Tired of fighting your own fights and want to summon a plethora of undead minions to your aid? School of Necromancy wizard build in Baldur’s gate 3 is created for this very specific purpose. As a king of undead, you can wreak havoc on your foes and rule the land of living.
In this guide, we will solely focus on selecting Necromancy class specialization for our wizard character. This allows you to access necromancy scrolls for half the cost. This is a very well-balanced build that focuses on both offense and defense via minions. We recommend that you follow the guide step by step and constantly look out for the last section to learn the character progression.
Starting abilities and skills for Wizard School of Necromancy
The following are the starting abilities that I believe are the best for the Necromancer class after spending dozens of hours with it. However, as an RPG, these things are not written in stone, and you can change them to your liking as the game progresses.
Race: Githyanki. This race grants you a bonus cantrip for wizard class, Githyanki Psionics: Mage Hand (summon an astral hand to manipulate objects). You also gain Astral Knowledge as special action that increase your proficiency in Intelligence skills. Githyanki race features include 9m movement speed and Martial Prodigy (proficiency with light and medium armors).
Spells and Cantrips: As a wizard starter, you can select 3 cantrips (Bone Chill, Minor Illusion and Shocking Grasp) and 6 level 1 spells (Ray of Sickness, Magic Missile, Sleep, Chromatic Orb, Burning Hand and False Life).
Ability points distribution: 8 Strength, 14 Dexterity, 15 Constitution with +1 bonus, 15 Intelligence with +2 bonus (primary ability), 10 Wisdom and 8 Charisma.
Skills: Arcana, History, Investigation, and Insight.
Prepared Spells: At the start of the game, prepare the following spells: Burning Hands, False Life, Magic Missile and Sleep.
Best background
The best background for School of Necromancy Wizard build in our opinion is Sage. This background allows you to gain knowledge which in turn increases your Intelligence. It features Arcana and History which are both based intelligence-based feats.
You can learn the past of anything in the game and become knowledgeable about Eldritch gods and their teachings. The more you yearn for knowledge, the higher your intelligence gets. This allows you to summon more powerful zombies and undead.
Best Feats for Wizard School of Necromancy build
Feats are unique passive skills that unlock only thrice per character playthrough. They provide some amazing bonuses but can be replaced in favor of 2 ability points per feat. I will recommend the following feats to be used with a Necromancy Wizard in Baldur’s Gate 3
Level 4: Ability Improvement. Use one skill point to increase Intelligence up to 18 and the other to increase Dexterity to 15.
Level 8: Moderately Armored. This feat allows you to put an additional point in Dexterity skill. It also allows you to wield shields and medium armor without any penalty.
Level 12: Medium Armor Master. This feat removes all penalties from wearing medium armor on wizard class. Armor class also gains +3 skill bonus from Dexterity.
Best Spells for Wizard School of Necromancy build in BG3
This section is only a placeholder for all the best spells from each level. These levels unlock with character progression (details below). So, don’t mix the level of spells with character level. A lot of lower-level magic spells can be equipped in upper-level slots via upcasting in BG3. But it doesn’t work in the opposite direction.
Level 1: We recommend following spells for level 1 magic slots.
- Ray of Sickness: Deals 2d8 poison damage to enemies.
- Magic Missile: Deals 3d4+3 force damage upon enemies.
- Burning Hands: Deals 3d6 fire damage upon enemies.
- Sleep: This spell puts your enemies to sleep.
- False Life: You gain double hit points instantly.
Level 2: The recommended level 2 spells for school of necromancy wizard build in BG3 are
- Blindness: This spell limits the vision of a foe up to 18m.
- Phantasmal Force: Deals a specific 1d6 damage to any creature even if you use another damage type.
Level 3: Our favorite spells from level 3 tree are.
- Animate Dead: This necromancy magic creates a minion from a small or medium corpse.
- Vampire Touch: This necromancy spell deals 3d6 necrotic damage to enemies and you gain half of the HP they lose.
- Glyph of Warding: This spell traps an enemy in glyphs and deal specific magic damage upon them.
Level 4: Below is a list for recommended level 4 magic skills for the Necromancer Wizard subclass.
- Blight: This necromancer magic deals 8d8 to enemies and put them at a disadvantage for their rolls.
- Polymorph: This spell transforms foe creatures into harmless sheep.
Level 5: Below is a list of a couple of level 5 magic spells recommended for the School of Necromancy wizard build in BG3.
- Conjure Elemental: This spell allows you to summon a medium-sized elemental. This summon fights by your side until it loses all HP.
- Hold Monster: This spell completely neutralizes a monster. It can’t act or attack.
Level 6: Our picks for Level 6 spells for Necromancy Wizards are:
- Create Undead: This spell allows you to turn a small or medium corpse into an ally mummy.
Best armor and weapons
Weapon: Despair of Athkalta. This quarterstaff enhances arcane and provides +1 bonus to magic spells attack rolls. It also does 1d10+1 bludgeoning damage.
Rings: Ring of Protection.
Amulet: The Sapphire Spark. One more missile projectile is added to your attack.
Armor: Armour of Agility. This medium armor adds dexterity bonus to your Armor class and enhance saving throws by +2. It also removes all disadvantages from stealth checks.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Wizard School of Necromancy build level progression
School of Necromancy Wizard build progression in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the same as other wizard specializations. In this section, we will detail what you gain at each level and how higher level magic slots become available.
Level 1: At level 1, you have access to only 2 level 1 magic slots as a wizard. However, with our selected race (Githyanki) and background (sage), this number increases to 4 level 1 slots.
Level 2: As soon as you hit level 2, you get the chance to select the specialized class. We will be going with Necromancy in this case which grants you Grim Harvest (recover three times HP of magic slot level if you kill a creature with Necromancy spell) and Necromancy Savant (necromancy scrolls only cost 25 gold to learn now). At this point, one more level 1 magic slot unlocks.
Level 3: As soon as your school of necromancy wizard reaches character level 3 in BG3, it gains an additional level 2 spell slot.
Level 4: As soon as the Necromancy wizard hits level 4, a new feat and a new cantrip (dancing Light) become available and at this point, you gain 1 more level two spell slot.
Level 5: At level 5, 2 more slots unlock for level 3 magic spells.
Level 6: At level 6, Necromancer Wizard build gains a lot of bonuses. First, you learn Animate Dead magic spell free of cost. You also gain two features, Additional Undead (animate dead can now raise 2 corpses) and Better Summons (animated dead minions have as much HP as you). Another level 3 spell slot unlocks.
Level 7: School of necromancy Wizard build in BG3 gains access to level 4 magic spells upon reaching character level 7. One slot for BG3 level 4 spells unlocks.
Level 8: A new feat becomes available to the Necromancer at level 8 and a new level 4 spell slot.
Level 9: A new slot for level 4 spells and one slot for BG3 level 5 spells unlock as soon necromancer wizard reaches character level 9.
Level 10: At level 10 for wizard necromancer, you get Injured to Death subclass feature. It makes you immune to necrotic damage and enemies can’t permanently reduce your HP. An additional Cantrip (Blade Ward) and a level 5 spell slot is also gained.
Level 11: At level 11, Wizard School of Necromancy subclass can finally access the ultimate spell tree (level 6). One slot for level 6 spells also unlocks.
Level 12: At the final character level for School of Necromancy Wizard in BG3, the final feat slot unlocks.
