New Arcane Tradition; White School Necromancer (D&D 5e)

The stereotypical necromancer is a dark-cloaked ghoul huddled over the graves of the dead in search of parts and pieces to bolster their power. These charnel misanthropes are ill liked and mistrusted, and their practices are often marginalized if not outlawed directly. There are those, however, who claim the necromancers so often seen are the failures and degenerates of a greater legacy. This lost legacy recognized the powers and energies of death and dying as merely one part of a greater whole. The few practitioners who know of this ancient tradition talk of the respect and power it held at its height. Their stories are bolstered by eldritch and obscure formulae and tantalizing descriptions held in some of their most prized texts; tomes of ancient provenance and exceeding rarity. However, often, these pieces are useless. Calculations and formulations built upon assumptions that the writers took for granted but have been lost to the modern practitioners of the necromantic arts.


There is little concrete evidence of what happened to these ancient necromancers. There is simply a gulf in necromantic knowledge, after which the most pervasive sources are the broken and debased, but clearly derivative, "dark" necromancers of modern arcana. One theory is that, following some great tragedy the few remaining scholars in the field turned their focus to the retrieval of the knowledge from the height of their power. Meeting with limited or mixed success, the individuals and groups which had thus specialized extended their necromantic knowledge in those areas creating a self-perpetuating spiral which lead to the community ultimately discarding the "weaker" aspects of the practice.
White school necromancers, despite their claims, have little more actual knowledge to build their tradition on. While they have avoided further degeneration of the "light" aspects of their practice, features that were obviously fundamental to ancient necromancers are hotly debated points. One such ongoing argument is whether effects which appear to manipulate positive energy are actually indirect manipulations of "degrees of death" even living creatures are subject to, and merely simulate positive energy manipulations.
None of these points of contention come near the schism between a white school necromancer and their "black school" brethren, however. "Traditionalists" insist not only that necromancy properly manipulates only negative energy, but that by nature this energy can produce only destructive or entropic effects. They insist that spells and effects which break these rules are more properly from other schools of magic, particularly conjuration or transmutation. White school necromancers reject this concept, arguing that these formulae have been adopted by other schools, but the underlying mechanics' theoretical roots are clear in the most central of the ancient necromantic texts.
Regardless of these academic discussions, and the appearance that the two practices have nearly irrevocably diverged on key points, there is little the pragmatic result. The bulk of the research done by necromancers of either school generally remain transferable with a few particular exceptions.
Because of the widespread disgrace into which necromantic practices have fallen white school necromancers often pass as members of other traditions, often transmuters, thought with their abilities they sometimes pass as clerics instead. The proudest among them simply refer to themselves as white mages, recognizing that the once proud term "necromancer" has been tainted beyond use in the modern age.

White School Necromancer Summary

Wizard Level; Feature

2^nd; Ancient Formulae, Necromantic Manipulation (Preserve Life, Touch of Death, Turn Undead)

6^th; Destroy Undead

10^th; Necromantic Restoration

14^th; Necromantic Vitality

Ancient Formulae
When you select this tradition at 2nd level you may treat the spells Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds, Revivify, Resurrection, and True Resurrection as if they appear on the wizard spell list. This means you may add them to to your spellbook and you can memorize them normally. However, any attempts by characters from other arcane traditions to copy these spells fails. When you memorize and cast any of these spells they count as necromancy spells.

Necromantic Manipulation
Beginning when you select this tradition at 2nd level you develop your ability to manipulate the forces of life and death. You have a pool of necromantic power which you can use to fuel magical effects. This pool of energy replenishes when you take a long rest. Beginning at 6th level, you can perform your necromantic manipulation twice between rests, and at 18th level you can use it three times between rests and regain your power during either a short or long rest.

Necromantic Manipulation: Preserve Life
Starting at 2nd level you can call forth a wave of energy to heal the badly injured. As an action, call forth healing energy that can restore a number of hit points equal to five times your wizard level. Choose any creatures within 30 feet of you and divide those hit points among them. This feature can restore a creature to no more than half its hit point maximum. You can't use this feature on undead or constructs.

Necromantic Manipulation: Touch of Death
Starting at 2nd level you can destroy another creature's life force by touch. When you hit a creature with a melee attack you can use this ability to deal extra necrotic damage to the target. This damage equals 5+ twice their wizard level.

Necromantic Manipulation: Turn Undead
Starting at 2nd level you may use your necromantic power to drive off the undead. As an action you speak an invocation and each undead that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions, For its action, it can only use the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can use the Dodge action.

Destroy Undead
Starting at 6th level you increase the force of your necromantic manipulation of undead. When an undead fails its saving throw against your Turn Undead feature you may choose for the creature to be instantly destroyed if its challenge rating is at or below a certain threshold, as shown in the table below.

Wizard Level	Destroys Undead of CR
6th	½ or lower
8th	1 or lower
11th	2 or lower
14th	3 or lower
17th	4 or lower

Necromantic Restoration
Beginning at 10th level you've learned how to syphon off the threads of necromantic energy you wield to improve your own health. When you cast a necromancy spell of 1st level or higher which does not otherwise change your hit point total you regain hit points equal to the spell's level.

Necromantic Vitality
Starting at 14th level you have learned how to balance the necromantic energies in your body to provide you protection against the frailties of the mortal form. You become immune to disease and poison, no longer need food or water, and no longer age. However, this does not restore youth, and you gain no resistance to magical aging.

~~*~~

I've previously mentioned my expanded view of necromancy. A couple times, in fact. I'm also aware that this isn't unique to me, or new. So, I finally got around to doing a full writeup of the concept for 5e. I expect some will react with the disbelief that I would so blatantly convert cleric "lane" things to an arcane spellcaster. However, I've talked about how I feel regarding the separation of roles. Specifically, I have strong feelings regarding the "clear divisions" between arcane and divine magic. Even if I didn't feel that the entire argument was garbage, typified on the one hand by the Bard's arcane casting of cure spells and on the other by persistent existence overpowering of clerical versions of arcane spells- the best example of which is probably still the 3e Disintegrate vs Destruction nonsense. Regardless, that argument remains a silly way to entrench a counterproductive delineation.
Even a balance argument is unconvincing to me. Ignoring examples of cleric spells frequently being strictly better than wizard equivalents, their spells available both generally and per day remains as good if not better than wizard spellcasting and they persist in having second-tier combat ability... better than rogues. While these things are tradition, and I'm not going to argue for them to change, suggesting that the ability to use healing magic is the thing that will break wizards seems patently ridiculous
.
Instead, I'd like to roundly reject the entirely unneeded dividing line and open up freedom for more character options and concepts. The background that I've outlined for this tradition shows how it provides expands the range of concepts among necromancers. Obviously, the concept can be claimed without this mechanical backing. However, doing so is tantamount to admitting that not only is the character wrong, but delusionally so.

An edited version of this tradition is now available at the DM'S Guild.