D&D Spell Focus: Create Undead & Animate Dead

D&D is better with friends. But if you can’t get your group organised... again... ever… wouldn’t it be great if you could make new friends who will always be around to play? Well, if you are a Cleric, Warlock or Wizard with a free level 6 spell slot, now you can! Simply ‘’find” the recently deceased bodies of three humanoids, give them some dice, cast “Create Undea…Friends!” and you’ve got 24 hours of fun! Terms and conditions apply. New friends require recasting each day to maintain friendship; ghouls may prefer Warhammer 40k, no guarantees of new friends not nibbling on your spleen. The new spleen is not included.

Not to be confused with the Level 3 Tasha’s Guide spell “Summon Undead” which only conjures up a single spiritual entity buddy from beyond the veil, or “Animate Dead” ANOTHER Level 3 spell that we’ll chat about briefly at the end of this video, “Create Undead” brings a whole party of ghoulish fun to the table. The spell has remained almost unchanged from 2014 to 2024, which is a good indicator that the game designers were pretty happy with it and no one on Reddit had been calling for its wholesale destruction… unlike “Counterspell”, which we covered the other week. The only real change has been the removal of 2 of the 3 material components, which no one used anyway, sooooo yeah let’s dig into what makes this spell an interesting option to live out your necromantic dreams of controlling an undead horde… Oh, and I mean HORDE. Stick around, and I’ll share how to have nearly FORTY undead servants from a single casting of this Level 6 bone-mine. (Bone-mine… really? That’s the best you could do? Well, it was that or “Flesh-mine” and… “Nononono … Bone-mine is fine. Proceed.)”

Create Undead has a couple of interesting conditions that need to be met in order to cast it. Firstly, and I think uniquely, they missed a great material component adjustment here, as personally I believe the caster should really be carrying 3 crushed gourds… because "We only come out at night"…. If you get that one, you are sad, and old, and I love you. That’s right, this is the only spell I can think of that can only be cast after sunset. I am genuinely surprised this was not axed from the new version, as it is exactly the kind of added complexity 5e24 has tried to remove from spells to streamline them. This casting condition goes all the way back to the original version of the spell in 2^nd Edition AD&D, so I think it kept its place due to its long lineage.

I like my Pumpkins Smashed.

Speaking of material component while technically you don’t need the 3 black 150gp Onyx pieces if you have a Spell Focus as they are not consumed, this a such a thematic mid-tier spell I feel it would be appropriate to encourage your lazy ass necromancer player to at least TRY to grab some black gems before visiting the local graveyard… which is a step they won’t be able to avoid unless they get their hands dirty first. Because while a spell focus can replace those gems, it cannot avoid the requirement of an additional material component of 3 (or more!) corpses of medium or smaller humanoids. This is also a bit restrictive, but boy does it make pitching camp in the local cemetery a much more appealing prospect! It also takes a full minute to cast the spell, so you need to pre-plan this one, as casting after the battle kicks off is not really an option.

For all your necrophilic efforts if you grab the gems, wait until night, and help to free up some valuable real estate in the local burial ground you will be rewarded with 3 new CR1 paralyzing Ghoul companions who will follow you around and do your bidding for 24h… when you will need to recast the spell to reassert your control over them or they will revert to their base instincts and likely try to make a meal of their creator. Upcasting grants you an extra ghoul per level for a total of 6 at level 9, but you can swap these out for some harder-hitting stinky CR2 Ghasts at level 8 or CR3 Mummies at Level 9 which while super scary vs player characters for their ability to curse your Max HP literally to death, are not the best choice for you, the aspiring young Level 17 Necromancer looking to stake your claim on the front cover of Necromovers Monthly.

No, no, no, what you want is the option to get Wights. 2 at level 8 AND 3 using your freshly available level 9 spell slot. Then, you want to find a town/village/community of morally ambiguous humanoids… preferably the defenceless kind, because a single Wight can use its Life Drain ability to bring up to twelve Zombies under its control 24 hours later…. Soooo when you reassert your control over your 5 wights the next evening in the now much quieter and more peaceful village… they can bring 60 of their Zombie buddies along for the ride. Your entourage is now at 65 melee maulers, and we’ve only used 2 spell slots.

Some call it the end of the road... to Necromancers it is the only the start!

But… it would be cruel to separate just a fraction of the community from their fellows… or ancestors… AND Create Undead doesn’t require concentration, sooooo remember that Level 3 “Animate Dead” spell we mentioned earlier? It basically functions exactly the same as “Create Undead”, but only summons Zombies or Skeletons, also doesn’t require concentration, also allows recasting each day to keep control AND can be upcast. So if you get your villager zombie hoard to head to the graveyard and dig up all their favourite relatives, cast Animate Dead at 8^th level getting 11 Skeletons… Cast again at Level 7 for 9 more, cast at Level 6 for an additional 7 and twice at Level 5 for 10 more… You have a regiment of 37 boney bowmen who join your ranks to swell your now very impressive Undead Hoard to… 102. Your own literal undead army…. Just put time tags on them so you know which ones need to be magically re-controlled when or things may get a little messy.

WIZ: OH But I’m a Level 17 Necromancer! …and in the current Unearthed Arcana for the subclass at level 14 I gained an ability called “Death's Master” which grants me a Bonus Action with which I can add temporary HP equal to Undead under my control. 

DM: Wow! Cool. So 17 Temp HP, that’s great for a zombie, to how many?

WIZ: All of them.

DM: Aw...all… of them… all 102 undead minions?

WIZ: Weeeelll they need to be within 60ft of me but, we’re a close family.

DM: Soooo you’ve just added… 1,714HP… with a Bonus Action. Right… just a second while I add that to my BANNED List! (Along with Silvery Barbs, Lucky Feat, Hollow Warden Rangers, Hitting on Your Mum’s Character, 2014 Conjure Animals, That Patrick Rothfuss Bull Shite, Stealing Faces, Guidance, 2024 Conjure Animals inside a Force Cage, Spiritual Weapon inside a Force Cage, actually, Force Cage, and now, Necromancers.)

Now I don’t know if you have a DM who’d be willing to let that shite fly but with some careful planning and a few casual war crimes you too can now be the un-life of any party and the Necromancer Centurion all those glory hog Evocation majors at magic school said you’d never be. So if you suddenly feel the need to terrorise your DM and campaign World with swarms of undead you can head to my Patreon where, for free, you can grab both the Create Undead and Animate Dead spell cards alongside a host of minions to make all your undying dreams come true. Complete spell card sets which contain these spells can be found in ZG Wizard, Warlock, and Cleric printable spell cards at the ZG Store. Happy Friend Making!