Spirit of Death 5e
Usable By: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 4
School: Necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
Components: V, S, M (a gilded playing card worth at least 400 gp depicting an avatar of death)
You call forth a spirit that embodies death. The spirit manifests in an unoccupied space you can see within range and uses the reaper spirit stat block. The spirit disappears when it is reduced to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.
The spirit is an ally to you and your companions. In combat, the spirit shares your initiative count and takes its turn immediately after yours. It obeys your verbal commands (no action required by you), If you don’t issue the spirit commands, it takes the dodge action and uses its movement to avoid damage.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, use the higher level wherever the spell’s level appears in the reaper spirit stat block.
Reaper Spirit
Medium undead, neutral
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Armor Class 11 + the level of the spell (natural armor)
Hit Points 40 +10 for each spell level above 4th
Speed 30 ft., 30 ft. fly (hover)
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STR: 16
DEX: 16
CON: 16
INT: 16
WIS: 16
CHA: 16
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Damage Immunities: necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities: charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
Sense darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages: understands the languages you speak
Challenge -
Proficiency Bonus: equal to your bonus
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Incorporeal Movement. The spirit can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. If it ends its turn inside an object, it is shunted to the nearest unoccupied space and takes 1d10 force damage for every 5 feet shunted.
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Actions
Multiattack. The spirit makes a number of Reaping Scythe attacks equal to half the level of the spell (rounded down).
Reaping Scythe. Melee Weapon Attack: your spell attack modifier to hit (with advantage), reach 5 ft., the creature haunted by Haunt Creature. Hit: 1d8+3 + the spell’s level necrotic damage.
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Bonus Actions
Haunt Creature. The spirit targets a creature it can see within 10 feet of itself and begins haunting it. While the target is haunted, you and the spirit sense the direction and distance to the target if it is on the same place of existence as you. Additionally, if the target starts its turn within 10 feet of the spirit, the target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or have the frightened condition until the start of the target’s next turn. The target remains haunted until it dies, the spirit disappears, or the spirit uses this action again.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Have you ever had the urge to command death itself? Look no further, as Spirit of Death is about as on the nose as you can get. You conjure the embodiment of death, complete with spooky cloak and reaping scythe that haunts things till death.
I don’t entirely get why this got printed, as it easily compares to Summon Undead, a 3rd level spell you can up-cast as flexibly with as good damage and far more versatility. Its Ghostly mode offers the Incorporeal Passage the Spirit of Death gets with its Incorporeal Movement ability. The Ghost attacks also come with a fear, and it can apply them to multiple creatures at once with its multi-attack not being limited to whoever got haunted.
This has all the words of the Summon Spells, but doesn’t bring anything new. Shadowspawn has fears galore and fits a similar vibe to this. Advantage on the attack rolls is good, don’t get me wrong, but is it so good I’d regularly take this over the flexibility the other two modes that come with Summon Undead have? I don’t think so.
If you specifically want the Grim Reaper to come to aid you, this is that. You could get the same effects practically with a more flexible spell already with Summon Undead, but this explicitly uses the words “Reaping Scythe” and says the spirit “embodies death”. You could just describe the ghostly form of the summoned undead that way, but this does that work for you I guess?
This is the kind of spell I don’t think is justified in taking up book space- it's not something new or exciting, but a very similar rehash of an existing gimmick. Will it be good? Probably! Is it better than its competition, or at least meaningfully different? Absolutely not!
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