Thank you very much Kobold Quest for sponsoring this video! Kobold Quest Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/amarik/kobold-quest?fbclid=IwAR2kVmIH0P9eaqhuRrQziddkihH57u5OWppbe90HIL1GSnclBKftiv_-Lsc Here is the SAC I was talking about: media.wizards.com/2021/dnd/downloads/SA-Compendium.pdf

Everyone freaks out when the Wizard casts Animate Dead, but when the Cleric does it, it is the will of their God/Goddess and therefore a Holy Act. So unfair!

When im necromancin everyone dancing no one can stop us i dare you to try

The biggest thing I've found as playing a necromancer in Adventures League is either you are single handedly destroying encounters before they have a chance to become a problem or cannot use your features at all and are basically a subclassless wizard. I've found very little in between, and also a lot of DM variance on how they want to run them. So be aware that if you actually go all in on wizard necromancer you can quickly cause an arms race with the dm.

This is the perfect “cast before long rest” spell, even if you are worried about being attacked at night. The undead will actually be of assistance in this case

YAY! My favourite spell! It's worth mentioning that skeletons are immune to exhaustion so they can guard you while you sleep or even carry the whole team through the night with a large enough army. If you're playing a necromancer and you don't travel in a palanquin, you're doing it wrong.

Animate dead, I didn't see this coming and I welcome it. I prefer Skeletons over zombies, for a different reason. You can fit more bones in a bag of holding than corpses. I could deploy my own squads from my backpack.

The limitation of Small to Medium Humanoid always felt like a big limitation. Thanks to Sage Advice Compendium for letting us know the pile of bones doesn't have that restriction. Though... does kinda bring up a rather grotesque idea that would likely only be seen from an evil necromancer and/or in necromantic horror scenes. That being the idea of casting Animate dead on a corps, but instead of actually targeting the corps... you target the bones inside it. Which then leads to said grotesque scene of the skeleton quite literally... tearing its way out of the corps. Also, the Monster Manual has descriptions about the basic Zombie and Skeleton that includes how they would likely wield weapons. Skeletons, with there slightly higher intelligence would likely know how to properly wield weapons, such as proper edge alignment with a sword or how to operate a crossbow. Zombies on the other hand, are a bit to "brainless" for such basic thinking and likely to use a sword the same way one uses a club, and they are also to "hungry" as it were, to really bother with ranged combat. In other words, they'll take the bow you gave them... then run up and use it like a club. Monster Manual also describes there problem solving skills. A Skeleton comes to a door, it will try to open it or look for a way around. A zombie comes to a door, even an unlocked one, and just bash itself against it until either it or the door breaks.

I would just like to add how well this combines with the inspiring leader feat. Undead understand any language they knew in life. A necromancer that gets to level 5, with +2 charisma, can maintain squad of 8 undead with a 7 temp hit points after each short rest. Yes your undead minions can take rests and spend HD. That is 56 temp hit points to put between you and the things that want you dead.

When I first read the title, my mind immediately jumped to the idea of casting this spell on a KFC bucket. The spell itself does specify that the target has to be humanoid, but it doesn’t say that a corpse can’t be fully or partially cooked. So a cult of cannibal necromancers could still cast this spell on their dinner and make food zombies. Possibly. Yes, that idea is exactly as weird as it sounds.

The Golgari agent background from guildmasters guide to Ravnica gives any Caster access to animate dead, even warlocks

I’ve said this on another episode of yours, but I would argue that the ultimate crit fisher is the necromancer wizard. Access to web as an action to give advantage to attacks, and then making multiple attacks at range with advantage is fantastic, especially when adding your proficiency bonus to each successful attack. At level six you could command 8 undead after taking a short rest, and if using the optional spell points system, you could possess a whopping 14!!! And with the trick of repossessing and recasting the same spell, you can genuinely build an army over a few days. That is an insane amount of attacks per round, especially when taking into account dual wielding like you said. And this is all without concentration.

I had a game years ago where I was playing a necromancer, use animate dead for so many fun things cause we had a house rule that let me raise the skeleton/zombie version of animals providing they were under a certain CR. The highlight was using zombie badgers to dig the party out of an avalanche that we triggered. Had a bag of holding specifically for carrying around the skeletons of my favorite animals to raise.

