Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as the Master of Undeath

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted delved into the necromantic arts for a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Master of Undeath character build. It’s no buried secret — we maintain that necromancy as a school of magic is not inherently evil but raising the dead as skeletons, zombies and other undead certainly is. All philosophical discussion aside it’s still fun to create a 5E D&D necromancer character who in turn creates undead minions. We wanted to see how many shambling corpses we could get going. Let the reanimation begin!

Behind the CBG — Master of Undeath

Every CBG we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Master of Undeath here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Master of Undeath’s mastery of death like it says on the tin. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too. We took a natural approach to the supernatural with this 5E D&D character and pay homage to an earlier edition’s preeminent undead expert as well as Dungeons & Dragons Online for the Dungeon Master’s version.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Master of Undeath can keep a small squad of undead minions going pretty much all day every day.

At the end of all things, we’ve got a character who can raise and command undead like it’s going out of style. This curious druid’s obsession with mastering life, death and undeath led them across the planes and down some dark paths. But they’re a githzerai, so they’re really calm and serene about the whole thing. It’s cool. Everything’s fine. This is fine.

Pale Master NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

In past editions of the game, pale masters were spellcasters who draw on necromantic lore to provide a ghoulish power all its own. Becoming one meant spending days locked in a tomb with the undead, or being slain by undead and raised back to life. We leaned into this bit of lore and imagine our Pale Master gained such a deep understanding not only of undeath but the permutations of it they’re able to invoke aspects of shadows, wights, wraiths and vampires.

Complete Mastery. Animating and controlling undead is the Pale Master’s singular goal. Through this obsession a Pale Master unlocks the secrets of how negative energy produces different kinds of undead, and learns to wear that power like a shroud.

“Shroud of Undeath (Recharge 6). As a bonus action, the pale master chooses one of the following Shrouds. The chosen Shroud remains active until the pale master chooses to end it, chooses another Shroud, or is reduced to 0 hit points. While a Shroud is active, the pale master has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws while in sunlight.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a character who commands the forces of life, death and that which lies between — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Master of Undeath Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — Vlaakith the Lich Queen served as a source of inspiration for our Master of Undeath character. While searching around to find this piece of art, which comes from Dungeon Magazine No. 100. The Lich-Queen’s Beloved adventure was written by Chris Perkins sends adventurers to the Palace of Whispers in the githyanki capital city on the Astral Plane where they’ll brave the githyanki lich-queen’s deadliest tricks and traps to stop her quest for godhood. I also came across this stat block from Wizards of the Coast for her. Any ideas where it came from? Let me know! [Art by Wayne Reynolds]

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