Best BG3 Necromancer Build – Baldur’s Gate 3

Welcome to the best BG3 Necromancer Build. The Necromancer is a subclass of the Wizard Class and is a very skilled spellcaster with access to plenty of Necromancy spells. You will be able to animate the dead and bend them to your will. The Wizard is the only class that has a specific subclass dedicated to Necromancy, therefore it is simply the best choice for a Necro Build.

For this Necromancer Build in Baldur’s Gate 3, we’ll be using the Wizard class and selecting the Necromancy subclass (once you reach level 2). As Necromancer you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and make plenty of new friends there. Necromancy Spells become very powerful at higher levels. And not only that, you can learn new Necromancy spells from scrolls for a cost of 25 gold instead of the normal 50!

The BG3 Necromancer Build works for both PC and Console (PS5 and XBOX Series X/S).

Table of Contents:

• Character Creation (Level 1)
• Level 2 – Subclass Selection
• Level 3
• Level 4
• Level 5
• Level 6
• Level 7
• Level 8
• Level 9
• Level 10
• Level 11
• Level 12 – Max Level
• Equipment
• Necromancy of Thay Book & Dans Macabre Spell
• Tips & Tricks

You can also find all other BG3 Wizard Subclass Builds on the website here:

Evocation School – Transmutation – Illusion – Enchantment – Divination – Conjuration – Abjuration.

BG3 Necromancer Build Character Creation (Level 1)

In this section, we will walk you through the Character Creation for your BG3 Necromancer Build, including the best Race, Background, Skills, Abilities, Spells and Cantrips.

Background

Your most important Abilities for the Wizard Necromancer are going to be Intelligence and Dexterity. Therefore it’s a good idea to choose a Background that gives your character Proficiency with INT and DEX based Skills. Examples of such Backgrounds are:

• Sage – Arcana and History (both INT)
• Urchin – Sleight of Hand and Stealth (both DEX)
• Acolyte – Insight (WIS) and Religion (INT)

It’s not the end of the world if you choose a Background that doesn’t line up with your Abilities, but doing this will give you the highest level of success with Ability Checks. This mostly applies outside of combat, for example in dialogue events or lockpicking.

Skills

The Necromancer Wizard can choose two additional Skills to become Proficient at, in addition to those granted from their Background and any other sources, such as Race. These options are:

• Arcana (INT)
• History (INT)
• Insight (WIS)
• Investigation (INT)
• Medicine (WIS)
• Religion (INT)

We picked the Sage Background, giving us Proficiency with Arcana and History, so we used our two free Skill picks to pick up the remaining two Intelligence Skills, Investigation and Religion. This will give us a +5 bonus in rolls for those Skills from the start of the game for our best Necromancer Build BG3.

Race

While in Early Access your race choice was a very important component of your build, this is no longer the case. This is because your race now has no bearing on your Ability scores, which are the most important factor at play. This gives players more freedom to choose any race and class combination that they wish, without having to worry about being pigeon-holed into a “meta” race for their class.

However, there are still some useful passive features sourced from your race and subrace, which may be of advantage when it comes to the Wizard build. Some interesting options are:

• Wood Elf or Wood Half-Elf – Gains very high Movement Speed, great for quickly taking advantageous positions and outrunning enemies.
• High Elf – Gets an extra Cantrip. These are cast with Intelligence, so they’re a perfect fit for the Wizard class.
• Gold Dwarf – Gets +1 bonus HP per Level.
• Halfling, Any – Lets you reroll your die whenever you roll a 1. This makes a Critical Miss extremely unlikely.
• Gnome, Any – Gets Advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma Saving Throws.

Don’t worry if you don’t want to go with any of these races. As mentioned above, your chosen race is of fairly low importance in Baldur’s Gate 3 post release.

Abilities

Intelligence is the most important ability for the Wizard build, as it’s the attribute used for Spellcasting. The higher your Intelligence score, the more likely your spells are to successfuly hit your target. The second most important attribute is Dexterity, used mainly to improve your Armour Class. This is particularly important, since the Wizard has no Armour Proficiency and therefore relies on Dexterity to protect themselves. Thirdly, it’s important to have some points in Constitution, which will increase your Maximum Hitpoints and improve your chances of succeeding at Concentration Checks (continuing to channel the effects of an ongoing Concentration Spell after you take damage).

