What Is The Best Thing You Can Make With Animate Dead

If yous want to have a mighty army of zombies or skeletons, Animate Expressionless 5e might be the shortcut you lot are looking for. This fun necromancy spell is a groovy way to give your party of adventurers a slight heave and make the fight more in your favor. Simply, of course, if you are a DM, you lot already know Breathing Dead is extremely useful in 5e.

From the perspective of a Dungeon Master, I will tell you how yous can utilise Animate Dead in 5e Dungeons and Dragons. I will also give yous a couple of worthwhile scenarios where this magic shines.

What is animate dead 5e

Animate a dead body into a zombie or skeleton
A corpse becomes a zombie minion
Basic volition become a skeleton minion
Apply a Bonus action to control the creature
You lose control of the minion after 24 hours

Both bones and corpses work

This Dungeons and Dragons magical spell reanimates a expressionless torso into an undead minion loyal to the caster and follows their commands. The minions yous can get from animate dead are a skeleton or a zombie.

Y'all need to target the remains, the trunk or bones, of a medium or small-sized humanoid for it to piece of work. A creature targeted with disintegrating won't work.

Then, depending on the target's left, yous will either become a skeleton minion or a zombie minion. Dungeon Masters volition thus need to say if the remains are bones or a corpse.

Commanding the animated dead

The caster can use their bonus action to control the undead creature. You lot do not need to say the commands aloud, but your servant needs to be within 60 anxiety to work.

When y'all have cast breathing dead in 5e, a 'timer starts to run. The creature you have animated will stop listening to your commands after 24 hours. You will need to recast animate dead before those 24 hours run out, or you volition lose control. If you lose power, you will need to cast it on another target.

You can have more one target to use this spell. Then for every spell slot over level iii, you control two actress undead! And so that means at the quaternary spell slot, you tin command 3, and at the 5th, y'all tin can manage five undead minions.

What happens when the magic wears off

When breathing dead wears off after your monster is defeated or the 24 hours are over, a couple of scenarios might happen. The most common is that the animate being returns to its natural state: beingness dead. I make the creature turn to dust; my players tin not utilize information technology again.

Sometimes, I go far 'level' up when an undead has defeated many enemies. If the spell wears off, I don't make the creature turn to dust but requite information technology its mind. It no longer accepts commands and either attacks the caster or tries to flee. The final scenario is pretty fun if you lot fix a side-boss for your entrada. You lot tin can take your skeleton come back subsequently, more robust and buffer!

Use animate dead 5e on 15 creatures at once

The max amount of undead you can have with animated dead in 5e is xv. You will have to put the spell in the tenth slot to get that many zombies or skeletons under your control. This increase is because every slot to a higher place the tertiary gives you the power to add ii more than creatures to your command.

So animate dead volition give y'all one zombie or skeleton under your command for 24 hours in the third slot. When you put the spell in the 4th slot, y'all will exist able to command three at one time. In the 5th slot, yous will exist able to accept five of them at once. This slot makes fifteen zombies or skeletons in total up to the 10th slot. Y'all can also have a combination of the two if you lot have both bones and corpses.

Animate dead 5e stats in DnD

School	Spell slot	Casting time	Range	Elapsing	Components
Necromancy	3rd	1 minute	10 anxiety	Instant	5, S, Thousand

Animate dead 5e info

If you are already familiar with how magic works in Dungeons and Dragons, check out the animate dead 5e stat cake at the end of the chapter. That block is a helpful summary for those already familiar with how spells work, components, etc.

Level to use

Animate Dead is a level 3 necromancy spell. Necromancy is ane of the schools of magic. There are many other schools, similar the schoolhouse of agreeableness or illusion.

Being a level 3 spell means y'all won't accept admission to it right away. Animate expressionless gets more powerful if you put it in a higher slot than the third. The elapsing does not alter, just the number of zombies and skeletons under your command rapidly increases. If you put this spell in but 1 slot higher, the 4th, you will get two extra zombies or skeletons under your command.

Casting time and elapsing

The casting fourth dimension is the fourth dimension needed to start and perform the spell. In the case of animate dead 5e, information technology will have y'all one minute, beginning to finish, to have a servant under your control. When casting the spell, the corpse or bones volition be animated into a skeleton or a zombie.

Once the magic has taken effect, it will last 24 hours. Later these 24 hours, you will no longer exist able to command your undead servant. If yous desire to extend this duration, you will need to cast animate dead over again on the target and reset the timer. If you don't do this, the spell won't affect anymore, and the fauna will either go rogue or autumn apart.

Range of event

The range to cast this magic is 10 anxiety. So the remains of a humanoid need to be 10 anxiety away from you at the most. If the bones or corpses are further away, y'all won't be able to animate them. Call back that the range to command your undead servant is threescore feet, which is a lot additionally.

