Animate Dead in Dungeons & Dragons 5e
Replacement Series
Animate Dead
3-level Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range/Area: 10 feet
Components: VSM
Materials: A drop of blood, a piece of flesh, and a pinch of bone dust, or focus
Duration: 24 Hours
You channel necromantic energy to raise a corpse as an undead servant. Choose a pile of bones or corpse within range, which belonged in life to a humanoid of challenge rating 2 or lower. The target is raised as a skeleton or zombie, respectively, applying the Skeleton or Zombie template to its former stat block.
On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command any or all minions you have created through this spell within 60 feet. You select an action for each creature and where it will move. If you issue no command, the creature moves to attack any creatures hostile to it or takes the Dodge action if it cannot detect any.
The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it becomes hostile to you and all living things. You can control a number of minions up to your proficiency bonus through this spell, but their combined challenge rating cannot exceed 3, and you must wait 24 hours after creating one before you can create another. If you cast the spell while you have any controlled reanimated servants, you may renew the duration of their control rather than creating a new one.
At higher levels: When you cast this spell 4th level or higher, the target's maximum challenge rating increases by 1 for each level above 3rd. When you cast this spell 4th level or higher, you can also reanimate beast corpses. If 5th level or higher, you can reanimate giant or monstrosity corpses. Available for: Cleric, Wizard
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