Gator leaving for chicken wings has big "Dad going out to buy some milk/smokes" energy.

In defense of the noble art of raising undead, the Advanced DnD book “The Complete Book of Necromancers”, there are tiers of necromancy (black/evil, gray, and white), black necromancy being spells like Chill Touch or Summon Shadowspawn (due to killing innocents and stuff), while gray necromancy is the divination-related and, you guessed, Animate Dead.

WOTC already imagined what Warlocks could do with it. That's why Undying Servitude is limited to 1/long rest. Doesn't mean we can't circumvent it, as things like a Wizard 5/Warlock 5 Reborn ( Elf can work too, but Reborn is more thematic. Warforged and Autognome can do the combo, but with only half the output ) can get 8 castings of Animate Dead at no cost in ressources, each day.

Just a heads up, if you're planning on using skeleton archers then do be prepared to provide the shortbows and ammunition for them. Some DMs will just give your animated chicken skeleton a bow because that's what the stat block says it has, but others won't because it makes *no sense* that it would.

I play a necromancer wizard and I got soo excited when I saw the tittle so I just liked it right away. Then, In the middle of the video, I thought "woah this video is cool and it deserves my like", so I went to like it and it was already liked. I had to leave a comment to let you know Kobold how much I liked this video!

I built a character around this spell and having a pack of skeletons around us. We had a dink player that played a cleric and constantly threatened to use Destroy Undead and kill all my skeletons. My wizard was Day of the Dead themed and wore flowers and stuff all over him. He also painted the skeletons with bright colors. My story when folks made a fuss was that my original skeletons came from grave robbers/desecrators and this was part of their divine punishment. Even so I'd usually have them wear robes and generally cover up. Also give your skeletons a common sack. Cheap and handy for carting out treasure or the pile of bones left by there fallen brothers. You can also give them things like manacles and have them bind themselves to something if there 24 hrs is coming up. Use them to make a grand entrance by carrying your Sedan chair. Give them noise makers and stand guard/patrol.

kobold i did something relatively recently that i think you’d be proud of, though i didn’t realize it was optimal at the time. this was a level 4 playtest of some goblins and their war spider. the Huge spider started more than 30 feet away from me and i was playing a Great Weapon Master fighter, instead of trying to close the distance i went forward, took the dodge action, and let them come to me. the war spider used an ability called trampling charge where it moved its speed and made an attack against every creature within its movement, but it wasn’t able to hit me through disadvantage. i stayed healthy *and* got to take an opportunity attack on the spider!

Mimicry = "mimicree" not "Me me cry"

9:50 Also requires at least a little bit of juggling to coordinate the Bonus Action to cast Magic Stone and the Bonus Action to command the minions.

Your skeleton is about 14% of total body weight. Kobolds weigh 25-35 lbs. So a kobold skeleton weighs 3.5-4.9 lbs. That's why I always carry around a bag of 10 kobold skeletons.

This was at a PERFECT TIMING! Yesterday I was planning a School of Necromancy Wizard to try out being a legit Necromancer and so seeing this video was absolutely great and will help out a lot in my fight with the demons in the Demon Wastes in Eberron!

necromancy wizard is cool to think about because of the grim harvest feature. once per turn you can gain hp back from kills. this is nice when finishing off enemies with single spells like magic missile but even better with spells that work on OTHER CREATURES TURNS. it's kind of like sneak attack where you you trigger it twice a round with your reaction. you can cast black tentacles and the damage the creatures who are restrained takes is on THEIR TURN so not only could you heal from the casting killing someone but you can get extra healing procs throughout the round as creatures take lethal damage to the spell. very cool :D

So glad you're finally covering Animate Dead!

“Yay, I’m relevant!” Laughed out loud and made people turn and look, good job.

It could be cool to play a paleontologist circle of spores druid who animates fossilized bones of dinos or megafauna

Peace cleric combos well with zombies. It makes protective bond kinda wacky letting your undead hord jump infront of any damage you would take and they might not even die from it.

