Is there a way to animate undead creatures beyond existing spells' restrictions, such as size?

Question

In Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition they introduced skeletons with all kinds of sizes such as Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, Gargantuan, and Colossal.

As a necromancer, it would be really entertaining to have undead of all kinds and sizes. However, Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition limits the abilities of a necromancer, as the spell animate dead only allows the caster to reanimate Small and Medium humanoid creatures. Though it's understandable that WOTC made it this way as a way of balancing to prevent the creation of overpowered undead armies, it would be interesting for some sort of way of animating a creature larger than medium.

Personally, I like the idea of having a Gargantuan humanoid skeleton; however, I would not be sure how to apply statistics to an undead or create a proper way of balancing.

There is a section in DMG p. 282 for skeleton and zombie templates, however, the largest creature that exists with a humanoid body is a hill giant categorized as huge. Even then the challenge rating is 5 making thinking of a way of balancing difficult.

Even beyond my desires, I'm sure there are many other necromancer-loving individuals who would desire to animate and control a minotaur skeleton, or any other undead such as beasts or monstrosities.

Is there a way (even house or homebrew rules) of animating undead beyond these restrictions?

Answer 1

If your intention is to control Large and larger undead: that's pretty easy.

If your intention is to create Large and larger undead: you will either have to wait for WotC to produce the appropriate material, or... get creative with your DM's world.

A wizard of the school of necromancy is given little restriction on their use of their Command Undead feature other than the undead's Charisma and Intelligence (Player's Handbook, pg. 119):

Starting at 14th level, you can use magic to bring undead under your control, even those created by other wizards. As an action, you can choose one undead that you can see within 60 feet of you. That creature must make a Charisma saving throw against your wizard spell save DC.

...

If the target has an Intelligence of 8 or higher, it has advantage on the saving throw. If it fails the saving throw and has an Intelligence of 12 or higher, it can repeat the saving throw at the end of every hour until it succeeds and breaks free.

Therefore, any undead you can see can be yours, as long as it is dumb and ugly enough and you are powerful enough.

Unfortunately, there are no spells or abilities published yet that allow creation of giant undead. However, if they exist in the world you inhabit, they must come from somewhere, right?

Therefore, your first task would be to find out what makes giant undead creatures in the world. Find out what is creating them and where:

• Is it an NPC necromancer who stumbled across an ancient artifact that can amplify the effects of necrotic spells (as in my campaign)?
• Is there a haunted graveyard where the restless dead can't help but stretch their legs? (common trope)
• Or is there a particularly unholy bog somewhere nearby that just imbues corpses in it with undeath?

Once you find that answer, simply harness that energy, adapt it to meet your needs, and you will be churning out giant undead slaves in no time.

Answer 2

Most of the commenters seem to be missing the fact that giants and ogres aren't humanoid - they're giants. "Humanoid" isn't a descriptive term in D&D; it's a creature type. Giants are a different creature type.

Homebrew an animate giants spell at an appropriate level. Wizards can learn spells from spell scrolls and spellbooks. Insert a questline to find a rare spell or an NPC who can teach it.

For stats, I like the Dark Arts Player's Companion (PDF link). It's free homebrew, and it has a decent guide for converting anything into a skeleton or zombie in the back of the book.

Answer 3

Research

I decided to look into the Monster Manual for inspiration for this. I started with vampires, knowing that their bite raises undead (MM, p. 297):

... A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under the vampire's control.

This doesn't mention any size limit so it seems promising. However, there are two problems:

1. How do you how do you become a vampire?
2. There are no stats for non-Medium spawn.

I decided this was a good starting point but I needed something else which is when I came across wights. These I feel answer your question more directly, as a wight's life drain raises zombies (MM, p. 300):

... A humanoid slain by this attack rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the wight's control, unless the humanoid is restored to life or its body is destroyed. The wight can have no more than twelve zombies under its control at one time.

Good. Now how to become or control a wight? This was fairly easy. I looked at control undead and found casting it as an 8th-level spell allows you to animate wights (PHB, p. 229):

... 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...

Conclusion

Cast Create Undead at 8th-level to animate two wights. Have them life drain desired creatures to animate them as undead. You could then use animate dead to take control or let them serve under your underlings.

Alternatively at this point a Wish Spell might be more effective depending on your DM

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As Miniman pointed out in a comment, there are a limited number (1) of non-Small or Medium humanoids in the Monster Manual, which makes this solution rather limited.

Answer 4

I would recommend awarding large undead as rewards for completing intricate rituals. Make them quest a little bit, then give them a big beastie as their reward for gathering all the ritual components.

For stats, just reskin a large monster. Doesn't need to necessarily be undead, just take the skin away and make it creak. Boom, undead monster.

As far as game balance... well, its going to unbalance the game. Either toughen the encounters or kill off the undead after a bit. Maybe a priesthood has heard of an abomination lurking about the countryside. Boom, beastie gone. New questline? Maybe.

Answer 5

Finger of death will raise any humanoid, with the size unspecified:

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.

You won't have minotaurs or dracoliches, but an army of zombie hill giants isn't bad!

Answer 6

1. Use the spell as intended and then cast Enlarge on it to make it Large [for a minute].

2. Creating your own spells: [I believe they are described in the DMG] and just make a Greater Animate Dead spell that can be used to create larger humanoids.

Additional Un-tested house rules:

1. Casting Enlarge at a higher level could (for this particular case) enlarge the Animated Dead to larger size categories.
2. Casting Animate Dead at a higher level to allow for a creature Larger than specified.

The house rules would require some time and play testing to get the spell levels and balance right, but hopefully this puts you on the right path.