Animate Dead

This article is about the common spell available to players. For other uses, see Animate Dead (disambiguation).

Animate Dead is a level 3 necromancy spell. It 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

• When the spell is cast at 4th Level, raise up to 3 Skeletons or Zombies instead of 1.
• When the spell is cast at 5th Level, raise a Ghoul or Flying Ghoul.
• When the spell is cast at 6th Level, raise up to 3 Ghouls or Flying Ghouls instead of 1.

Technical details

UID

Target_AnimateDead

Spell flags

HasSomaticComponent, HasVerbalComponent, IsLinkedSpellContainer, IsSpell

Variants

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

How to learn

Classes:

• Class level 5: Cleric, Wizard, Circle of the Spores (Circle Spell), Warlock (via Pact of the Tome once per long rest), and Death Domain (Domain Spell)
• Class level 6: College of Lore (via Magical Secrets) and Necromancer (via Necromancy School)
• Class level 9: Oathbreaker (Oath Spell)
• Class level 10: Bard (via Magical Secrets)

Granted by items:

• Circle of Bones ( Recharge: Long rest)

Other ways to learn:

• Wizards with a Level 3 Spell Slot can transcribe a  Scroll of Animate Dead to their spellbooks.

Notes

• Each individual caster can only have one instance of this spell active at a time, no matter which version is used. Casting it again while an undead summons is already present dismisses the previous one.
• Wizards with the Necromancy School subclass can raise an additional undead for each level and version of the spell.
• None of these summoned undead have melee weapons, so they are not affected by  Aura of Hate from Oathbreaker Paladin.
• A Sorcerer may apply Twinned Spell on a casting of Animate Dead from a Scroll, but only one creature is raised; the other is immediately destroyed as if the caster had cast two instances, wasting Sorcery Points in the process.
• If the caster unprepares this spell, the summoned undead will remain.
• A corpse can be reused multiple times for raising undead.

Bugs

• When selecting between variants, the controller UI incorrectly indicates that the spell targets three corpses by default.

Visuals

Play Video

Local File

External links

•  Animate dead on the Forgotten Realms Wiki