One of my favorite characters was a chaotic good necromancer that just wanted to put a skeleton maid in every home. Finger of death peasants with terminal diseases or someone who was already going to be executed and maintain enough of an army to protect my distribution center/lair. I know my dm has used him as a villain/anti-villain in other campaigns because he was an arch-lich who preferred to sit around in the office, sending skeleton and zombie laborers to the lowest income areas of the continent for free labor. The peasants always hacked them to pieces and the lich would demand compensation, but did so by using Gate to appear in town meetings trailing necromantic energy explaining his rationale and genuinely be confused and upset when they tried to kill him when he was only offering free labor using the body of a volunteer or convicted criminal. He told me one party agreed to leave him in peace if I offered 10 bodies that used to have leatherworking and or blacksmithing experience (house rule you had to have had the skill before death to have it in undeath) so they could have them make weapons and armor

Random Idea for an Eldritch Invocation: Even Darker Arts; Any undead you create are proficient in any Finesse weapon they can hold, further they can deal an additional D4 of damage per round if wielding such a weapon with advantage.

Nice video as always. I usually use my skeletons as ranged attackers and send in one or two to buff my attack high level spells by making them take the help action, or occasionally grapple targets. That way you can use them similar to find familiar. (Help with find familiar is for my Charakter no option due to rp reasons) Also: You can technically reuse the fallen akeletons and zombies, since the text don't specify what condition the corpse/bones have to be in.

Great video, but I would like to point out some build decisions around Animate Dead that you may not have considered. As far as I understand it, it is not possible to effectively use your last third level spell slot on Animate Dead. You can use it to reanimate one corpse, but after that your army won't be able to grow anymore because that slot is locked up maintaining that extra zombie. At 5th and even 6th level, a Divine Soil Sorcerer is dramatically better at using Animate Dead than the Necromancer. Flexible Casting allows the Sorcerer to make three additional 3rd level spell slots as opposed to the one extra one that the Wizard gets. This means that you are running with 16 or 17 undead compared to the Wizard's 8 or 9 undead at 5th level. At 6th level, the Sorcerer has 20 or 21 undead compares to the Necromancer's 12 or 13. However, as a Sorcerer, you can go down the tealock path as soon as you know Animate Dead. Up to Warlock 4 or total level 9, you are routing those extra slots through flexible casting, but from Warlock 5 onwards, things get really insane. If you really want to make the DM cry, take Genie Patron up to Warlock 11 or character level 16. The Sanctuary Vessel feature along with the extra spell slot exponentially increase the size of your undead army. This is not exactly practical, but this is how you optimise for Animate Dead.

Another fun trick. If you have a Ring of Spell Storing and happen to have a 3rd-5th level slot handy at the end of an adventuring day, you can just slap the Animate Dead Spell at any of those levels into the Ring, take a Long Rest and then use the Ring to have Undead Minions 24/7 for 0 cost essentially.

For making you skeletons cool. Use the Continual flame spell on their skulls and equipment. It looks cool, provides a light source. And with bluffing make people think you have an army overly magic equipped minions. I ran it on a villian and the players saw it while scouting. They ran away to get fire resist items and potions for the skeleton fight.

i like to give them hide armor and shields, and if you dm is stingy about giving you shortbows and shortswords, slings and daggers are cheap and only lose 1 dpr. skeletons are also better than zombies due to the fact that they can usually be given more complex commands. I taught 3 of my skeletons to make hide armor, wooden shields, and slings respectively to supply the rest of my army!

If resolving all of the undead’s actions takes too long, and many of them are attacking, just run them as a hoard. Also, an interesting idea for a zombie horde could be to give some of them a marker (like a ribbon or something) and make the command to attack if they don’t have a marker, and to instead try to shove in an attempt to knock someone prone if they have a marker. Makes it harder to escape the horde.

Having 40 skeletons is a bit unwieldy and tends to clog up the battlefield and slow combat down. My dm and I came up with rolling 10 into one bone golem to help keep things simple. We are going to try this out Sunday, any imput is welcome. Stats are 14ac 60hp +5 to hit 2d8, my goal is to not overshadow the rest of the party (not optimized characters) and not block them from using their abilities.

