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Necromancer Spells

By September 27, 2022May 15th, 2024Necromancer, Spells
Intense blue-green magic pours from a female-presenting wizard in the background, lifting her from the ground and flaring her waist-length white hair behind her. She is surrounded by skeletal minions brandishing rusty weapons.

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Necromancer Spells

Necromancer Spell List

Necromancers can learn spells from the following list when they gain certain levels in their class. Spells marked with an asterisk (*) are new to this class.

Cantrips (0 Level)

Acid Splash
Chill Touch
Dancing Lights
Flesh Ripper*
Hocuspocus*
Light
Mage Hand
Mending
Minor Lifesteal
Poison Spray
Shocking Grasp
Spark of Life*
True Strike

1st Level

Alarm
Bane
Command
Detect Evil and Good
Detect Magic
Exhume*
Expeditious Retreat
False Life
Flawed Reconstruction*
Fog Cloud
Grease
Identify
Inflict Wounds
Mage Armor
Might of the Abyss*
Protection from Evil and Good
Sleep
Unseen Servant

2nd Level

Acid Arrow
Blindness/Deafness
Darkness
Darkvision
Detect Thoughts
Enlarge/Reduce
Gentle Repose
Invisibility
Knock
Locate Object
Misty Step
Pass Without Trace
Ray of Enfeeblement
Silence
Spider Climb
Web

3rd Level

Animate Dead
Bestow Curse
Call Lightning
Clairvoyance
Counterspell
Dispel Magic
Fear
Gaseous Form
Glyph of Warding
Nondetection
Phantom Steed
Remove Curse
Revivify
Speak with Dead
Stinking Cloud
Vampiric Touch

4th Level

Arcane Eye
Blight
Death Ward
Dimension Door
Grasp of the Grave*
Greater Invisibility
Locate Creature
Phantasmal Killer
Secret Chest

5th Level

Antilife Shell
Cloudkill
Contagion
Dispel Evil and Good
Dream
Insect Plague
Modify Memory
Scrying
Teleportation Circle

6th Level

Circle of Death
Contingency
Create Undead
Eyebite
Flesh to Stone
Harm
Magic Jar

7th Level

Etherealness
Finger of Death
Plane Shift
Sequester
Teleport

8th Level

Antimagic Field
Clone
Feeblemind
Gahoul’s Glorious Gothic*
Mind Blank
Power Word Stun

9th Level

Imprisonment
Power Word Kill
Storm of Vengeance
Weird

Spell Descriptions

The spells are presented in alphabetical order.

Exhume

1st-level necromancy (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a drop of blood)
Duration: Instantaneous
Choose an unoccupied 20-foot square within range—note that the area must have solid earth beneath it; this spell fails if cast on the upper floor of a building. This spell then causes one pile of Humanoid bones to rise out of the ground within that square. If you cast this spell within a burial place such as a graveyard, mausoleum, or barrow, 1d4 piles of bones are exhumed instead of 1. The ground itself is not changed or disturbed by this spell; the bones simply appear out of the ground.

Flawed Reconstruction

1st-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a needle and thread)
Duration: Instantaneous
You stitch together the wounds of a willing creature you touch, which regains 4d6 hit points. However, the mending is imperfect, and the target’s hit point maximum is reduced by the same amount until it finishes a long rest. A creature that regains hit points due to this spell will be left with some permanent scars.
      At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the healing increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.

Flesh Ripper

Transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
As you cast this spell, a spectral meat hook is flung at the creature of your choice, connected to a spectral chain. Make a ranged spell attack against a creature within range. On a hit, the target takes 1d8 piercing damage as a spectral meat hook plunges into their body. Until the start of your next turn, the target must make a Strength saving throw to move further than 30 feet from you. On a failed save, it is prevented from moving until the start of your turn. This effect ends if you are further than 30 feet away from the target.
This spell’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

