Necromancers in 5th edition

[wicked cool]

With the necromancer specialization im trying to make my wizard a necromancer. I'm not finding a lot of spells but maybe im missing them

My character is currently 5th level so i just got access to raise dead. What spells would you recomend?

[Charlie D.]

Here's a list of the necromancy spells for wizards:
Chill Touch 0
False Life 1
Ray of Sickness 1
Blindness/Deafness 2
Gentle Repose 2
Ray of Enfeeblement 2
Animate Dead 3
Bestow Curse 3
Feign Death 3
Vampiric Touch 3
Blight 4
Circle of Death 6
Create Undead 6
Eyebite 6
Magic Jar 6
Finger of Death 7
Clone 8
Astral Projection 9

There are a lot of other spells that would go with a necromancer I think. Abjuration makes a lot of sense. And several conjuration spells fit the theme. Your necromancer may claim that spirits or unseen forces cause these effects:
Poison Spray 0
Fog Cloud 1
Unseen Servant 1
Cloud of Daggers 2
Misty Step 2
Evard's Black Tentacles 4
Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound 4
Cloudkill 5
Plane Shift 7
Teleport 7
Demiplane 8

Maze 8

[Remco Sommeling]

the poison based spells are great, buff spells of any kind are also a nice option. Magic weapon, haste etc..

Also ritual spells are good for a wizard to add to his spellbook since you can cast them anytime with just your spellbook and without using slots as a ritual of course). I have a list for you here:

Wizard rituals

lvl 1

A l a r m
D e t e c t M a g ic
C o m p r e h e n d L a n g u a g e
F i n d Fa m i l i a r
I d e n t i f y
T e n s e r ’s F l o a t in g D is k
U n s e e n Se r v a n t
I l l u s o r y S c r i p t

lvl 2

G e n t l e R e p o s e
M a g i c M o u t h

lvl 3

F e ig n D e a t h
L e o m u n d ’s T i n y H u t
P h a n t o m St e e d
W a t e r B r e a t h in g

lvl 5

C o n t a c t O t h e r P l a n e
R a r y ’s T e l e p a t h ic B o n d

[wicked cool]

Thanks. Would have thought there would have been more undead spells.

[QuietBrowser]

Yeah, honestly, I've often felt that necromancers tend to get kinda shafted in D&D, except maybe after the company brings out a new necromancy/undead focused splatbook - The Complete Necromancer for 2e, or Libris Mortis + Heroes of Horror for 3.5. And even then, wizard necromancers tend to really get the shaft compared to cleric necromancers - at least the 5e necromancer finally gets the Command Undead class feature.

Myself, I'm a fairly shameless spell homebrewer to populate my lists. I may worry about balance sometimes (for example, a handful of level 3 spells of mine are basically fireball with the school changed to Necromancy and doing more necromancy-focused damage [necrotic, ice, poison or thunder), but I still feel there's a lot of potential for necromancer wizards that D&D often doesn't tend to tap.