Great video! Definitely going to surprise my group when I shout them a few rounds of chicken wings a the tavern to make some minions lol

I don't know why but the second "yipp-yipp-yipp" from Gator in the distance at the end of the ad made me laugh out loud. Love it.

Quick aside, if you want a cheesy way to cast Magic stone, use your bonus action to cast it through a Familiar, and have the Familiar fly off to drop off the stones to your undead minions. That way you still have your action, so long as you have already given your generic command of "attack what I attack" It is basically free extra damage. Also it might be a great use case for the artificer iniciate, so you don't delay your spell casting.

Something I would love to test out with this spell would be using skeletons as sidekicks. The idea being that an undead who doesn't die and gets reanimated again, it would be like a brand new undead if that happened, could gain exp and level up alongside the player. I want to give necromancy a sense of emotional bond, but with it being a creature you can easily horde I obviously have some concerns about power creep, but I think it would be a fun experiment! I don't like the idea of sidekicks being the party's level in these cases, I much more enjoy the idea of them building strength through their service. I've been playing around with sidekicks for quite some time now, even giving player mounts and pets sidekick status to give incentive for mounted combat or training up mastiffs and wolves.

Warlocks with this spell are extremely powerful, if you can figure out how to get the dammed spell for them. In order to get this spell, you can pick up the warlock invocation undying servitude, which lets you cast animate dead *once* per long rest with a warlock spell slot. The other option isn’t that much better. You need to take 5 levels in a different spell caster class in order to learn it naturally and then you can cast animate dead with it. You might be able to get around this restriction if you find a spell scroll of animate dead and only take one level of wizard, copying it into your spellbook and _then_ casting it with warlock spell slots. This spell is a pain in the butt to get with warlocks, for a very good reason.

"Welcome to Pack Tactics, where everyone has skeletons in their closets" Wait, is it not normal? Was it only me?

Bout that kickstarter. That is actually a really tempting and engaging reward. And respect for taking on that challenge as it probably will be really challenging to write that into the story even as side characters.

Are you ready? I’ll whisper it. Divination wizard; Levitate; Animate dead. Your enemy is a hovering pin cushion.

I'm in a campaign where a puppet master (any small race tbh, although autognome would be the best for this.) is commanding a zombie and has the actor feat, so they speak for the zombie like a reverse ventriliquist dummy. Its funny how enemies ignore the wizard and go after the zombie since they all assume the zombie is the actual wizard. (also helps the puppet/puppet master character is the 'spellcasting focus' for the spells.) Requires a lot of deception rolls, but its so flavorful. Add in an Oathbreaker paladin so their save aura works on Undead Fortitude and suddenly you have one hell of a tanky zombie.

Hearing “mimi-CRY” made me want to cry. In all seriousness, your vids are awesome.

Seeing someone suggest using magic stone for skeleton minions is new. I always just order mine to use siege weapons. Always nice to see animate dead videos.

Chicken wings are just the beginning... The barnyard is full of useful forms. Bones are like Legos, the possibilities are endless. Especially when the Necromancer is a Kobold.

I'm about to play a necromancer in an upcoming one shot where the DM is using a version of animated dead he created from the 3.5 version of the spell... so I'm going to get have like 16 HD of skeletons from one cast of the spell. I got one member of the party to play an oathbreaker paladin to help boost damage and buff the hp of our mooks.

Now I want to make a necromancer who never uses human remains. Keeps your character from basically being forced into being evil and imagining them getting.... Artsy..... When making their minions just sound fun.

PH: Necromancy is evil Glances at Enchantment for restraining free will

So fun trick with Zombies: if you have some spare heavy armour lying around, say Ring Mail or chainmail, you can slap that on a zombie to give it a much better AC. Better than the skeleton. Of course, since they are not proficient their offensive capacity is terrible, but they make excellent meat shields due to high HP, undead fortitude, and an AC determined by the armour you slapped them in. Combine armoured zombies as a frontline with skeleton archers in the back for a mix of durability and DPS. Happy hunting!