If your undead goes exterior the range of lx feet, you won't be able to requite it any commands. That does not mean it will go rogue or start working birthday. It volition try to do its final guild, and if that is finished will try to get back to its primary (the caster) and try and get a new

Components needed

At that place are quite a couple of components needed to bandage animate dead in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. I will hash out all of them here. You tin detect a curtailed summary in the stat block.

Exact: You need to be able to say aural words to cast this magic. Your oral fissure needs to be able to produce an acoustic, understandable audio. So, physical and magical restrains could terminate you from raising your undead army.
Somatic: This is a fancy word for movement. Point at your target and make paw movements if you want to cast the spell. If your artillery are bound by magic or by something like a bunch of ropes, yous won't be able to utilize the attack.
Materials:There are a few spells where you need to have some cloth. For example, for Catnap, you need a compression of sand. Therefore, you need three different components for this magical sorcery.

Showtime, you will need to have a drib of blood. That drib of claret can be yours but as well from a animate being or an ally.

2d, y'all need to have a piece of Flesh. A bit is vague, and so I ascertain this as something the size of your thumb in my campaigns. The origin of the Flesh does not thing.

Last and 3rd, you will demand to take a compression of bone dust. A pinch is some other vague corporeality, so I put this at about 3 grams.

Target of animate dead

If you want to employ this spell, you volition need to discover some skeletons or corpses of a humanoid creature to animate in DnD. If you're going to have a skeleton as your servant, you will need to discover bones. If your undead minion of choice is a zombie, you lot will need to discover a corpse.

It is important to call back that the consequence only works on the corpses and basic of small and medium humanoid monsters.

Classes that tin can use Animate Expressionless

Two classes tin can use this necromancy magic.

Wizard
Cleric

But, of course, nobody is stopping you from making your classes in a Homebrew campaign. I even recommend y'all do so! It is a ton of fun.

The wizard and the cleric are the two classes that can use this necromancy spell. Since it is a level iii spell, and you need an open spell slot for this, the earliest level a cleric and wizard tin can use animate dead is level v.

At that level, your wizard will have two open spell slots and thus be able to apply this spell and another level. A slap-up Homebrew grade for magic in the necromancy schoolhouse would be the Eldritch Knight.

What are some undead monsters I can animate?

There is a lot of controversy on what you can and can not animate with this spell. Equally always, read the rules, and you will observe out. The rules explicitly say that you lot can use this magic to enhance undead from the remains (bones or a corpse) of a small and medium humanoid beast.

So no, you tin can not start animating the bones of a massive dragon or have an undead ice elemental as your servant. You need to follow the rules. However, finding the rules and applying them to every monster can be challenging or time-consuming, so I have made a list of monsters my players frequently endeavor to get under their command with this spell.

1. Zombie ogre

I take bad news for you if you want to use animate dead 5e to brand yourself a zombie ogre or an undead ogre. You lot tin can non use this spell. Animate Dead merely works on modest and medium humanoids. While yeah, an ogre is a humanoid, information technology is merely too big. Furthermore, it is a behemothic creature, and so the spell volition have no effect.

Of grade, you can ask your DM to alter the rules and have the spell piece of work on more behemothic creatures. Withal, I would advise you only to give this actress outcome if you identify it in a higher slot. I would even go so far as to say it should be put in the 9th or tenth spell slot if you desire to animate an ogre or some other giant brute.

2. Giant zombie

Yous tin not use animate dead to get giant zombies. The creature is too big for the spell to work. Y'all can make a regular zombie if yous have a small or medium humanoid corpse, simply a behemothic corpse will not practise.

If you cast the spell, it volition have no effect, and you will non accept this undead zombie giant do your behest! Withal, nobody stops you from doing a little Homebrew to tweak the rules.

3. lich

So you have just beaten a lich, and you have a pile of bones. Liches are small and medium-sized creatures. Well, most of the fourth dimension, they are. I am sure some campaigns out there utilize giant liches, but nosotros aren't talking about those.

If you use animate expressionless 5e on a lich, yous won't get a lich under your command. Instead, you lot will accept a regular skeleton without magic powers as your servant. Sorry to disappoint!

4. Minotaur skeleton

Minotaurs are humanoids that are about half-dozen feet in height on boilerplate. They are medium-sized creatures. So if y'all come across the bones or corpse of a Minotaur, you tin cast animate expressionless on it.

If you cast breathing dead 5e on it, you will become a regular Minotaur skeleton or a regular Minotaur zombie. It won't accept the stats that it had in life. So proceed this in mind before you lot get besides enthusiastic nearly your new ally.

What alignment do zombies and skeletons take?

In Dungeons and Dragons, skeletons and zombies are primarily aligned with evil. However, that is mainly because their masters who animate the dead (liches, necromancers, and wizards) are often evil.

In my campaigns, they are somewhat neutral beings with cravings like others. Like a cat will assail a rat, an undead will attack the living. Non out of any motivation, merely due to it being instinctual.

