Awaken Undead

6th-level necromancy (Pale Master,Sorcerer,Warlock,Wizard)


  • Casting Time: 10 minutes
  • Range: 5 feet
  • Components: V, M (a small humanoid skull carved in jade worth at least 5,000 gp, which the spell consumes)
  • Duration: Instantaneous

You whisper a secret incantation to an undead creature, awakening a glimmer of intelligence in its dead mind.

Choose a Huge or smaller undead creature within range that is not hostile to you. The target must have either no Intelligence score or an Intelligence of 3 or less. The target gains an Intelligence of 10. If its Intelligence was higher than 10 when it died, it may or may not regain that Intelligence score, at the DM's discretion. The target also gains the ability to speak one language of your choice that you know, as well as any languages it knew in life. It also gains proficiency in simple weapons. If the DM rules it had any other skill, tool, weapon, or armor proficiencies in life, it regains those as well.

The awakened undead creature is charmed by you, but is not under your control unless you control it by other means. It remains charmed by you for 30 days or until you or your companions do anything harmful to it. When the charmed condition ends, the awakened undead creature chooses whether it will remain friendly to you, based on how you treated it while it was charmed.