D&D: The New Necromancer Wizard Playtest – A Surprising Amount of Temporary Hit Points
The Necromancer Wizard subclass has always been a bit of a weird one for D&D, and in the playtest, it’s not any less weird.
When it comes to Wizard archetypes, Necromancer is one that’s been around for a while but is also hard to get right in D&D. This is because it’s a very specific archetype to deliver on. One would think all you have to do is be good at making enemy corpses into allied corpses (that then move around). But that’s simply not the case. Depending on who you ask there’s a lot that goes into Necromancy. And in 5.5E, it’s looking like Necromancy is going to be all about life force—specifically temporary hit points.
Necromancer Wizard Playtest: Life and Death and Temporary Hit Points
In D&D the school of Necromancy is all about exploring “the cosmic forces of life, death, and undeath.” Which tracks so far—but a couple of things worth noting; the healing spells in D&D are Conjuration spells now. So Necromancy as a spell school only sort of touches on “the forces of life” is in keeping someone from being dead. Notably spells like Revivify and Raise Dead, which Necromancers don’t actually get.
What they can do instead is wield temporary hit points, most often gained through draining away someone else’s life force. Sometimes this translates to actual healing. Vampiric Touch famously heals Wizards of however much damage it deals to a target as you transfer life force.
I’m not pointing this out because it makes Necromancers inherently evil, but rather to set expectations. Because the other thing is undeath and you don’t get too much of that. In fact, at the beginning, mostly what Necromancers get is the ability to slightly buff themselves or their allies, kind of like a very proactive healer.
Starting at level 3, when Necromancer Wizards gain their big bread and butter feature, Necromancy Spellbook. This represents you unlocking the secrets of necromancy in your spellbook and gives you two different benefits. First, you gain Resistance to Necrotic Damage. And second, whenever you cast a Necromancy spell using a spell slot, you can give yourself or one creature of your choice within 30 feet temporary hit points that equal the level of the spell you cast + your intelligence modifier.
All in all, not bad; not great, necessarily, but not bad. It encourages you to cast Necromancy spells, and you get an extra bonus when you do. You also gain Necromancy Savant, which lets you add free necromancy spells to your spellbook when you level up.
Summoning Undead For Fun, Profit, and Even More Temporary Hit Points
The other big thing that Necroancers are kind of famous for is summoning the undead. And don’t worry, you actually get some ability to do that. You have to wait until level six, but then, Undead Thralls has you covered. Also, you always have Summon Undead prepared, and you can cast it once per long rest without needing a spell slot (you will still need Concentration though).
You also gain Grave Power. This feature represents more necromantic insights and once again gives you two benefits. First, your Wizard spells ignore resistance to Necrotic damage, and second whenever you use Arcane Recovery you reduce your Exhaustion level by one. Both of these features are nice, and also very circumstantial.
At higher levels you unlock more power. Undead Secrets, at level 10, gives you a “whenever you would drop to 0 hit points, instead gain a bunch of hit points” feature. But you have to pay for it, which is a unique thing – typically subclasses just get them. But as a Necromancer Wizard, you have to spend a level 4+ spell slot whenever you finish a long rest. So you have one less spell slot and might not even use the feature. You do, however, also gain a defensive teleport whenever you get Bloodied (and take damage after being Bloodied).
Finally, at level 14, Death’s Master caps off the class with an upgrade to your ability to hand out temporary hit points to everyone in the party, including your undead minions. You gain a Bonus Action that lets you give twice your Wizard level in temporary hit points to any undead creature you have created or summoned within 60 feet once per day per undead, so you can keep doing that as long as you keep making new friends.
And whenever you use your Grim Harvest to give an ally temporary hit points, you can give them an extra benefit. Either giving them advantage on attack rolls until the end of their next turn, or advantage on saving throws. Either way, that’s the Necromancer Wizard. It’s an odd subclass. It feels like WotC is honing in on an identity for it, and whatever book it appears in will hopefully improve it a little. Because I think it’s just not quite there. Your playtest mileage may vary, though.
Summon undead, animate dead, nobody ever just invites them over for tea…