With all of this in mind, we recommend an ability spread something like this:

• 8 Strength
• 16 Dexterity
• 14 Constitution
• 17 Intelligence
• 9 Wisdom
• 9 Charisma

Cantrips

The BG3 Necromancer Build (Wizard) can select three Cantrips to start the game with. Cantrips are basic spells that do not consume a spell slot when cast, effectively meaning you can cast them as often as you like without limitations.

We recommend choosing the following Cantrips to start the game with:

• Fire Bolt – Hurl a mote of Fire, dealing 1-10 Fire Damage. Use this as your main damage Cantrip.
• Ray of Frost – Call forth a beam of Frost, reducing the target’s movement speed and dealing 1-8 Cold Damage. Use this when you need to slow down an enemy.
• Acid Splash – Hurl a bubble of Acid that deals 1-6 Acid Damage. This has a small AOE, so it’s good to use when there are multiple enemies in a tight space.

Note that if you chose High Elf as your race, then you can choose Fire Bolt as your High Elf Cantrip and therefore get an extra Cantrip from the Wizard list. In that case, we recommend also choosing Bone Chill, it prevents an enemy from regaining HP and also inflicts Disadvantage on Undead Attack Rolls.

Spells

The Necromancer Wizard Class lets you learn 6 Spells in Character Creation, but you will only be able to slot/prepare 4 of them. It’s important to note that you’ll only be able to select Prepeared Spells from your 6 chosen Learned Spells, and only the Prepared Spells can be used. This can be a bit confusing if you are a new player.

You can always prepare new spells in your menu in your spell book. So don’t worry about getting your Spells “locked”.

With that in mind, we recommend Learning the following spells:

• Mage Armour – This is vital for the Wizard Class since you have no Proficiency with normal Armour and have to settle for wearing Clothing. Mage Armour will improve your Armour Class to a total of (13 + Dexterity Modifier), allowing you to be more or less on par with other classes defensively. When cast, the Spell will last until your next Long Rest, so remember to cast it after every Long Rest before entering combat.
• Magic Missile – Shoot three projectiles at a target, each one dealing 2-5 Force Damage. In total this spell deals 6-15 damage, so it’s guaranteed to hit for at least a somewhat decent amount, and if you get a high Damage Roll then its damage is not too shabby for an early-game spell. The missiles will always hit their target, so this is a great way to guarantee some damage to an enemy.
• Thunderwave – Arguably the best first Level damage Spell in the game, Thunderwave deals 2-16 damage to all enemies in front of you and also sends them flying backwards. You can use this to knock enemies off ledges or cliffs for extra fall damage, or potentially even one hitting them.
• Witch Bolt – Link yourself to an enemy with an arc of Lightning. The Lightning does 1-12 damage to the enemy and can be activated again for more damage each turn as long as you maintain your Concentration.
• Chromatic Orb – Hurl a Sphere of Energy, dealing 2-8 Thunder, Acid, Cold, Fire, Lighting or Poison Damage (of your choice) and create a surface of that type.
• Grease – An easy to overlook Spell, that creates an 8 metre wide AOE of Grease, slowing down enemies and potentially knocking them Prone when they try to move through it.

Of these spells, at Level 1 we recommend Preparing the following:

• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Thunderwave
• Witch Bolt

Arcane Recovery

Before continuing, we also need to point out Arcane Recovery, a unique Wizard ability. Arcane Recovery allows you to replenish some of your Spell Slots outside of combat. To begin with, you can only do this once per Long Rest, but this lets you cast more Spells before you need to have a Long Rest than other classes can manage.

Level 2 – Select your Subclass for the BG3 Necromancer Build

At Level 2 you need to choose your Subclass. The Wizard class has a total of 8 different subclasses (Abjuration, Evocation, Necromancy, Conjuration, Enchantment, Divination, Illusion, Transmutation). For this build, we’ll be going with the Necromancy, which allows you to learn spells from Necromancy Scrolls for half of the gold cost and allows you to regain HP when you kill an enemy, up to once per turn. The HP you gain is double the value of the Spell Slot used to cast the killing spell, or thrice if it’s a Necromancy spell.

