Welcome to my Necromancer guide! In this video let's make a master of the undead. Until we get animate dead, this is just going to feel like any wizard, but after level 6, we are really going to feel like a Necromancer. This is part 1 of 3 of this build. For Part 2 of this build: ua-cam.com/video/yZV1s5qbL44/v-deo.html For Part 3 of this build: ua-cam.com/video/eDTnbthShEY/v-deo.html Here's the link to the final build: ddb.ac/characters/17820943/ovktAW
I think this is one of the cases that not taking perception is acceptable. Since having disadvantage results in a -5 to passive perception and you're going to have that disadvantage whenever there's not dim light (light and darkvision darkness), might as well just accept that it's going to be a bad score and put no effort into it rather than something mediocre.
I think blindness and deafness was overlooked due to the fact it disables most spell casters and gives advantage. Cause fear is also pretty powerful if your looking to give advantage to party members and minions.
Worth noting, the Crawling Claw (an animated undead disembodied hand) is a Variant Familiar, and one of my favorites for a Necromancer. I also enjoy Ravens but that’s just opinion.
It's a spirit in the shape of a beast.. aside from the fact that you choose a type for it, just reflavor it as a skeletal or zombie version of whatever beast you choose.
With your Realization for your 17th Level, I wonder how much it would change this build overall. This being more theory-craft than optimizing, it makes me curious what an optimized necromancer would look like, as well as what things you would allow/disallow for necro-players for games you DM aside from reskinning spells (which I wish more DMs/GMs would allow). Did enjoy all three videos, and was certainly looking forward to them for weeks. Not a lot of people view necromancer's in positive light in their videos, nor do they seem enthused - or "animated" if you will - when talking about making a necromancer, or whether they would even allow one in their game. Thank you for breaking the mold, and taking time to put actual thought into making a Necromancer PC!
With that terrible Strength, I’d probably go with Levitate over Pyrotechnics. Sooner or later you’re going to have to make an Athletics check to climb up or down something.
Hmm, given that kobolds are evil, what if he was employed by a necromancer for nightly cadaver collection, but when the necromancer failed to become a lich, it left his stuff for the taking?
I think that Necromancer in 5e is a challenge in creativity. You need to use your options to make the most out of weak undead. A few things that I have found interesting: Mold Earth: you can use this to bury and unbury undead. Buried undead can become a trap if they are not buried deep. This gives you access to more skeletons, and it allows you to hide your undead in a pinch. Skilled feat: take tool proficiencies and combine this with Fabricate. Now you can outfit your undead army, provided the dm allows it.
Hardly anyone likes you rolling and moving x additional weak creatures. Necromancers are fun to play against, but outright suck to play in a group with, they drag out everything. The challenge is getting the party involved, or rolling another character.
Slight correction, there is a 1st-level damage-dealing necromancy spell: Ray of Sickness. Of course, there is no universe where you should ever take Ray of Sickness, so I can see why you'd ignore it.
There are a lot of reasons people wouldnt continue to part 2/3. Wouldn't totally attribute it to not caring about high levels. ie they learn what the build's goal is and arent into it
Maybe not until 5th level, but I do feel like there should have been a section here on "Things to do with your undead minions". For example, you mention carrying a torch later for use with pyrotechnics. But they can do things like wear armor and shields, so load up on found items and use those to equip your minions. You can use the Fabricate spell and Blacksmithing Tools to make equipment for your undead minions. They can use the help action to aid your allies, shove and grapple, transport items for you, drop ball bearings or caltrops, form a wall to allow your party to retreat, form a wall to force foes down a specific path, transport you (maybe with a palanquin depending on your size). You could use a disguise kit to try and make them look not-undead. I also wonder if the ability scores for a Kobold really are kinda a drag for this build despite the one benefit you mention from cowering. A bonus to Charisma, for example, would allow you to use the Inspiring Leader feat to give temporary hit points to your undead minions every short rest. A high elf might work well here (bonus to charisma, and two other ability scores to deal with int and con or dex), with a variety of the elves working as well (bonus to charisma and intelligence and bonus cantrips).
