Animate Dead

Animate Dead is a level 3 necromancy spell. This spell allows spellcasters to animate a corpse to create an undead servant.

Description

Animate a corpse to create an undead servant while not in combat.

The target must be a Medium or Small corpse.

Properties

Cost

Action + Level 3 Spell Slot

Details

 Range: 3 m / 10 ft

At higher levels

Casting this spell at a higher level grants no additional benefit.

Variants

•  Animate Dead: Skeleton
•  Animate Dead: Skeleton Squad
•  Animate Dead: Zombie
•  Animate Dead: Zombie Batallion
•  Animate Dead: Ghoul
•  Animate Dead: Ghoul Pack
•  Animate Dead: Flying Ghoul
•  Animate Dead: Flying Ghoul Flock

How to learn

Classes:

• Class Level 5: Cleric, Wizard, Circle of the Spores (Circle Spell), Bard (via Magical Secrets), and Warlock (via Pact of the Tome)

• Class Level 9: Oathbreaker (Oath Spell)

Notes

• Patch 3 introduced a bug where skeletons summoned by this spell do not have weapons.
• It is important to note that most friendly and neutral NPCs will respond to undead minions with horror, causing them to express alarm and flee from proximity of the thralls, in some cases to their death. To avoid this, selecting the chain icon next to the summoner player and leaving the thrall at some distance before interacting with certain vendors or achievement related NPCs is advised.
• Casting with a level 4 spellslot allows to raise 3 minions instead of 1.
• Casting with a level 5 spellslot allows to raise a ghoul or a flying ghoul.
• Wizards with the Necromancy School subclass can raise an additional undead for each level and version of the spell.
• These Summoned Undead do not have weapons so are not affected by Aura of Hate from Oathbreaker Paladin

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External Links

• Animate dead on the Forgotten Realms Wiki