Can the Necromancy wizard's Command Undead feature be used on the Nightwalker from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes?

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP












10












$begingroup$


The School of Necromancy wizard has the Command Undead feature (PHB, p. 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 it succeeds, you can't use this feature on it again. If it
fails, it becomes friendly to you and obeys your commands until you
use this feature again.



Intelligent undead are harder to control in this way. 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.




The Nightwalker from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (p. 216) has 8 charisma, 6 intelligence and a CR of 20.



Isn't it a bit crazy? Outside of simply not putting this thing in the game if you have a necromancy wizard in it, what else can happen (or can the DM do) that is gonna prevent the game from breaking?










share|improve this question











$endgroup$











  • $begingroup$
    @Erik See this FAQ for why your comment was removed. Thanks!
    $endgroup$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 9 at 22:42















10












$begingroup$


The School of Necromancy wizard has the Command Undead feature (PHB, p. 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 it succeeds, you can't use this feature on it again. If it
fails, it becomes friendly to you and obeys your commands until you
use this feature again.



Intelligent undead are harder to control in this way. 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.




The Nightwalker from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (p. 216) has 8 charisma, 6 intelligence and a CR of 20.



Isn't it a bit crazy? Outside of simply not putting this thing in the game if you have a necromancy wizard in it, what else can happen (or can the DM do) that is gonna prevent the game from breaking?










share|improve this question











$endgroup$











  • $begingroup$
    @Erik See this FAQ for why your comment was removed. Thanks!
    $endgroup$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 9 at 22:42













10












10








10


1



$begingroup$


The School of Necromancy wizard has the Command Undead feature (PHB, p. 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 it succeeds, you can't use this feature on it again. If it
fails, it becomes friendly to you and obeys your commands until you
use this feature again.



Intelligent undead are harder to control in this way. 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.




The Nightwalker from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (p. 216) has 8 charisma, 6 intelligence and a CR of 20.



Isn't it a bit crazy? Outside of simply not putting this thing in the game if you have a necromancy wizard in it, what else can happen (or can the DM do) that is gonna prevent the game from breaking?










share|improve this question











$endgroup$




The School of Necromancy wizard has the Command Undead feature (PHB, p. 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 it succeeds, you can't use this feature on it again. If it
fails, it becomes friendly to you and obeys your commands until you
use this feature again.



Intelligent undead are harder to control in this way. 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.




The Nightwalker from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (p. 216) has 8 charisma, 6 intelligence and a CR of 20.



Isn't it a bit crazy? Outside of simply not putting this thing in the game if you have a necromancy wizard in it, what else can happen (or can the DM do) that is gonna prevent the game from breaking?







dnd-5e class-feature wizard undead necromancy






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Feb 9 at 22:10









V2Blast

23.4k375148




23.4k375148










asked Feb 9 at 21:47









Pedro DiePedro Die

535




535











  • $begingroup$
    @Erik See this FAQ for why your comment was removed. Thanks!
    $endgroup$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 9 at 22:42
















  • $begingroup$
    @Erik See this FAQ for why your comment was removed. Thanks!
    $endgroup$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 9 at 22:42















$begingroup$
@Erik See this FAQ for why your comment was removed. Thanks!
$endgroup$
– SevenSidedDie
Feb 9 at 22:42




$begingroup$
@Erik See this FAQ for why your comment was removed. Thanks!
$endgroup$
– SevenSidedDie
Feb 9 at 22:42










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















11












$begingroup$

Sure, it can.



It is a bit crazy! But everything wizards do at that level is a bit crazy.



A 14th-level necromancer is, like, Sauron-tier. The point of being someone like that is precisely to call up terrible minions from the grave and terrorize the land with them. The Nightwalker is a great fit for the role of "big dumb undead minion" rather than being a boss in its own right.



What most DMs do to prevent the game from breaking is to simply not play at 14th level.



If one of your PCs is a necromancer, and you throw a Nightwalker at them, then the player wrangling the monster and yelling "Yee-haw!" from its back while they stomp around is probably the exact outcome you expect.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Riding around on the back of a Nightwalker is going to be a pretty bad idea, given its Aura.
    $endgroup$
    – Erik
    Feb 9 at 22:39






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Erik Hilarity ensues.
    $endgroup$
    – Mark Wells
    Feb 9 at 22:41











Your Answer





StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function ()
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function ()
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix)
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["\$", "\$"]]);
);
);
, "mathjax-editing");

StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "122"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);













draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f140816%2fcan-the-necromancy-wizards-command-undead-feature-be-used-on-the-nightwalker-fr%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









11












$begingroup$

Sure, it can.