The kobold was a very flexible part of this build. I mainly used it because I figured it was something that would work decently with Kobold and I wanted to vary the races in each build. As for arming/armoring up the undead, I would question whether they have the appropriate proficiencies.
@@TreantmonksTemple Assume they lack proficiency. That's OK. So they cannot add their proficiency bonus to the weapon - no biggie since their proficiency bonus is pretty low anyway and the weapon likely naturally does more than the proficiency bonus added to it. Armor would give them disadvantage on attacks, so that will depend on how useful the armor is and whether they were attacking or being used for defense and helpful non-attacks.
I am curious of the ethicacy of taking a single dip into Artificer for the Necromancer. Get medium armor proficiency and shield proficiency, access to Faerie Fire which will be a nice way to give your allies advantage to hit, cure wounds, and Magical Tinkering which could be argued to give the ability to make tiny nonmagical object (like a shortbow perhaps) magical.
Grim harvest reward spells that do damage on other creatures turns more than one time use spells. Lvl 2 spells:Flaming sphere, cloud of daggers, dragon breath on a familiar or undead, dust devil. Lvl 4 spells: evards black tentacles, fire shield, mordenkainens faithful hound, sickening radiance, storm sphere, wall of fire.
Me: "I'm making a kobold Necromancer. I should look up a build..." This channel: "necromancer with a kobold" Me: "THE STARS HAVE ALIGNED!!!" Edit: they removed the -2 to strength, so that's nice.
I would love for you to try and calculate damage post level 6 with this build. How good is it? Obviously you're losing out of castings of L3 spells and it seems to be more of a damage/cc hybrid so raw damage isnt its main job, but by the time you have a few minions out it must be decent.
at L6 if you prepare well, you have 12 skeleton archers, all attacking with a bonus to damage equal to proficiency. 1d6+5 at that level. thats a lot of arrows round after round. From experience you are a damage machine. i had a bag of holding that stored all my bones that I collected from L1+ so you have enough raw materials to work with. best of all if they die, as long as the bones arent destroyed you just pick them up and reanimate sometime later. melted dragons, a duo of wyverns, all sorts of things very quickly. it got out of hand and had to stop playing that character because he was outshining the rest of the group.
@@JohnSmith-bg4hu that's exactly my worry with stuff like this. I've just worked with my DM to nerd conjour animals to make it more fun for me and eveyone else by making it less reliable.
@@Domina7ion in my experience if you want to have a horde of summons, you could try just assigning them equally between the party. that worked for a little while, the downside being if there are any new players they will not know how to run summons and will bog the game down significantly. they are fun characters to play if the group doesnt get irritated that its becoming a 1-man show. wizards are powerful, man. just retire them to be bad guys and roll a new char once that happens
There is the loophole with shortrests and aspect of the moon/lesser restoration to pile on spell slots and when you go somewhere just raise the whole cemetery as you leave
Kobolds are actually quite good still. They have a few branch options that work great for a wide variety of reasons, regardless of class. You can take a +2 and a +1 to two stats. That said, a solid pick is Vedalken. +2 INT. 1 hr water breathing. Flavors well being usually nuetral, stoic and studious. It depends on what you're going for. Hell, you could even multiclass a circle of spores druid for a couple of levels and really become a powerhouse.
Could you PLEASE make a guide for a strength based grappling Lore bard? Preferably without needing to multi class. I’m talking Expertise in Athletics, Cutting Words against contested grapple escape attempts, Enlarge/Reduce to become Large and make grapples at advantage... Full on smack talking WWE wrestler.
Grim Harvest is 100% useless, how often do you kill a creature with damage from a spell in general in D&D. Until you get like fireball, where you might snuff out minions, you don't kill things with spells.
Dear TreantMonk, I do wonder why do you take Absorb elements? what is the cause of it? since it seems like a really bad Ida if you are a wizard and want to go into melee to unleash the absorbed elements. or are we Using it Just as defence?