Necromancy: You walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and make lots of friends there. Learning Necromancy spells from scrolls only costs you 25g per spell level, not 50.

You’ll be able to Learn 2 more Spells from the Wizard Spell List. We already picked up the best ones, so you can choose whichever options you like here. We’ll be able to access some more powerful Spells at Level 3 anyway. If you want help, then we recommend Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and False Life.

• Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
• False Life

You’ll also gain another Prepared Spell. We recommend Preparing the Grease Spell to give yourself some extra Crowd Control, but you can use Chromatic Orb instead if you want.

Level 3

At Level 3, the Necromancer build gains another Arcane Recovery charge, increasing the number of Spell Slots they can replenish without needing a Long Rest.

You gain 1 level 1 slot and two level two slots. We recommend learning the following Spells:

• Cloud of Daggers – Deals insane AoE damage and can be placed in tight areas where enemies have to get to you. They will walk through it and get high damage.
• Blur – This is a defensive skill, it lasts for a crazy 10 turns and makes it so your attackers have Disadvantage on Attack rolls against you. Basically making it harder to hit you.

At level 3 we recommend having the following spells “prepared” for your Necromancer Build in Baldur’s Gate 3:

• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Thunderwave
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers

Of course, you are allowed to prepare other Spells if you prefer.

Level 4

At Level 4, it’s time to choose a Feat to unlock for your Wizard Build in BG3. Grab the Ability Improvement Feat, which will give you two extra Ability Points to spend. Put both points into Intellgence, which will take you up to 19 INT. This also has the knock-on effect of increasing your INT Ability Modifier from +3 to +4, which is useful for reasons we’ll explain in just a moment.

You can also select another Cantrip, we recommend Shocking Grasp which deals extra damage to metal armour.

You’ll be able to Learn 2 more Spells here too.  We recommend picking up the following Spells:

• Darkness – Great defensive ability if you want to avoid getting hit by ranged enemies. You can place the dark shroud over them and it will Blind them. Of course the same counts for you though.
• Phantasmal Force – This is a damage over time-effect. Deals damage to creatures every turn. The type of damage changes to the last type the creature suffered.

Now make sure to go out of the level-up screen and into your spellbook. Because we now have 19 Intelligence points, we get to prepare an additional Spell. So our preferred Prepared Spell list should look like the following:

• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Thunderwave
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers
• Darkness
• Phantasmal Force

Like before, adjust your spell setup if you feel like you can use another Spell more often.

Level 5 – BG3 Necromancer Build

At Level 5, your Proficiency Bonus is improved to +3, meaning you’ll now get a +3 bonus to all Skill rolls that your character has Proficiency for.

Your Arcane Recovery charge is increased to 3 too, again improving the amount of Spell Slots you can replenish with this ability.

You also unlock Third Level Spells at this level, too. Some First and Second Level spells can be upcasted to the Third Level to make them more powerful.

As usual, you can choose two spells to Learn. We recommend:

• Animate Dead – You can create an undead servant from a corpse.
  • IMPORTANT: You don’t need to wait until combat starts. If you find a corpse somewhere you can use this Spell on it to walk alongside with you.
• Haste – A really good buff spell that can be cast on yourself or an ally. You become faster and harder to hit, but most importantly, you gain an extra action per turn.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers
• Darkness
• Phantasmal Force
• Animate Dead
• Haste

Level 6

At Level 6, your Necromancer finally gets some Necromancy subclass-specific features. You can animate more dead and they become more powerful.

• Undead Thralls: Additional Undead – When you use Animate Dead, you can raise an additional corpse.
• Undead Thralls: Better Summons – Creatures created with Animate Dead have additional hit points equal to your wizard level, and your Proficiency bonus is added to their damage.
• Another Third Level Spell Slot, taking your total up to three.