Gahoul’s Glorious Gothic

8th-level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 1 mile
Components: V, S, M (a decorated gothic manor miniature worth at least 1,000 gp)
Duration: 7 days
A rift opens, pouring forth tons of brick and stonework that neatly and quickly assemble into a vast gothic estate. The estate consists of a manor containing a vault, a spacious 200-by-200-foot courtyard, and a 10-foot high wrought iron fence around the perimeter. Any creature within the estate’s area is escorted away by harmless but forceful specters.
You can create any floor plan you like for the manor, but the space can’t exceed 50 cubes, each cube being 10 feet on each side, or five stories in total, including basements. The manor is adorned with barred windows and decorative gargoyles, but is furnished and decorated as you choose. Once the manor is first created, these details are recorded in the miniature manor used to cast the spell and can’t be changed. The manor is staffed by 50 skeletons obedient to you, and contains enough food to serve 50 people each day for a week. The skeletons can perform any task a normal human servant could perform, but they can’t attack or take any action that would directly harm another creature.
The manor contains a 15-foot cube vault, which is an extradimensional space. Items placed within the vault will be present next time you cast this spell.
The courtyard is drenched in necromantic magic, such that any Humanoid buried in its grounds rises 24 hours later as a ghoul under your control, as per the create undead spell. When the spell is cast, 3 ghouls are animated in the courtyard. These Undead are under your control, but can’t leave the estate. They patrol the estate if given no other instructions. Undead can’t be turned within the estate.
The estate crumbles into dust and bone after 7 days, and all items placed within the manor appear safely in the space the manor occupied. If cast in the same place once every 7 days for a year, the estate becomes permanent.

Grasp of the Grave

4th-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M (a shrunken hand)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Spectral skeletal arms emerge from the ground in a 20-foot-radius circle, centered on a point you can see within range. The arms grasp at creatures within the area, except for Undead creatures, which ignore the effects of this spell. The area is difficult terrain.
When a creature enters the area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and is dragged by the hands to any unoccupied space within the area that you choose. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much damage and is not moved.
Until the spell ends, you can use your action to force each creature within the area to immediately make a save against this spell.
      At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, its damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 4th.

Hocuspocus

Conjuration cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
You conjure minor paranormal phenomena and other ominous effects. You create one of the following magical effects within range for 1 minute:
  • You cause all candles, torches, and other open flames to darken and flicker.
  • You create a quiet sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as ominous whispers, the drone of insects, or the sound of crying.
  • You create up to four torch-sized spectral, glowing orbs, which float around within range. The orbs do not provide light, apart from a dim glow.
  • You can chill or warm the air in a 10-foot cube by 10 degrees.
  • You cause small, unattended objects to rattle or levitate an inch off the ground.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.

Might of the Abyss

1st-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 15 feet
Components: V, S, M (a small, black strip of ribbon)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You channel stygian power from an extraplanar source, enhancing three creatures other than yourself within range. Whenever a target makes a weapon attack, it adds 1d4 damage to their damage roll. If a target moves more than 15 feet away from you, it loses the effect until it is within range again.
      At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the range increases by 5 feet, and you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 1st.

Spark of Life

Necromancy cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
With a quick jolt of necromantic energy, the dead momentarily rise to obey you, if only for a few seconds. Choose the corpse of a Huge or smaller creature that has been dead for no more than an hour. When you cast this spell, the corpse stands up and can move up to 15 feet and make a single melee slam attack against a target of your choice within its reach, using your spell attack modifier. On a hit, this attack deals bludgeoning damage based on the corpse’s size: a Tiny corpse deals 1d4, a Small corpse deals 1d6, a Medium corpse deals 1d8, a Large corpse deals 1d10, and a Huge corpse deals 1d12. Once the corpse attacks, it once again crumples into a heap. A corpse targeted by this spell doesn’t become an Undead creature.
This spell’s damage increases as you gain levels. At 5th level, the corpse deals two damage dice according to its size. At 11th level, it deals three damage dice, and at 17th level, it deals four damage dice.

The skeletal undead wizard Valda graces the cover of Valda's Spire of Secrets

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