I have a player wanting to run a necromancer, 10 th level.
Before I allow this, I simply need some advice on what I am about to face.
It appears that he must resummon his dead every 24 hrs. I don't see anything that indicates his are any different than normal, other than he can summon more and a tad stronger.
If he commits his spell slots/prep to animate dead, is there anything from stopping him from summoning a small army (assuming components)? In the extreme:
1 skeleton for the spell, plus 1 for necromancy for casting at 3rd level. 3 slots total (6 skeletons)
1 skeleton for the spell, plus 1 for necromancy, plus 2 extra for casting at 4th level. 3 slots total (12 skeletons)
1 skeleton for the spell, plus 1 for necromancy, plus 2 extra for casting at 4th level, plus 2 extra for casting at 5th level. 2 slots total (12 skeletons)
It seems he could summon 30????.
In older versions I thought there were limits, based on player level or such. I'm not seeing anything. He will do this, I know he will, so if it's allowed I need to be ready, and if its not I need evidence that is it not.
Do his undeed provide advantage to each other, the necro and as such the rest of the party?
Unless commanded, they wouldn't have the sense to go for strategic advantage, but it's possible they could create it for themselves. I do not see anything that would limit him assuming corpses were plentiful and the paladin didn't mind.
However, the more undead created, the more threat the party will be under. His power would make the undead stronger than regular undead, and if for any reason he didn't cast his spells to maintain, the undead creatures would then turn on their monster and the party. 30 suped up undead still might not be enough for a 10th level party, but if the necromancer was incompacitated, they would have to deal with all the things themselves. I would personally stipulate that a undead felled after being brought back would be damaged enough not to be capable of being animated again requiring him to look for replacements.
I think as dm I would try to work story angles that may cause such a situation or at least reduce his corpse supply.
They could actually have up to 46 skeletons/zombies under their control. It'd take a while to do, but the recasting on undead you've already animated works differently than when you first animate them. You keep control of 4 undead you've created with a 3rd-level slot, 6 with a 4th, 8 with a 5th, and so on. They could get their 30, rest, and still have slots left over after they reassert their control over the 30 to create more.
With that being said, you're the DM, it's your world and you set the tone. A story that you have planned where the PCs are heroic adventurers righting the wrongs of a trouble world with might and magic hardly has room for a seedy Necromancer in it.
Set the expectation before it gets to be a problem. Determine what type of story you're going to be playing and have the players create their characters accordingly.
Ok, this helps.
I did preview the adventure and he does have a limit on possible corpses. There are also a few monsters that have not "official" bodies to use.
In addition, there is a Lich and Vampire at loose. They "can" get one to fight the other, sort of an enemy of my enemy thing, if they play their cards right, but in the end, both will face them.
I'm looking for rules on if the vampire or lich can assert control over his undead. That would make for a nice surprise.
Ha, well, the Paladin is not one of the characters, so the only player that is not overly fond (but will allow it) is the cleric.
Oh, one more question, reviewing his necromancer powers.
His power to leach life does not work on udead or constructs, but yet I see nothing in the spell vampiric embrace that prohibits this. My old edition thought, wasn't this not permitted before, is it now?
Summoning piles of undead is probably the best tactic in 5e due to bonded accuracy. And no, nothing in the rules makes it particulalrly hard.
It's within the rules, but I'd talk to the player and ask them to be considerate of the others. Waiting for him to move, attack and so on with a horde of undead would be quite boring for the others. I'd also try to give him other, off-screen (so to speak) uses for his minions so he doesn't feel the class feature is being entirely stifled. E.g. set them to guarding a home base, or digging up more bodies, or searching through a library for one particular book.
Phobos wrote:
1 high level enemy cleric and *poof* skeletons.
Just sayin'.
Also, give everyone at the table the same reasonable amount of time to take their turns. If the minion master can't manage his turn in that amount of time, they will have to prioritize. That's only fair to the other players.
DemoMonkey wrote:
While the necromancer can have a large army, I would certainly work with the player to keep it more reasonable level to keep them from overshadowing the rest of the party. Here is some other advice:
1) Have most cities and towns be semi-tolerent of a few undead as long as they don't make it too obvious. Low numbers of cloaked undead should not be a major problem, but an army of obvious undead should bring out the town guard. Note that in FR there is a City in the south (forget which) that actually has a continual beacon that is harmful to undead in the area. Most commoners would avoid you if they know (smell?). On the other hand, the player may gain advantage on some negotiations as the NPC may want to have the meeting over with as quick as possible.
2) I believe the spell does require bodies. Don't make this easy. No town, church, or maintained cemetary should allow him to waltz in and just create undead. The source of the bodies could have both positive and negative effects. If you turned some bandits into Zombies and the face some additional ones, they should react to recognizing thier previous associates, probably taking actions to avoid a similiar fate (surrender, run away, etc.). In the same way, if someone recognizes Old Aunt Silvia's brooch on that third skeleton, they are going to react agressivly.
3) Unless the source bodies already have the gear, they still need to purchace weapons and armor for them to use.
4) Find a balance on providing enough sources of matieral that he feels it is useful choice without making it so that every week the party has to focus on finding enough corpses to make him happy.
randl wrote:
Give the skeletons a share of the experience. They'll turn on the skeletons faster than you can say, "Now all I have to do is divide the total xp by 34 to calculate your share..." Just kidding... Do what iserith said. 
Every once in a while an army of skeletons will be cool. But if the player uses it every time for every encounter, its going to lose its fun factor pretty fast. Over the course of the campaign, I'd be sure to come up with some problems where an army of undead minions would be a good solution.
- Eck
Eck, I am going to have to say that, at least the first time, just to enjoy the reaction... priceless.