Finger of Death: Give ‘Em the Finger
Usable By: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 7
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S
You send negative energy coursing through a creature that you can see within range, causing it searing pain. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. It takes 7d8 + 30 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
A humanoid killed by this spell rises at the start of your next turn as a zombie that is permanently under your command, following your verbal orders to the best of its ability.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Some spells scream DM tools, and Finger of Death is one such spell. This spell is a lower damage version of Disintegrate that comes with a free zombie on kill. That’s nifty, but not really aimed at what most players want to be doing when they’re playing around levels 13+. This, like Circle of Death, is something a DM puts on a lich or vampire to both act as a major damage spell against a frontline paladin while simultaneously explaining where their robust collection of frontline walking corpses came from.
It does have one meaningful upside over Disintegrate: half damage on a successful save. You’re always getting at least 3 and a half d8 +15 damage. That is a reasonable addition for a high damage spell. If you care most about consistency, Finger of Death is significantly more consistent at dealing damage, especially against creatures with high save DCs.
Getting free zombies here and there requires an ultimately evil character. As you get higher and higher level, you’ll be running into fewer and fewer humanoids to kill with this. You want a lot of long rests and a small village to get a squad of zombies together, but then risk losing all that prep to a single 3rd level Fireball. It's cute, but it's mainly flavor. You don’t want to be spending 7th level spell slots animating one zombie at a time when Animate Dead is available, and offers far more bang for your buck.
Finger of Death is a top end necromancer fantasy that deals a good chunk of damage. You’re probably better off with Disintegrate, but if you need the spell to always do damage, Finger of Death can do that for you for a fairly substantial potential damage tradeoff. It’s a great spell for villains, and fills out the world’s necromancer’s flavorfully. If you’re a player, you probably don’t need this, but for DMs, I think this is a great little tool to expand out the scope of your villains.
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