You get to learn two additional Spells:

• Counterspell – nullify another creature’s spell as a reaction. This is great for interrupting powerful enemy spells.
• Vampiric Touch – Deal Necrotic damage and siphon their life force to regain half as many hit points.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Animate Dead: (This is now a free Spell, you don’t need to sacrifice a slot to “Prepare” it)
• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers
• Darkness
• Phantasmal Force
• Haste
• Counterspell
• Vampiric Touch

Level 7

At Level 7 for your Necromancer Wizard Build you unlock the following:

• Arcane Recovery Slots increased to 4.
• Access to Fourth Level Spells.
• One Fourth Level Spell Slot.
• Learn two more Spells. We recommend choosing:
  • Conjure Minor Elemental – This lets you conjure a Minor Elemental, making your summon army even bigger. We recommend the Azer summon.
  • Blight – Deals 8-64 Necrotic Damage to a single target. Plants are more vulnerable, rolling a Disadvantage on their Saving Throw. Undead and Constructs are immune to Necrotic Damage.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Animate Dead: (This is now a free Spell, you don’t need to sacrifice a slot to “Prepare” it)
• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers
• Darkness
• Haste
• Counterspell
• Blight
• Vampiric Touch
• Conjure Minor Elemental

When you use Conjure, make sure to select the Azer summon. He looks angry as f. and fits our Necromancer theme the most.

Level 8

At Level 8 you can choose another Feat. We recommend choosing Ability Improvement again, and increasing your Intellgence to 20. If you have a spare point after doing this, put it in Dexterity.

You can Learn two more Spells, as usual. Good options are:

• Phantasmal Killer – Deals high damage and the enemy can no longer move and will be easier to hit.
• Evard’s Black Tentacles – A large AOE of tentacles that damage and smother enemies within, reducing their movement speed. The tentacles deal 3-18 Bludgeoning Damage to enemies in the area. Spell requires Concentration to maintain.

Since you increased your Intelligence to 20, this time around you’ll get two new slots for Prepared Spells, instead of the usual one.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Animate Dead: (This is now a free Spell, you don’t need to sacrifice a slot to “Prepare” it)
• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers
• Darkness
• Haste
• Counterspell
• Blight
• Vampiric Touch
• Conjure Minor Elemental
• Phantasmal Killer
• Evard’s Black Tentacles

Level 9 for your Necromancer Wizard Build BG3

At Level 9 of your BG3 Necromancer Build it gains access to even more powerful magic. You’ll unlock the following features here:

• Arcane Recovery Slots increased to 5.
• Another Fourth Level Spell Slot, giving you three in total.
• One Fifth Level Spell Slot, and the ability to Learn and Prepare Fifth Level Spells.
• Learn two more Spells. We recommend:
  • Planar Binding – With this you can bind an otherworldly creature and attach its consciousness to your own. It will follow and fight for you as an ally.
  • Conjure Elemental – With this we can summon even more powerful creatures. Soon you will have an army of summons with you.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Animate Dead: (This is now a free Spell, you don’t need to sacrifice a slot to “Prepare” it)
• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers
• Darkness
• Haste
• Counterspell
• Blight
• Conjure Minor Elemental
• Phantasmal Killer
• Evard’s Black Tentacles
• Conjure Elemental

We are not slotting Planar Binding. We recommend only slotting this if you have the opportunity to bind an otherworldly creature. Otherwise, the spell will just sit there doing nothing.

Level 10

At Level 10, you unlock the following:

• Choose one more Cantrip. We already picked all the best options, so you can choose whatever you like here.
• Unlock another Fifth Level Spell Slot, giving you two in total.
• Injured to Undeath – You have steeped yourself so completely in death that you are Resistant to Necrotic damage, and moreover, your hit point maximum cannot be reduced.
• Learn two more Spells. We recommend:
  • Cone of Cold – Make a flurry of frost, crisp air, and condensed snow crystals erupt from your hands. Deals 8-64 Cold Damage to targets within 9 metres.
  • Telekinesis – This is a very entertaining Spell, you can throw objects or characters around with it, throwing them off ledges and instantly defeating them. Just remember, if they are thrown down somewhere you can’t loot them.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Animate Dead: (This is now a free Spell, you don’t need to sacrifice a slot to “Prepare” it)
• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Grease
• Cloud of Daggers
• Darkness
• Haste
• Counterspell
• Blight
• Conjure Minor Elemental
• Phantasmal Killer
• Evard’s Black Tentacles
• Conjure Elemental
• Cone of Cold

Level 11

At Level 11 you’ll gain access to the most powerful magic available in Baldur’s Gate 3, making your necromancer Build even stronger.

