Alternative Necromancy
Parach'etam Ool, Lich King of the Healing Depths, laughs as the adventurers approach his latest masterpiece, an Ancient Silver Dragon raised as a Zombie to serve his whims. Balghul Vixud, dragonborn, party necromancer, and corpse peddler, looks in dismay at his troop of ordinary undead corpses shambling behind him. A twinge of jealousy fills his chest as he curses the gods that stopped his spellcraft from raising such powerful allies in favor of large masses.
Until now...
Animate Dead
3rd Level Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 10 feet
Components: V S M (A drop of blood, a piece of flesh, and a pinch of bone dust)
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard
This spell creates an undead servant or servants worth a combined total of 50xp. An undead creature worth less than 50xp cannot attack. Choose a pile of bones or a corpse within range. Your spell imbues the target with a foul mimicry of life, raising it as an undead creature. The target becomes a skeleton if you chose bones or a zombie if you chose a corpse (the GM has the creature’s game statistics). You can also select to raise a different creature with an XP value of 50 or less, which becomes a Zombie or skeleton subject to the template below.
A corpse becomes an undead under your control. An unremarkable humanoid corpse automatically becomes a standard form of the selected undead, costing its usual cost (for instance a zombie has an XP value of 50), but more remarkable humanoids and other types of creatures can retain some abilities in their undead form, and thus cost their own XP value if it is greater than the typical form of undead.
On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command any undead creature you animated if the creature is within 60 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures.
Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete. The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you’ve given it. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature again before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over 200xp worth of creatures you have animated with this spell, rather than animating new ones.
Casting this spell on the same corpse once a day for 4 days allows you to instead raise a corpse with an XP value of up to 150xp greater than the 50xp. This allows you to raise and control more individually powerful creatures, such as a Zombie Brown Bear (XP value of 200xp)
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you animate or reassert control over an additional 100xp worth of creature for each slot above 3rd.
Danse Macabre
5th level Necromancy
Casting time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
Threads of dark power leap from your fingers to pierce corpses you can see within range, turning them into a servant or servants worth up to 250 XP. Each corpse immediately stands up and becomes undead. You decide whether it is a zombie or a skeleton, and it gains a bonus to its attack and damage rolls equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.
A corpse becomes an undead under your control. An unremarkable humanoid corpse automatically becomes a standard form of the selected undead, costing its usual cost (for instance a zombie has an XP value of 50), but more remarkable humanoids and other types of creatures can retain some abilities in their undead form, and thus cost their own XP value if it is greater than the typical form of undead. More remarkable creatures become undead subject to the template below.
If an undead creature is worth less than 50xp, it cannot attack.
You can use a bonus action to mentally command any undead you have control over, issuing the same command to all of them. To receive the command, a creature must be within 60 feet of you. You decide what action the creatures will take and where they will move during their next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a chamber or passageway against your foes. lf you issue no commands, the creatures do nothing except defend themselves against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creatures continue to follow it until their task is complete. The creatures are under your control until the spell ends, after which they become inanimate once more.
At higher level: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th level or higher, you animate up 100 XP worth of additional undead for each slot level above 5th.
Create Undead
6th level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 10 feet
Components: V S M (One clay pot filled with grave dirt, one clay pot filled with brackish water, and one 150 gp black onyx stone for each corpse)
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard
You can cast this spell only at night. With this spell, you can turn up to 6 corpses into greater undead. You can select corpses with a combined total XP level of 600xp or less, and select a type of undead you would like to create, subject to meeting its XP value:
Humanoids raised can be made into Banshees (elf corpse only, 1,100xp), Bodaks (2,300xp), Ghasts (450xp), Ghosts (1,100xp), Ghouls (200xp), Mummies (700xp), Shadows (200xp), Skeletons (50xp), Specter (200xp), Wights (700xp), Wraiths (1,800xp) or Zombies (50xp). Other forms of undead can be chosen at DM discretion.
Non-humanoids can be raised as Skeletons or Zombies affected by the template, with other forms of undead available at DM discretion.
If an undead creature is worth less than 50xp, it cannot attack
Each corpse becomes an undead under your control. A creature worth less than 50xp cannot attack. An unremarkable humanoid corpse automatically becomes a standard form of the selected undead, costing its usual cost (for instance a ghoul has an XP value of 200), but more remarkable humanoids and other types of creatures can retain some abilities in their undead form, and thus cost their own XP value if it is greater than the typical form of the chosen undead.
