Dungeons and Dragons dropped a new playtest document just before Halloween, and while many of its subclasses are interesting, only one is definitively spooky. That would be the Oathbreaker Paladin, a 5e subclass that was previously condemned to the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide. This edgy character has gotten a serious makeover for the spooky season - and it might show some potential as a necromancer substitute.
I say might, mind you. The question 'who's the better necromancer' can be answered in different ways, depending on what you're looking for when building a necromancer - and what level you plan to play at.
What makes a necromancer
When many people picture a necromancer, they imagine a master of all sorts of necrotic damage. They also see the commander of a vast undead army, a gleeful reanimator that sends a zombie army into battle to do their bidding. It's an evocative image, but it's one that fifth edition has avoided realizing for over a decade.
That's because, firstly, there aren't that many useful spells in the school of necromancy. There are plenty of OK options, but they're often outclassed by other schools, particularly when it comes to damage. And, secondly, there are some major bookkeeping problems that too many summons can cause.
Too many summons can destabilize D&D's (admittedly already quite fragile) action economy. It can also cause turns to drag as the DM or the player in charge of the zombies has to spend immense amounts of time maneuvering their summons and resolving their turns. A necromancer of this ilk can become unbalanced and unfun if handled poorly.
That all meant, for a long time, we had Necromancer Wizards that could only summon a handful of undead, and they would have to focus heavily on stronger schools of magic for their core class to be functional. The 2014 Necromancer couldn't summon the undead until they'd reached level five, and even then they could only rustle up one at a time with the Animate Dead spell. You could summon a small horde with the same spell by the time you reached level 10, but that was only really useful for high-level play.
Things are slightly better in recent playtests. The latest draft of the Necromancer can summon a single skeleton or zombie at level three using a modified version of Find Familiar, and they can use the Animate Dead spell to conjure a minimum of three thralls from level six.
There's still a lot of summons admin to be done, but at least Wizards has let you amass a small team of undead early on. Plus, these undead are unusually sturdy thanks to your subclass - and they can be farmed for HP if you're ever running low.
This, combined with the power to ignore creatures' resistance to necrotic damage, makes the new necromancer a lot more appealing. However, they still suffer from the identity crisis, given that most of their strongest spells won't be related to necromancy in the slightest.
Now, let's compare with the Oathbreaker.
The new Oathbreaker
The original Oathbreaker couldn't create any undead of their own until level nine, when they gained access to the Animate Dead spell. Before that, they could only attempt to take command of an existing undead, who would get a chance to resist this influence with a Wisdom save. Situational and inconsistent. A spooky snore.
The new Unearthed Arcana replaces that disappointing level-three feature with a new one, Conjure Undead. This bonus action lets you spend a use of Channel Divinity to summon skeletons or zombies equal to half your Charisma modifier, rounded up. Presuming that you've pumped your Charisma to at least 16 from level one, that's two thralls out the gate.
These summons stick around for significantly less time than a Necromancer's (just one minute), but you win the numbers game early on. If you're playing a level-three one shot, an Oathbreaker is going to feel more like an undead army commander than a Necromancer Wizard is.
This feels especially true considering that the Oathbreaker can charge into battle alongside their spawn. The Dreadful Aspect feature has been redesigned to trigger after casting Divine Smite, so you can frighten foes immediately after hitting them.
Aura of Hate, the level-seven feature, also now lets fiend or undead allies in your Aura of Protection deal extra necrotic damage when making attacks. Apart from the Wizard ignoring necrotic damage resistances (which might not apply to the zombies themselves - the wording of the playtest is unclear), it offers a similar level of damage output for the Oathbreaker's thralls.
The Dread Lord capstone has been retooled to make the Oathbreaker a more effective attacker, creating magical darkness they can still see through, dealing psychic damage to frightened creatures, and allowing them to deal extra necrotic damage as a bonus action. That's not contributing much to the necromancer archetype, but it is an improvement on the previous version of the subclass feature - and it's very spooky.
So far, we have a Paladin 5e that, while it can't match the summons numbers of the Wizard at higher levels, can still conjure a reasonable zombie horde. The focus on martial attacks over spellcasting and the big focus on fear and darkness also give us a character with a stronger sense of identity, even if they aren't necessarily as powerful as your bog-standard Wizard 5e.
There is one change to the subclass that throws a spanner in the works of our necromancy plans, however. The new Oathbreaker has had its spell list reworked. Its power levels are similar on the whole, perhaps with a more consistent source of damage output thanks to Witch Bolt, Phantasmal Killer, and Steel Wind Strike. However, several notable necromancy spells have been removed from the list - most notably Inflict Wounds, Bestow Curse, and Animate Dead.
That last one is the real killer - it limits our Oathbreaker's ability to produce high-level undead hordes. Since your Charisma modifier is unlikely to go past 20 (+5 modifier), you're never going to get more than three zombie buddies.
On the whole, it seems like, no, the Oathbreaker isn't going to out-necromancy the Necromancer. What it has done, however, is reignited my interest in what I'd previously considered an underwhelming Paladin subclass. It has a more streamlined subclass identity, some solid quality of life changes, and excellent spooky vibes.
What do you think of the latest playtest subclasses? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord. Or, for more on character building, here's all you need to know about DnD classes and DnD races.