It is a bit crazy! But everything wizards do at that level is a bit crazy.



A 14th-level necromancer is, like, Sauron-tier. The point of being someone like that is precisely to call up terrible minions from the grave and terrorize the land with them. The Nightwalker is a great fit for the role of "big dumb undead minion" rather than being a boss in its own right.



What most DMs do to prevent the game from breaking is to simply not play at 14th level.



If one of your PCs is a necromancer, and you throw a Nightwalker at them, then the player wrangling the monster and yelling "Yee-haw!" from its back while they stomp around is probably the exact outcome you expect.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Riding around on the back of a Nightwalker is going to be a pretty bad idea, given its Aura.
    $endgroup$
    – Erik
    Feb 9 at 22:39






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Erik Hilarity ensues.
    $endgroup$
    – Mark Wells
    Feb 9 at 22:41
















11












$begingroup$

Sure, it can.



It is a bit crazy! But everything wizards do at that level is a bit crazy.



A 14th-level necromancer is, like, Sauron-tier. The point of being someone like that is precisely to call up terrible minions from the grave and terrorize the land with them. The Nightwalker is a great fit for the role of "big dumb undead minion" rather than being a boss in its own right.



What most DMs do to prevent the game from breaking is to simply not play at 14th level.



If one of your PCs is a necromancer, and you throw a Nightwalker at them, then the player wrangling the monster and yelling "Yee-haw!" from its back while they stomp around is probably the exact outcome you expect.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Riding around on the back of a Nightwalker is going to be a pretty bad idea, given its Aura.
    $endgroup$
    – Erik
    Feb 9 at 22:39






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Erik Hilarity ensues.
    $endgroup$
    – Mark Wells
    Feb 9 at 22:41














11












11








11





$begingroup$

Sure, it can.



It is a bit crazy! But everything wizards do at that level is a bit crazy.



A 14th-level necromancer is, like, Sauron-tier. The point of being someone like that is precisely to call up terrible minions from the grave and terrorize the land with them. The Nightwalker is a great fit for the role of "big dumb undead minion" rather than being a boss in its own right.



What most DMs do to prevent the game from breaking is to simply not play at 14th level.



If one of your PCs is a necromancer, and you throw a Nightwalker at them, then the player wrangling the monster and yelling "Yee-haw!" from its back while they stomp around is probably the exact outcome you expect.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$



Sure, it can.



It is a bit crazy! But everything wizards do at that level is a bit crazy.



A 14th-level necromancer is, like, Sauron-tier. The point of being someone like that is precisely to call up terrible minions from the grave and terrorize the land with them. The Nightwalker is a great fit for the role of "big dumb undead minion" rather than being a boss in its own right.



What most DMs do to prevent the game from breaking is to simply not play at 14th level.



If one of your PCs is a necromancer, and you throw a Nightwalker at them, then the player wrangling the monster and yelling "Yee-haw!" from its back while they stomp around is probably the exact outcome you expect.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered Feb 9 at 22:31









Mark WellsMark Wells

6,54811746




6,54811746







  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Riding around on the back of a Nightwalker is going to be a pretty bad idea, given its Aura.
    $endgroup$
    – Erik
    Feb 9 at 22:39






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Erik Hilarity ensues.
    $endgroup$
    – Mark Wells
    Feb 9 at 22:41













  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Riding around on the back of a Nightwalker is going to be a pretty bad idea, given its Aura.
    $endgroup$
    – Erik
    Feb 9 at 22:39






  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Erik Hilarity ensues.
    $endgroup$
    – Mark Wells
    Feb 9 at 22:41








2




2




$begingroup$
Riding around on the back of a Nightwalker is going to be a pretty bad idea, given its Aura.
$endgroup$
– Erik
Feb 9 at 22:39




$begingroup$
Riding around on the back of a Nightwalker is going to be a pretty bad idea, given its Aura.
$endgroup$
– Erik
Feb 9 at 22:39




2




2




$begingroup$
@Erik Hilarity ensues.
$endgroup$
– Mark Wells
Feb 9 at 22:41





$begingroup$
@Erik Hilarity ensues.
$endgroup$
– Mark Wells
Feb 9 at 22:41


















draft saved

draft discarded
















































Thanks for contributing an answer to Role-playing Games Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid


  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f140816%2fcan-the-necromancy-wizards-command-undead-feature-be-used-on-the-nightwalker-fr%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown






Popular posts from this blog

How to check contact read email or not when send email to Individual?

Displaying single band from multi-band raster using QGIS

How many registers does an x86_64 CPU actually have?