It's for defence. Half damage from elements is really good for a first level spell slot, especially for wizards as they tend to be on the squishier side so any way to mitigate damage is much appreciated.
Welcome to my Necromancer guide! In this video let's make a master of the undead. Until we get animate dead, this is just going to feel like any wizard, but after level 6, we are really going to feel like a Necromancer. This is part 1 of 3 of this build.
For Part 2 of this build: ua-cam.com/video/yZV1s5qbL44/v-deo.html
For Part 3 of this build: ua-cam.com/video/eDTnbthShEY/v-deo.html
Here's the link to the final build: ddb.ac/characters/17820943/ovktAW
always enjoy ur vids
What race would you use in a Spelljammer setting?
The crawling claw seems like an innocent enough undead familiar option to ask your DM about.
And then you can name it "Thing" and thank it a lot.
That's the build I most wonder how you would do nowdays
Let's see a Necromancer Variant! Also, I'd love to see "The Good Necromancer" build. Seems like a neat theme.
Check out the grey necromancer from narated D&D stories. He's not.good but probably as close as you're gonna get
White Necromancer from Kobold Press' Deep Magic. It's on the 5e SRD website (easy google too)
I think this is one of the cases that not taking perception is acceptable. Since having disadvantage results in a -5 to passive perception and you're going to have that disadvantage whenever there's not dim light (light and darkvision darkness), might as well just accept that it's going to be a bad score and put no effort into it rather than something mediocre.
I think blindness and deafness was overlooked due to the fact it disables most spell casters and gives advantage. Cause fear is also pretty powerful if your looking to give advantage to party members and minions.
Man, it's crazy that we're already at the second-to-last video. Been enjoying the ride! Fave so far was the Abjurer, but War Magic was a close second.
> It's going to be a kobold and there's a reason for that I will get to later in...
isn't "you get to be a kobold" reason enough?
that's a hard question to answer
@@TreantmonksTemple that's a very gnomish response
I been using your guides since 3.5, can't wait to see more from you Treantmonk.
Thanks Carlos - lots more to come!
Worth noting, the Crawling Claw (an animated undead disembodied hand) is a Variant Familiar, and one of my favorites for a Necromancer.
I also enjoy Ravens but that’s just opinion.
It's a spirit in the shape of a beast.. aside from the fact that you choose a type for it, just reflavor it as a skeletal or zombie version of whatever beast you choose.
With your Realization for your 17th Level, I wonder how much it would change this build overall. This being more theory-craft than optimizing, it makes me curious what an optimized necromancer would look like, as well as what things you would allow/disallow for necro-players for games you DM aside from reskinning spells (which I wish more DMs/GMs would allow).
Did enjoy all three videos, and was certainly looking forward to them for weeks. Not a lot of people view necromancer's in positive light in their videos, nor do they seem enthused - or "animated" if you will - when talking about making a necromancer, or whether they would even allow one in their game. Thank you for breaking the mold, and taking time to put actual thought into making a Necromancer PC!
My dm let me have a skeleton cat familiar.
With that terrible Strength, I’d probably go with Levitate over Pyrotechnics. Sooner or later you’re going to have to make an Athletics check to climb up or down something.
SharkForce That’s a good idea to make someone else carry you.
Hmm, given that kobolds are evil, what if he was employed by a necromancer for nightly cadaver collection, but when the necromancer failed to become a lich, it left his stuff for the taking?
Aha finally. You're the best man, now its time for a variant of the necromancer.
Agreed!
If you're not damaged, it does nothing - but when you are damaged, it does more than the goggles.
The goggles do nothing.
I think that Necromancer in 5e is a challenge in creativity. You need to use your options to make the most out of weak undead.
A few things that I have found interesting:
Mold Earth: you can use this to bury and unbury undead. Buried undead can become a trap if they are not buried deep. This gives you access to more skeletons, and it allows you to hide your undead in a pinch.
Skilled feat: take tool proficiencies and combine this with Fabricate. Now you can outfit your undead army, provided the dm allows it.
Hardly anyone likes you rolling and moving x additional weak creatures. Necromancers are fun to play against, but outright suck to play in a group with, they drag out everything.