Is there good undead?

Of course, there is good undead too. If that undead gets the command to plant flowers or tend to the garden, a skeleton isn't going to protestation. It will only exercise what it has been commanded to exercise then.

How powerful is Breathing expressionless 5e?

At present you know how the magic works; you indeed have some scenarios in mind on how to apply it. Equally a Dungeon Master, I have seen my players exercise the craziest tricks and tactics with the undead. Still, I have done my fair share of sneakiness to surprise unknowing and cocky adventuring parties.

Up to 15 undead

While with animate expressionless 5e, you can take as many as xv undead nether your command. If you put it in the 10th spell slot, it is not as stiff as it sounds. To have that many undead, you will demand to cast the spell xv times and set the bodies or skeletons.

So if you are playing equally a death cleric or a necromancer and desire to use this spell at the start of the fight, you will accept to discover a mode to bring skeletons with yous. Y'all can do this with a portable hole or a good one-time cart full of corpses. Unfortunately, though, this is not the well-nigh practical solution.

Always have backup allies

The most powerful and all-time use for breathing undead is to apply information technology during the battle or reanimate the very corpse and skeleton you come across and take them follow you lot around. You tin can dress them upward if you lot practise not want to raise too much suspicion. The spell lasts upward to 24 hours, and yous can just cast it once more when information technology is almost to run out.

That volition be a lot more than convenient than carrying effectually the skeletons. Another adept way is to apply a couple of skeletons equally a beast of brunt. You can have 1 blithe skeleton or zombie carry around a bag of bones for yous to use later to accept additional minions.

Giving equipment to animated zombies and skeletons in 5e

There are no rules that y'all can not provide your undead minions with some fantabulous new equipment. Only make sure that they have the bodily levels to apply it, and it will be fine.

From a Dungeon master perspective, in that location is cypher wrong with giving your skeletons and zombies a scrap of extra equipment or making them into glorified pack mules for your items.

The rules in 5e are pretty simple; if it is non explicitly forbidden and your Dungeon Master is okay with information technology, it is fine. The latter role of that can be tricky, depending on how strict or reasonable your DM is. Just try to keep it fair to keep the game enjoyable for anybody.

Breathing dead FAQ

How do I start finding skeletons in DnD to animate?

The first option is to make them yourself. And then, defeat your enemies and turn them into skeletons. Unfortunately, this might exist too much of a hassle, so you will accept to rely on your Dungeon Master to litter his campaign with the occasional skeleton or two.

If you are shut to a town or a city, there should be a graveyard of some kind. In some soils, it takes hundreds of years for basic to decompose. So even a small boondocks will be more than plenty for a nice inventory boost of skeletons or corpses for zombies.

Tin can I animate objects with this spell?

No, this is non possible. The breathing dead necromancy spell can but be used on creatures and humans that have been alive at some signal and are at present a corpse or a zombie. These creatures need to exist humanoids and small or medium-sized.
An object like a chair, a tabular array, or even a adapt of armor tin can not exist blithe. If yous desire to exercise this, you lot need to use another spell.

What is the whistle of animate dead 5e?

The whistle is a magical item with the same event as the animate dead. However, this trinket is not the merely magical item that can practise this. There is also the wand of the animate dead. These objects are a great way to utilize the spell if you are not a cleric or a magician or if y'all practice not have the required magic slot for the spell.
In near cases, they are beginner items, so I would not give them out to my players as end-game rewards. However, y'all can have some villains in the beginning and middle of the campaign. And let them use these to buff the numbers of your minions.

Can you cast animate dead on a player character?

In theory, you can. The thespian character needs to exist dead and thus failed its final saving throw. Your player character's remains volition turn into either a skeleton or a zombie. This creature volition not have any unique attributes and volition be a regular undead without any memories of its previous life.
And then this is not a way to revive a actor that has fallen or has an extra powerful PC in your party. It will exist a regular skeleton or zombie without whatever additional stats. Even if your PC were a wizard, it wouldn't have whatsoever magical powers.

What are the earliest level death clerics and wizards go this necromancy spell?

The earliest level a cleric or a wizard can get animated dead in 5e is at level 5. This limit is because the third-level spell slot is open. So the wizard will get two bachelor spots here, and you volition exist able to put animate expressionless into one of them.
A couple of other popular Homebrew classes tin use this spell. Even so, you will demand to check out the clarification of those races to find out the earliest level at which they can use this awesome necromancy.

That was all you lot need to know about animate dead in 5e DnD! Practise y'all bask playing equally a necromancer, a lich, or a wizard that uses his skeleton and zombies to fight your battles? And so, you might be interested in my guide on healing undead 5e.

You tin read all in that location is to know nigh getting your undead armies in top shape and the rules on using potions, healing magic, and then on, on creatures like ghouls, Ghasts, and more!

Source: https://creaturecollege.com/animate-dead-5e-guide/

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