I now have a plan of three 4 skeleton squads for my necromancer. Two squads of bow users and one squad of melee fighters. Basically the bow skeletons barrage the target and the melee skeletons are just guards to keep opposing melee from rushing me and my bow users. Any more than that becomes a pain even with the rules for dealing with large groups.

I’m glad to have found fellow Animate Dead enthusiasts.

I am in a campaign right now where my Warforged Warlock has his heart set on staffing a shipping and receiving company with undead. He believes that he will run the competition out of business due to low overhead costs. When challenged about the fact that undead will unnerve the client base, he counters that with the right uniform and attitude, anything is possible. The company name to be emblazoned on every shipping cart? Blackearth Shipping and Fright. :P

Funny how this video comes out the day after I've created a new Necromancer. Thanks for the tips!

Perfect timing, thank you. Im looking to crate knowledge cleric that goes down the rabbit hole and wants to become a lich.

How convenient! I am literally just about to start a new campaign as a Gestalt Necromancer (a HB class)/Oathbreaker character!

Yog of Bears always knew kobolds have no moral spine, but unholy deed like that!? Uthgar protect us!

Also inspiring leader can help with temp hp if you want a villain monologuing to his minions type of role play.

I'll admit, I'm tempted to support the 'bolds

When you make chicken for dinner, and the wizard has a weird sense of humor...

im currently playing a necromancer in CoS, and as the enemies are mostly undead of some flavor, i was actively seeking how i could overcome the ambiguity of the spell (my GM isnt a native english speaker) to allow for me, without breaking any rules, to turn chicken dinners into chicken skeletons. this is an ODDLY SPECIFIC video and im so happy to have found it.

I remember reading an article that showed how any undead beings you could create with just one dead body.

Fine I'll do it. Necromancers are not evil they are just misunderstood. They are regular people just trying to raise a family

So a fun (but maybe not optimal) combo is using the transmission wizard with one undead and mounted combatant to make an undead mechsuit that the wizard buffs with all their transmission spells

You can also take the healer feat to heal your undead, and inspiring leader to give them temporary hp. A good strategy is also to take zombies, equip them with the best armor you can find and command them to take the dodge action and stand before you and the enemy as a wall of flesh.

Way back in the day I used to play a Torched, Godly Necromancer build on Diablo II and there was little more I loved in the world than drawing up an army of skele's and watching those boys go to work. This seems like it would be an absolute blast at the table.

You can necromance if you wanna, You can bring the dead to life, Cause if your friends aren't dead, If their not dead, Then their no friends of mine

I never thought about using Magic Stone ammo dump for animated skeletons.

I’ll never forget my lovely skeleton archer made out of elves corpse called “Leprolas”

I've never had a character that had the chance to use this spell, but I've always wanted to!

Yes, just cast it before bedtime...then have your teammates attempt to sleep with undead monsters hungrily staring deadeyed at them all night long...

Ok. I need to back that book. I have a kobold that looks like David Bowie due to a circle of human perfection.

Interesting thing you can do RAW is raise a skeleton take their short bow, and short sword then kill them casting animate dead again giving you an unlimited supply of low weight high value weapons which you can sell so long as the caster has spell slots.

Be a cleric. Make a bunch of skeletons and one zombie. Get a druid in your party and have them cast barkskin on the zombie, then wild shape into a big bag of HP. Then cast aid on the zombie and druid. Congrats, you have two frontline meatballs and an archer army to back them up.

You call it an orphanage. I call it a home of potential recruits.

Wonder if you can coat part of the skeletons in liquid metal, though the bones mot splintering and cracking would be a good arguable point

I am not a huge fan of the zombie, but it does serve an important role that was skipped over. When it is reduced to 0 HP it can make a Con save or be set to 1 HP instead (DC 5+ damgage taken, Con save +3, ignore this with radiant or crit damage). That can make them particularly durable. The big thing with a zombie is it is a blocker and if you use it smart a grappler or a creature to knock foes over with. I like to think of zombies as a long duration area control spell, whereas skeletons are a long duration DPS boost.

Don't forget to have something like Firebolt or Create Bonfire to turn those pesky corpses into piles of bones.

