveness at 14.
Whoever cares to read this my better judgment in necromancy if you can do double class have some type of fighting class so when you are in trouble and you're dead can't help you or they're against you you can have some chance to live cuz honestly the regular way of necromancy your kind of weak physically
But then you miss out on so many fun things! But you make a fair point lol
@@ThisCrits true you won't have much options on spawning creatures or other and correct me if I'm wrong I believe cleric your can use the spell create undead and ues whites so have a few of those and have them killed and built a army for you so you can focus on them make them stronger with armor and weapons so being in the front lines with them they kill do what they do you kill resurrect those have fallen and heal yourself or your whites I know this a long text if you have your skeletons and zombies in the Front have the skeletons behind the zombies like tied with a rope or just have the skeleton hold on so one zombie and skeleton together if can give your skeletons good weapons and ues the zombies as armor and have the zombies grapple the enemy so they bite them while the skeletons is stabbing them while doing that they have too try to roll to get out of the grasps of the zombies
Bold to assume that I am not a dm creating a final boss for my players😅😅
I will pray for your players if that is the truth hahahah
Um, hate to be "that guy" but how are you getting create undead? It's a 6th level spells and you're a sixth level wizard and a fifth level sorcerer and a 9th level warlock. None of your classes give you access to any sixth level spells. Multiclassing full casters does give you access to a single 6th level slot, but not any 6th level spells. you know up to 3rd level sorcerer spells and 3rd level wizard spells and 5th level warlock spells. Sorry, Charlie.
Thats anotehr reason why Wizard is so important in this build. Alongside auto learning on leveling, Wizards have the ability to "learn spells" by copying them into their spellbook. WHile they wouldn't "automatically" learn a 6th level spell, they could still copy it into their spellbook assuming they have access to it. And to be fair, assuming a PC gets to a high enough level, its not unlikley they would have access to resources to find thing kind of information on their adventures.
@@ThisCrits There is an errata that clarifies that you cannot copy spells that you cannot prepare, and in the multiclassing rules it is stated when preparing you look at the level of spell slots you have access to as if you were single classed. I think the coffee lock portion in the second half has a similar problem where the sorcerer portion of the build isn’t actually high enough level to get greater restoration.
This is broadly a problem with multiclassed casters and there’s no accepted way to get around it so that’s why most caster multi classes stick to 1-3 levels in one and all the rest in another.
Came here because I'm a necromancer lol.
That checks out!
👍
Nope! You undeads is only under your controll for 24 hours. So unless you ware going for unleashing the zombie apocalypse on your game world, this will not give you unlimeted amounts of undead.
You need to go high in one class to get true polymorph. Transform into a young red shadow dragon. Any humanoid brought to 0 HP by your breath attack instantly raise as a shadow (cr ½), permanently under your controll. With that strategy you could get unlimeted amounts of undead, permanently under your controll. A huge mob of shadows attacking would be utterly terrifying for any opponent, as there is no save vs their strength drain. If they hit, you get drained. Drained to 0 strength, you die (and become a shadow yourself in a few hours).
Maybe I didn't explain it well enough becuase functionally it can create unlimited undead, it really just depends on how long you store your temp spell slots.
The shadow dragon idea was one that al ot of people suggested but I thought the coffeelock was a more fun build to talk about. That being said, its all hyperbole because this kind of stuff would never happen in an actual game lol
i was Like #666. Seems fitting
Wait thats crazy hhahah
It's siXth, not sickth
Sicksth?
SUMMON UNDEAD DURATION IS 1H ... THIS BUILD MAKE NO SENSE...
That's why I mentioned using animate dead lol
This is such a video game approach. Power gaming can ruin DnD. It's not a video game.
I do literally mention this specific point in the video as well as provide an actual useful build alongside the meme of "unlimited undead" Did you watch the entire video?
If you let power gaming ruin your campaign you are just a bad DM
Yes but unfortunately with the popularity of BG3, I come across new players wanting to play it that way and find DnD other way boring so this kind of helps as DM to help in their builds
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