The challenge is getting the party involved, or rolling another character.
Good stuff per usual. Thanks for making my Monday commute easier!
Slight correction, there is a 1st-level damage-dealing necromancy spell: Ray of Sickness. Of course, there is no universe where you should ever take Ray of Sickness, so I can see why you'd ignore it.
I was waiting for this for the last couple of days
magical initiate (cleric) at level 4 gets you inflict wounds (3d10) is a great first level damaging spell
You actually feel like a necromancer from level 1, since your character has the weird habit of collecting every set of bones they can find
There are a lot of reasons people wouldnt continue to part 2/3. Wouldn't totally attribute it to not caring about high levels. ie they learn what the build's goal is and arent into it
True
Maybe not until 5th level, but I do feel like there should have been a section here on "Things to do with your undead minions". For example, you mention carrying a torch later for use with pyrotechnics. But they can do things like wear armor and shields, so load up on found items and use those to equip your minions. You can use the Fabricate spell and Blacksmithing Tools to make equipment for your undead minions. They can use the help action to aid your allies, shove and grapple, transport items for you, drop ball bearings or caltrops, form a wall to allow your party to retreat, form a wall to force foes down a specific path, transport you (maybe with a palanquin depending on your size). You could use a disguise kit to try and make them look not-undead.
I also wonder if the ability scores for a Kobold really are kinda a drag for this build despite the one benefit you mention from cowering. A bonus to Charisma, for example, would allow you to use the Inspiring Leader feat to give temporary hit points to your undead minions every short rest.
A high elf might work well here (bonus to charisma, and two other ability scores to deal with int and con or dex), with a variety of the elves working as well (bonus to charisma and intelligence and bonus cantrips).
The kobold was a very flexible part of this build. I mainly used it because I figured it was something that would work decently with Kobold and I wanted to vary the races in each build. As for arming/armoring up the undead, I would question whether they have the appropriate proficiencies.
@@TreantmonksTemple Assume they lack proficiency. That's OK. So they cannot add their proficiency bonus to the weapon - no biggie since their proficiency bonus is pretty low anyway and the weapon likely naturally does more than the proficiency bonus added to it. Armor would give them disadvantage on attacks, so that will depend on how useful the armor is and whether they were attacking or being used for defense and helpful non-attacks.
@@markcronan yep, I would say it's a bigger issue for the armor than the weapons.
I am curious of the ethicacy of taking a single dip into Artificer for the Necromancer. Get medium armor proficiency and shield proficiency, access to Faerie Fire which will be a nice way to give your allies advantage to hit, cure wounds, and Magical Tinkering
which could be argued to give the ability to make tiny nonmagical object (like a shortbow perhaps) magical.
Ray of Sickness 1st lvl spell.
A crawling claw is a good familiar if your DM allows
Im so happy Kobolds do not have the negative str penalty. And thanks to Tasha's I can turn this dexterity into an int bump
What would be other viable races? Sadly kobold wouldn't really fit with my backstory.
thanks been looking forward to this one now hopefully I can play a necromancer in a game lol.
Looks like the BBEG is in grave danger
You don't get advantage unless your not in sunlight. You just attack normally as it cancels the disadvantage
If you or your target are in Sunlight you get the disadvantage. Not just you.
Ray of Sickness is a level 1 Necromancy spell that can benefit from Grim Harvest.
Mold earth for quickly excavating graves.
Thank you!
does grim harvest heal you more if you kill more than one creature with a spell?
Ill be checking out the 3rd video. Sounds juicy.
Uhhhhh...yeah, so I was mistaken...doesn't affect the build, but the trick I was looking forward to sharing doesn't work.
Why can’t I add Toll the dead or other things it brings me to market place to buy stuff?
Is it because I picked Dragonborn?
did he say there are no necromancy damaging spells at 1st level?
what about ray of sickness?
Grim harvest reward spells that do damage on other creatures turns more than one time use spells.
Lvl 2 spells:Flaming sphere, cloud of daggers, dragon breath on a familiar or undead, dust devil.