At this point, you’ll get:

• Another Arcane Recovery Charge that brings your total number to 6.
• One Sixth Level Spell Slot, and the ability to learn Spells of this tier.
• Learn two more Spells. We recommend choosing:
  • Disintegrate – Going with the Necromancy theme, Disintegrate is one of the most powerful Spells in the game. It shoots a thin green ray from your finger. If you reduce the enemy’s hit points to 0, it disintegrates.
  • Circle of Death – Sculpt a massive sphere of entropic energy around a creature. Devastate the target and all surrounding creatures.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Animate Dead: (This is now a free Spell, you don’t need to sacrifice a slot to “Prepare” it)
• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Blur
• Grease
• Darkness
• Haste
• Counterspell
• Blight
• Conjure Minor Elemental
• Phantasmal Killer
• Evard’s Black Tentacles
• Conjure Elemental
• Cone of Cold
• Disintegrate
• Circle of Death

The image below shows the Disintegrate spell in action inside a building in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Level 12 – Max Level Necro Build for Baldur’s Gate 3

Congratulations, you reached level 12 with your Necromancer Build in BG3.

At Level 12, your Wizard unlocks the following:

• Choose another Feat. We recommend War Caster:
  • War Caster – You gain Advantage on Saving Throws to maintain Concentration on a spell. You can also use a reaction to cast Shocking Grasp at a target moving out of melee range (1-8 Lightning Damage).
• Learn two more Spells. We recommend:
  • Create Undead – You can raise a corpse as a heinous mummy who fights by your side.
  • Wall of Ice – High damage Spell that raises a wall of solid ice. Covers a huge area and you can decide where it is placed.

Our Prepared Spells recommendation is:

• Animate Dead: (This is now a free Spell, you don’t need to sacrifice a slot to “Prepare” it)
• Mage Armour
• Magic Missile
• Create Undead
• Blur
• Darkness
• Telekinesis
• Evard’s Black Tentacles
• Haste
• Counterspell
• Wall of Ice
• Conjure Minor Elemental
• Blight
• Phantasmal Killer
• Conjure Elemental
• Disintegrate
• Circle of Death
• Planar Binding

Necromancer Build Equipment for Baldur’s Gate 3 PS5/PC

The Necromancer Wizard Build for Baldur’s Gate 3 also benefits from some cool equipment you can get. However, don’t sweat it too much, the build just works fine without any of the listed gear below. But of course, the build will become more effective if you manage to obtain any of the gear listed below.

Our main recommendation is for gear that you can acquire in Act 1 and 2. We also have a section below that shows more endgame-style gear that you will get in Act 3.

Armour

For your Robe, try to get the Icebite Robe that can be found inside a Sarcophagus close to the Grand Mausoleum waypoint in Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate. You do get Cold Damage Resistance. But more importantly, you get the Armour of Agathys spell that gives you extra temporary health and damage.

For your Cloak, buy the Cloak of Protection from Quartermaster Talli in Last Light Inn. This increases your Armour Class and Saving Throws by +1. You can also read our in-depth guide on How to get the Cloak of Protection in BG3 which explains everything in detail.

Inside the Goblin Camp from the Grat the Trader you can get decent boots, they are called “Swiresy Shoes“. They will increase your jump distance and give you +1 in Acrobatics too. The boots don’t cost that much.

Jewelry

For your Necklace, we recommend the Amulet of Misty Step. This grants you the Misty Step Spell, which lets you teleport to any visible location in range. This is great for quickly taking the high ground for Advantage, or for escaping a tricky situation where you’re getting melee enemies in your face. The Amulet of Misty Step can be purchased from Omeluum in the Myconid Colony, after completing his quest to investigate the parasite.

