You can cast this spell only at night. Choose up to three corpses of Medium or Small humanoids within range. Each corpse becomes a ghoul under your control. (The GM has game statistics for these creatures.)
As a bonus action on each of your turns, you can mentally command any creature you animated with this spell if the creature is within 120 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.
The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you have given it. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over up to three creatures you have animated with this spell, rather than animating new ones.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a 7th-level spell slot, you can animate or reassert control over four ghouls. When you cast this spell using an 8th-level spell slot, you can animate or reassert control over five ghouls or two ghasts or wights. When you cast this spell using a 9th-level spell slot, you can animate or reassert control over six ghouls, three ghasts or wights, or two mummies.
* - (one clay pot filled with grave dirt, one clay pot filled with brackish water, and one 150 gp black onyx stone for each corpse)
If you animate a wight with this, can the wight still create its own zombies through its life drain attack? So you could potentially have 2 wights under your control, each of which has up to 12 zombies under their own control.
Yes.
Blimey that's.... well that's cool! Thanks for the response o/
No problem!
You can use level 6 slot to maintain control of the wights that you create with your level 8 and 9 slots.
Based on the wording in the "At Higher Levels" section, reasserting control of creatures animated using higher-level slots will also require the use of a higher-level slot. Otherwise the usage of "or reassert control over X" wouldn't be necessary in the wording.
If you animate two Wight's they become the Wight Brothers.
Realized I have been accidentally playing the long game. I have always played a necromancer. I have a Skeleton named Betty. When she eventually upgrades to a wight.... she will be Betty Wight.
Well played sir. Well played.
I love this, but I find the requirement that it has to be night pretty dumb
Does the 10 ft range only apply to summoning the creatures or do you need to be within 10 feet of your creatures to reassert control over them too?
"Choose up to three corpses ... within range"
Sounds to me like they have to physically be within range to cast the spell and have it affect the target, meaning your undead horde you made last night can't be 10 miles away and still under your control just by burning spell slots. They have to be within range of the spell to be affected by your reassertion of dominance.
Interesting Idea. Wights are intelligent enough to have their own thoughts. After the 24 hours of control are up there is a chance that you can convince the wight to remain under your control for their own gain. Theoretically, you could keep raising wights and talking them into staying with you thus creating an infinite army of undead.
Yup, although they'd really only stick with you if you were undead, or very evil
For the most part, undead have an innate and deep hatred for anything that lives, especially the ones that can think, so you'd have to convince them that by working with you they'd be able to exact their own ends better than they could without, which if you're an evil character, I'm sure they'd happily do that for you
Ouch. I think that does 2d6 comedy damage. ;p
Watch out for Ted Knight, tho. ;p
Could always tell them that your goal as a necromancer is to achieve lichdom, the ultimate form of undead.
I had a necromancer character whose end goal was to become a lich, but he was true neutral. The first Wight he raised was a permadeath fighter character whose dying wish was for the necromancer to turn him into something to protect his home- now, it took a while, and my character didn't want to turn him into a normal Skeleton or Ghoul. So, he waited until he was strong enough, and raised him as a wight, giving him his own force of zombies that were once bandits that attacked the town, and now that wight protects his town as an immortal guardian. If any of his zombies die, he'll just life drain some bandits and get more.
that's ******* cool
Would anyone ever use this to do anything except create wights? For a 6th/7th/9th level spell 3 ghouls/ 2 ghasts/ 2 mummies is weak.
Also RAW even if you did create two wights, your only 8th level spell slot would be spent every 24 hours on controlling them. You might want to cast geas on them.
Actually, RAW says you can cast this spell at sixth level to reassert control "over up to three creatures you have animated with this spell".
The stipulation that you can use a higher level slot to reassert control is really only relevant if you've used it at a higher level (or cast it multiple times) to create more than three ghouls (at 9th level, for instance, you can reassert control over six ghouls).