Lvl 4 spells: evards black tentacles, fire shield, mordenkainens faithful hound, sickening radiance, storm sphere, wall of fire.
As long as you get some kills, yes!
Ray of sickness is a necromancy dmg spell for level 1
Me: "I'm making a kobold Necromancer. I should look up a build..."
This channel: "necromancer with a kobold"
Me: "THE STARS HAVE ALIGNED!!!"
Edit: they removed the -2 to strength, so that's nice.
I think this video is not included in the play list
Guilty Pleasures: A Treatmonk's Guide
I would love for you to try and calculate damage post level 6 with this build. How good is it? Obviously you're losing out of castings of L3 spells and it seems to be more of a damage/cc hybrid so raw damage isnt its main job, but by the time you have a few minions out it must be decent.
at L6 if you prepare well, you have 12 skeleton archers, all attacking with a bonus to damage equal to proficiency. 1d6+5 at that level. thats a lot of arrows round after round. From experience you are a damage machine. i had a bag of holding that stored all my bones that I collected from L1+ so you have enough raw materials to work with. best of all if they die, as long as the bones arent destroyed you just pick them up and reanimate sometime later. melted dragons, a duo of wyverns, all sorts of things very quickly. it got out of hand and had to stop playing that character because he was outshining the rest of the group.
@@JohnSmith-bg4hu that's exactly my worry with stuff like this. I've just worked with my DM to nerd conjour animals to make it more fun for me and eveyone else by making it less reliable.
@@Domina7ion in my experience if you want to have a horde of summons, you could try just assigning them equally between the party. that worked for a little while, the downside being if there are any new players they will not know how to run summons and will bog the game down significantly. they are fun characters to play if the group doesnt get irritated that its becoming a 1-man show. wizards are powerful, man. just retire them to be bad guys and roll a new char once that happens
Instead of Kobold I use Human any advice based on this build?
The race isn't that vital to the build.
isn't the sorlock multiclass with divine soul sor just a better version of this subclass?
How so? Is there a way for a sorlock to get the #'s and enhancements to undead that this guy gets through undead thralls?
There is the loophole with shortrests and aspect of the moon/lesser restoration to pile on spell slots and when you go somewhere just raise the whole cemetery as you leave
@@TaperRaper how?
kobold's no longer work the same way. Do you have a new race or stick with kobold?
Kobolds are actually quite good still. They have a few branch options that work great for a wide variety of reasons, regardless of class. You can take a +2 and a +1 to two stats.
That said, a solid pick is Vedalken. +2 INT. 1 hr water breathing. Flavors well being usually nuetral, stoic and studious.
It depends on what you're going for. Hell, you could even multiclass a circle of spores druid for a couple of levels and really become a powerhouse.
Could you PLEASE make a guide for a strength based grappling Lore bard? Preferably without needing to multi class. I’m talking Expertise in Athletics, Cutting Words against contested grapple escape attempts, Enlarge/Reduce to become Large and make grapples at advantage... Full on smack talking WWE wrestler.
That sounds pretty good. I'll consider doing that at some point, in the meantime, seems like you have a good handle on it.
I'll make a guess. Is it.... wish -> animal shapes?
No, it's me thinking I found something cool, and discovering at the last minute it doesn't work :(
@@TreantmonksTemple Haha! Ah.. shame. I wonder what it is. Well, only one way to find out!
Why is it saying go to marketplace for more options the PAY 💰 big coin ?
Video is only good for start off stats
Grim Harvest is 100% useless, how often do you kill a creature with damage from a spell in general in D&D. Until you get like fireball, where you might snuff out minions, you don't kill things with spells.
At last 😁👍🏻
Dear TreantMonk, I do wonder why do you take Absorb elements? what is the cause of it? since it seems like a really bad Ida if you are a wizard and want to go into melee to unleash the absorbed elements. or are we Using it Just as defence?
It's for defence. Half damage from elements is really good for a first level spell slot, especially for wizards as they tend to be on the squishier side so any way to mitigate damage is much appreciated.