I'm Going to Raise Myself An Army: The Necromantic General

Branchae surveyed the field in front of him. He had thirty zombies in the field, twenty with swords and ten with bows, versus forty orcs. He smiled. He had his twenty swordszombies charge into battle and his ten bowzombies rain arrows on the orcs. His bowzombies would keep changing targets when their targets were eliminated, with one looking for the chieftain. He sent his crawling hand off around the bend to look for the orc leader. The orc leader saw the hand and charged it. The hand retreated and the chieftain followed it. Once he popped into sight of the bowzombies, Branchae had them change their targeting; the chieftain was quickly peppered with arrows. The orcs were easily cleaned up.

Better yet: He was able to increase his platoon’s size with the dead orcs.

Necromancers are in a relatively unique position: With a little planning, a high-level necromancer can have a decent-sized force within a few minutes. Better yet, they can obtain replacements for fallen troops just as fast. The material components for animate dead are relatively simple to find on the battlefield, virtually ensuring that a prepared necromancer can quickly create a force to be reckoned with, especially if the party’s barbarian has finished with a successful rage against an enemy force. Throw in a couple of scrolls, and the size of the force a necromancer can create can get pretty sizable.

A necromantic general can therefore turn the tide of battle. As they can create a few more undead with additional strength and more capabilities than a standard skeleton or zombie, they can become an even greater force on the battlefield. If they bring their potential undead servitors extra armor, and there are numerous options for that, they can become a truly terrible force on the battlefield.

[Design Considerations: The idea is to create a necromancer who commands undead in battle; this subclass should be able to do so. It should be noted that there is one weakness: Once the enemy determines you’re in control of a squad of undead, they’re going to target you. With that in mind, you should look at feats that increase your hit point maximum (Toughness) or mobility (Fey-Touched or Speedy). You should also debate Telekinetic (to help your undead minions deal with a problem target) or Telepathic (to talk to allies and freak out opponents). There is no real advantage to multi-classing for you, but you may consider Fighter or Ranger for additional hit points and combat options.]

Level 3: Necromantic Prodigy

When you scribe necromantic spells into your spellbook, it takes half the time and gold to do so.

Level 3: Undead Servant

When you cast find familiar, you can summon a skeleton or crawling hand instead.

Level 6: Undead Thralls

You gain animate dead in your spellbook, if you didn’t have it before. If you have another pile of bones or dead body when you cast animate dead, you can create one more. Additionally, when you create undead with a necromancy spell, increase its maximum hit points by your wizard level and add your proficiency bonus to its weapon damage rolls.

Level 10: Soldier Skeleton

The skeletons and zombies you raise with animate dead have either a short sword or crossbow and a quiver of 20 bolts.

Level 14: Undead General

When you command undead, you have more options.

Attack: You can set up conditional commands (once Target X is eliminated, go after Target Y instead, or atack Target Z if a condition is met).

Guard: You can set a password or the undead can allow certain individuals through.

Help Another: The undead can defend its nearest ally.