As a bonus action on each of your turns, you can mentally command any undead creature you have animated if the creature is within 120 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete. The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you have given it.
To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over 600xp worth of creatures, rather than animating new ones.
Furthermore, you can control even greater undead by expending repeated uses of this spell to raise and control even greater entities, adding up the total value of the spell slots expended and comparing that to the creature's XP value. After casting this spell on a corpse, you learn how much more XP you need to provide to raise the corpse, and can do so if you provide enough experience points within 7 days of first casting this spell. Other spellcasters with Create Undead can also offer their spells for this, but the creature will be under the control of the spellcaster who began this process. Once created, the creature is under your control for 24 hours, and you must repeat the process to regain or maintain control.
You cannot provide more than 53000 XP for a single creature (The maximum value a level 20 Spellcaster can provide with repeated castings of this spell using every higher level spellslot)
At Higher Levels: casting this spell with a 7th level or higher slot allows you to animate and control creatures worth an additional 567xp for every slot above 6th.
Updated 'Undead Thralls'
In using these rules, Necromancers gain access to this new updated ability in place of their usual 6th level ability.
Undead Thralls
At 6th level, you add the Animate Dead spell to your spellbook if it is not there already. When you cast Animate Dead, you can create an undead worth an additional 50xp more than you would normally with the spell in a single casting, allowing for quicker animation of hordes or individual entities. This does not raise the amount you can control at once.
Whenever you create an undead using a necromancy spell, it has additional benefits:
• The creature's hit point maximum is increased by an amount equal to your wizard level.
• The creature adds your proficiency bonus to its weapon damage rolls.
Templates for Undead
Skeleton Template
An aberration, beast, dragon, fey, fiend, giant, humanoid, or monstrosity can become a skeleton. When it undergoes this transformation, it retains its statistics except as described below.
Lost Characteristics: The skeleton loses its original saving throw and skill bonuses, as well as any special senses. Some special traits may be removed at your discretion, such as traits that assume a living body, like amphibious.
Type: The skeleton’s type is Undead, and it loses any tags. It no longer requires air, food, drink, or sleep.
Alignment: The skeleton is Lawful Evil.
Ability Scores: The skeleton’s ability scores change as follows:
Con 15 (+2), Int 6 (-2), Wis: 8 (-1), Cha: 5 (-3). Int, Wis, and Cha can’t be increased by this change.
Senses: The skeleton has darkvision with a radius of 60 feet.
Armor Class: The skeleton’s AC is reduced by 2. This cannot reduce their AC below 10 + their Dexterity modifier.
Damage Vulnerabilities: The skeleton is vulnerable to bludgeoning damage.
Damage Immunities: The skeleton is immune to poison damage.
Condition Immunities: The skeleton can’t be exhausted or poisoned
Languages: The skeleton understands all languages it knew in life but can’t speak.
Zombie Template
An aberration, beast, dragon, fey, fiend, giant, humanoid, or monstrosity can become a zombie. When it undergoes this transformation, it retains its statistics except as described below.
Lost Characteristics: The zombie loses its original saving throw and skill bonuses, as well as any special senses or special traits.
Type: The zombie’s type is Undead, and it loses any tags. It no longer requires air, food, drink, or sleep.
Alignment: The zombie is Neutral Evil.
Speed: Reduce all the zombie’s speeds by 10 feet, to a minimum of 5 feet.
Ability Scores: The zombie’s ability scores change as follows:
Int 3 (-4), Wis: 6 (-2), Cha: 5 (-3). Int, Wis, and Cha can’t be increased by this change. The zombie’s Constitution score is increased by 2, and its Dexterity score is decreased by 6, to a minimum value of 6 (-2).
Senses: The zombie has darkvision with a radius of 60 feet.
Saving Throw: Wisdom. The zombie adds its proficiency modifier to its Wisdom saving throws
Damage Immunities: The zombie is immune to poison damage.
Condition Immunities: The zombie can’t be poisoned.
Hit Dice: The zombie gains two additional hit dice, increasing its hit points by the regular amount.
Undead Fortitude: If damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.
Languages: The zombie understands all languages it knew in life but can’t speak.
Thanks to Jonoman3000
These skeleton and zombie templates came from his Dark Arts Players Companion V2.0 and were invaluable for me in my quest to enhance 5e Necromancy