How To Build a Necromancer in Dungeons and Dragons 5e | Death Knight

[@xenonuke1194]

This is honestly one of the best death knight builds I've come across. Very flavorful and seems to be strong too. I personally don't put as much value in the cleric dip. Going 4 in paladin and 7 wizard gives you 4th level spells in exchange for 2 caster levels. You also swap a WIS minimum for STR which you would also need to move in heavy armor without a penalty. With so many stat requirements you'd really only get 1 or 2 uses of the war clerics BA attack. I honestly might use this template for a villain in a campaign, it's really good. Excited to see the rest of your videos now that I've found your channel

[@ThisCrits]

Wow, thats a huge compliment! I really appreciate it! And Cleric is definitley the easiest class to change up in the build! I really like the idea of swapping the paladin in there! Thanks so much! You'll have to let me know how that villain build goes!

[@TheRobversion1]

Nice death knight. Though by RAW grim harvest only works when an enemy is killed as the spell is cast wherein its the spell who did the killing and not something created by the spell (animate dead) or by adding bonuses to your attacks (spirit shroud). Personally, i'd be banned from using animate dead (DM dislikes any spell that allows you to create an army with a backstory reason). So with that in mind, my version of the death knight would be hexblade 1, oathbreaker X. oathbreaker"s control undead will let me get a high-level undead with a cooperative DM. like at oathbreaker 6, vampire spawn or revenant are available. Once, i hit oathbreaker 7, the cha mod can be added to find steed/greater steed, the controlled undead, etc. Possibly at hexblade 1, oathbreaker 18 (L19) total, i could be rolling around wth the actual death knight from the monster manual. Haha.

[@TriggerTrove]

In dnd beyond what books do I need to own in order to build this?

[@ThisCrits]

I believe the only subclass not in the PHB is Hexblade found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything!

[@Altheniar]

I love the build, now I'm playing a similar concep but focused on debilitate and control enemies whit necromancy. I used artyficier+necromancer. Imho adding a point buy or stat preference order will help a lot of people.

[@ThisCrits]

Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed! Ill add that to my next builds!!! That also sounds like a fun build!

[@Altheniar]

@@ThisCrits imposing fear in enamies ir halving dmg of str enemies is realy fun. I missed the old 3.5 necromancy and do this build, works fine but It first lvls was a bit boring.

[@Galatorm]

Taking artificer could offer some nice alternative to get the armors or weapons that you crave. Still I would pick Paladin for the Smite, at least 2 level. (also fighting style.) You can always pick 1 cleric level if you feel it offers you something no other classes does, but more warlock or wizard seem more logical to me.

[@ThisCrits]

I didnt consider artificer! That could be a fun build!

[@hunterkirk5046]

I’m newer to D&D and wanting to run this build however, when I click the build link and go to spells it only shows cleric. I thought you mentioned wizard spells earlier in the vid. Am i operating the build guide wrong or did I just miss understand the examples in the vid?

[@ThisCrits]

You are using the correct link I just forgot to put spells in! I am updating them now sorry about that! You should have it up there now!

[@hunterkirk5046]

@@ThisCrits thank you!

[@Bruh_VR-oo5vq]

@@ThisCritsim new and can’t download the character

[@Bruh_VR-oo5vq]

And I don’t know how to put the shadow Kai race and the hex blade warlock sub class

[@InbarBt]

Write 5etoolls in googele and theres anything you need there

[@MrMGnome]

I don't see the character sheet link in the description and I missing it?

[@ThisCrits]

Sorry about that! I just added it!

[@MrMGnome]

@@ThisCrits awesome thanks!!!

[@fenrir13th40]

To bad you'd need 12 level in Warlock, because Lifedrinker requires that level. And what was allready said, needs to many stats at 13 points. But nice thought. 👍

[@ThisCrits]

I mistakenly thought it was 12 character level. Thats a bummer but even without there are plenty other great invocations that can be picked up! Thanks! 👍

[@fenrir13th40]

@@ThisCrits Or I am wrong. Maybe just char level is needed. 🤔Not sure about. I allways have trouble with RAW and RAI ^^"

[@ThisCrits]

@@fenrir13th40 I'm pretty sure you are correct after looking back at it! Either way its good to point out! 😁

[@wesdean9128]

Your combat example is a bit flawed, I think. Doesn't Animate Dead take a minute to cast? You'd have to have it precast before the combat. I do like your necrotic heals in the build, though. I'm currently playing an Oathbreaker Hexblade with basically the same rotation. Wish I could add the necromancer wizard in to the mix, but he dumped int, so I'm just SoL on that one. lol

[@ThisCrits]

True. It would require the setup but the concept still remains that same :D Thats the big problem with multiclass builds like this. If you dont go into the character planing it specifically its likley not possible because of dump stats and such which is a bummer. It really needs a class/subclass of its own.