Forget Magic Stone. The goal is to get each of your Skeletons a Wand of Magic Missile.

Best designed spell in the game

Warlock: You said something against rest casting, but what about 2nd breakfast casting?

I had to back this kickstarter my kobold Artillerist artificer zimdrik will be immortalize

the description of zombies in MM says they wield weapons but don't pick them up if dropped while skeletons can wear armor and use weapons like a regular warrior creature

Rest casting animate dead and create undead is risky, because if you spend too many slots during the day because of deadly fights, you won't have enough slots left to reassert control over all of them. So now suddenly you have an extra encounter as your uncontrolled skellies betray you, most likely right after the deadly fight that brought you so low on resources. Or if your rest is delayed even a minute later than yesterday's.

Just leveled to 6, to undying servant and I now have a ribcage spider that acts as a walking chair, a backpack, a roll cage, and a human holder. Two ribcages conjoined at the fronts, layed horizontally with 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 arms, 2 legs, no hands or feet tho

This video popped up at a great time for me, I'm currently working on a nercomacer build that's a cross between oathbreaker pally and undead warlock, hoping to combo the aura of hate with a few skeletons while I use the fear effects of warlock in melee

By raw, you create a skeleton which uses the stat block which comes with a free shortsword and short bow. kill the skeletons, claim the free weapons, separate the bones into multiple piles, like 4 or 5 bones per pile, repeat, more free weapons, free gold, and extra shortswords for your skeletons.

Kobold, there is another source of temporary hp you can get with any class: inspiring leader. If you have at least 13 charisma and the creatures you are affecting can understand what you are saying, then you can spend 10 minutes to give 6 of your skeletons (or any creatures) temp hp equal to your level plus your charisma modifier. A single creature can get this temp hp only once before they need a long rest, but you can use it on as many creatures as you have time for, everyone gets temp hp. This is great for if you can get this spell as a sorcerer, bard, or even better the warlock as charisma is going to be increased already.

Idea Fashion obsessed necromancer who spends her gold dressing up her skeletons and talking to them like puffed up poodles

Ok kobold, we need to a One D&D review!

Waste can't wait for the necro subclass vid Been playing a Wizard Necromancer for over a year now and its awesome

I typically like giving my players a lot of flexibility with raising the dead.

Damn it, now I want wings

Skelies are able to understand you so can get inspiring leader HP.

I have a necromancer player in the campaign I'm currently running. They use only skeletons as they are stronger, easier to animate and more fit in their bag of holding. My interpretation is the following 1) They don't animate with weapons or armour/shields/gear (that would make no sense) you have to hand it to them/provide any gear 2) They only have proficiency with Armour/weapons/gear the creature did in life. Which is up to my interpretation (case by case) as DM. 3) Therefore my necromancer (and NPC's) are perfectly welcome to turn a Medium size (BTW; so I'd require bones from 8 chickens, or 4 for a small size skeleton) into a vague humanoid/or bestial chimeric skeletal abomination BUT It can't wield weapons. I already told them I'd give it a single melee 'peck' attack it IS proficient in that is equivalent to the short sword (but no ranged) Or do some similar things with other animal skeletons. OR use special stat blocks such as Wolf skeleton; if they make a wolf/dog or similar skeleton, etc. I can and do also make custom stat blocks for skeletons. And/or use third party 5e content resources. 4) Higher level spell slots to make large and larger skeletons with special stat blocks. For the purpose of maintaining 'control' of larger skeletons they 'count' as multiple regular ones. Large = 2 Huge =3 Gargantuan =4. They only have medium and small currently as that is far easier to carry in the bag and use in even tight spaces (narrow dungeon/buildings/cave etc.). But have been known to enjoy the larger options and have discussed leaving and uncontrolled larger undead behind somewhere to guard an area at somepoint. And this player (at this point) knows they are playing chaotic Evil and everyone in the campaign knows... And everyone is happy with my rules so were all good. I'm hoping for a more good aligned campaign next for personal preference as DM, even if my players are all perfectly happy with Evil+ Neutral... I hope this comment helps someone!

I suddenly have the desire to roll a gobbo necromancer with a chicken skeleton army...