For your Ring, when you are in the Druids Grove you eventually will find the Tiefling Hideout. Kids that steal stuff for a living. If you have the Urchin background you might feel right at home. Mol asks you to steal the Druid Idol and give it to her. If you do that she will award you with the Ring of Protection. This is another way to boost your Armour Class by +1 and make you tankier without having any actual armour active. And you can get this super early in Baldur’s Gate 3.

There are a few ways to get into the Tiefling Hideout. Make your way to the location and talk to the kids, one of them will steal something from you and trigger a quest. You can either convince them to let you in or crawl through if you have a small character with you.

Weapons

Quarterstaff: Inside the Goblin Camp “Shattered Sanctum” in Act 1 you can find a trader called Roah Moonglow. You can buy the “Gold Wyrmling Staff” from her. It deals good damage and adds a bit of fire damage too. It costs quite a bit though, 806 gold.

Late Game Equipment

The BG3 Necromancer Build gets access to some juicy gear in Act 3 (endgame). Believe it or not, you can acquire these items all from the same person. The generous donor is called Mystic Carrion. We recommend doing his quest first and then defeating him and looting all the good items.

• Staff of Cherished Necromancy – You get Heightened Necromancy and Life Essence Harvest.
  • Heightened Necromancy: Creatures have Disadvantage on Saving Throws against your Necromancy spells.
  • Life Essence Harvest: When the wielder kills a hostile creature with a spell, they greedily absorb its energy and gain Life Essence until their next Long Rest.
    • Life Essence: Affected entity has absorbed a creature’s essence. It can use that essence to cast any Necromancy spell without consuming a spell slot.
• Armour of the Sporekeeper – Good Robe gives you additional damage and Spell Save DC.
• Veil of the Morning – Undead have Disadvantage against you and you can get the Turn Undead action.
• Crypt Lord Ring – Gives you Create Undead, you can raise a Mummy

Necromancy of Thay Book & Dans Macabre Spell

What would a Necromancer Build be without the Necromancy of Thay book. This is one of the items that will boost the power of your Necromancer once again. Because if you manage to finish the quest you can summon 4-5 Ghouls via the Dans Macabre spell. The spell doesn’t require corpses and you can stack 4-5 Ghouls on top of your other summons! Make sure to read our in-depth guide on how to get and how to open the Necromancy of Thay book in BG3.

Note: You used to be able to summon 6 Ghouls, but because the spell was too juicy it got slightly adjusted down to 4-5 Ghouls. Now the spell says you can summon 4, but for some reason the spell allowed us to summon 5 Ghouls at once.

Necromancer Build Tips & Tricks for Baldur’s Gate 3

Try to stay mindful of positioning when playing your Necromancer Build in combat. Remember that having melee enemies in your face will give you a Disadvantage on your Attacks, and having the High Ground will give you an Advantage.

Use your summons to your advantage and let the enemies fight against them, not against you if possible.

If you have no Spell Slots left or don’t want to expend any at the moment, then your best bet is usually to cast a Cantrip on the enemy, as these have unlimited uses. Swinging your melee weapon is only advised if a melee enemy has got into close range (thus giving all your spells Disadvantage) and you cannot retreat safely without provoking an Opportunist Attack.

More Baldur’s Gate 3 Builds

• Druid Build – Circle of the Moon
• Bard Build – College of Lore
• Ranger Build – Hunter
• Monk Build – Way of Shadow
• Monk Build – Way of the Four Elements
• Monk Build – Way of the Open Hand
• Fighter Build – Battle Master
• Barbarian Build – Berserker
• Warlock Build – Great Old One
• Wizard Build – Evocation School
• Cleric Build – Light Domain
• Rogue Build – Thief
• Sorcerer Build – Wild Magic
• Paladin – Oath of Ancients
• More Baldur’s Gate Guides & Builds

If you want to check out the map of Baldur’s Gate 3, please visit the Baldur’s Gate 3 Interactive Map.