[@C_A_I_N_N]

you could also do the curse one to get a sword imbued with runes to really hit those WoW deathknight vibes OR go down the route instead of eldritch armor do have heavy armor you can always justify as looking like badass deathknight gear as your bond with it corrupts it into a fitting form ;D

[@ThisCrits]

I feel like the whole "Death Knight" kind of play style has so much potential but theres nothing that fits the theme well enough. Someone shoul make some sort of class/subclass for the style of play!

[@C_A_I_N_N]

@@ThisCrits id honestly love a whole race of a redeemed deathknight granted life again even if their soul will forever be corrupted with them being a unqiue half living, half undead entity with their flesh returned to them but their heart would still not beat and they would clearly look like an undead to mark them forever for their transgression and hopefully to remind them to never repeat the same mistake again.

[@C_A_I_N_N]

@@ThisCrits hell if could even give a unique ability to come back to life a number of times of your proficiency modifier a day with no asi and the full reborn undead style traits of dark vision and no need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe to kinda hit that right theme

[@NoZignature]

i really think going 5 levels in cleric is a mistake. you lose out on bigger spells from warlock or wizard and the new spells you get is dependent on your wis which is a low priority(after cha, int, con and even str which needs to be at 15 for heavy armor) . since the only thing you mentioned from cleric that you wanted was at first or second level, i wouldnt invest more into cleric than the bare minimum. Theres a lot of cool spells that you have access to and i think theres a lot to gain from using more than just 2 spells. with this build you can use stuff like Cone of cold, Shadow of Moil, Dimension door, hypnotic pattern, fear etc etc i think it would have made sense to mention some of all the other stuff your build is capable of! Personally im not a fan of trying to get a lot of minions on the board since it takes a lot of time to resolve and that really bogs down combat - i try and focus on getting one big summon with the spells from Tasha's. Personally for a death knight i think i would go paladin 6 and either warlock or sorcerer the rest of the way to get some nice big summons with my concentration and smites + defensive spells like mirror image and shield. Cool video tho im looking forwards to your next one! :D

[@ThisCrits]

Yea, A lot of people are bringing up the paladin but I thought having higher level spell slots would be more valuable than the paladin levels which is why I went for Cleric. That being said, Cleric is by no means necessary and could honestly be entirely replaced with paladin levels if you wanted to get access to your smites! For this build's concentration focus I valued the extra 2D8 you get for attack with Spirit Shroud over more powerful undead as I viewed them more as a shield. That being said, I would love to see a build like you are eplaining fully explored! Thanks you! I am really glad you enjoyed!!!

[@kquixotic]

Dang...another character I want to play, and I'm a Forever DM. 😭

[@ThisCrits]

I feel that in my bonessssssss

[@LikeButton7]

Oh my god…

[@ThisCrits]

Did I do a good?

[@LikeButton7]

@@ThisCrits it’s beautiful

[@ulasdorak6190]

feet jokes... feet jokes... really?!

[@ThisCrits]

I saw an opportunity and I took it lol

[@MsKeylas]

1:09 I am sorry but where the f are paladin classes,throw the fuck out war cleric and put conquest pally. but besidez that a grear build.

[@ThisCrits]

Yea! I expalined why I chose cleric in the video but you could easily substitute Cleric for Paladin! Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed!

[@MsKeylas]

@@ThisCrits I am myself doing kind of,sort of similar build of hexblade 7 /conquest pally 13 so that both would have level 4 spells. Not sure if it could have higher level slots though He is like Dredd on steroids. Btw have you thought about creating builds for other famous characters,like for example mcu's roster of heroes, or Grey Necromancer Astoshan from one of stories on All The Things DnD youtube channel if I remember correctly

[@ThisCrits]

@@MsKeylas That sounds like fun! I really like mixing and matching different classes so this kind of video is really fun for me lol. As for have I thought about making more build videos like this yes I have. I have a couple older ones I did but am looking into new ideas going forward with this kind of style. I can't say build videos will be super frequent because they do take a lot of time to create the build, create the assets, record, and edit the video but I do plan on making more!

[@MsKeylas]

@@ThisCrits will be looking forward to new videos. In regards to the character. First time I played him, we had campaign of looming Githyanki invasion,My character switched from following Helm to following Kelemvor,since in the eyes Helm was being complacent and was doing shitty job protecting realm from undead and other threats. Along the length of campaign before I left because of disagreements with Dm my character took the only surviving member of bandit group who attacked them,a teenager,female bandit under his wing as an apprentice and sent to the Kelemvors temple to study to become a cleric, instead of wasting her life being a bandit and ending in the noose, or bring killed like other bandits, made alliance with both orc filled fortress in the mountain region and with Alustriel of Silverimoon in essence working to unite all realms forces,whenever good or bad under his iron fist, also he had habbit of collecting holy symbols from leaders of followers of evil gods,and carrying those symbols hanging slightly below his belt. He also eliminated almost anyone who stood in his way if they werent smart enough to move out of the way. Fun times xddd