Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 ft
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration
, up to 1 hour
Threads of dark power leap from your fingers to pierce up to five Small or Medium corpses you can see within range. Each corpse immediately stands up and becomes undead. You decide whether it is a zombie or a skeleton (the statistics for zombies and skeletons are in the Monster Manual), and it gains a bonus to its attack and damage rolls equal to your spellcasting ability modifier.
You can use a bonus action to mentally command the creatures you make with this spell, issuing the same command to all of them. To receive the command, a creature must be within 60 feet of you. You decide what action the creatures will take and where they will move during their next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a chamber or passageway against your foes. If you issue no commands, the creatures do nothing except defend themselves against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creatures continue to follow it until their task is complete.
The creatures are under your control until the spell ends, after which they become inanimate once more.
When you cast this spell using spell slot of 6th level or higher, you animate up to two additional corpses for each slot level above 5th.
Verbal Component:
Mortuus Ballare Terreo
Verbal Component (Alternative):
Awaken and serve, whatever my will; be it to guard, fetch, serve or kill
Classes: Warlock, Wizard
Tags: Creation
Source: Xanathar's Guide to Everything (page 153)
View Danse Macabre Spell Card
(New Window? )
Return to Previous Page
Spell FAQs
There are currenly no frequently asked questions about this spell. If you have a question, or need to know how the spell functions in the game (especially in relation to other spells, creatures and magic items),
send us a message.
Submit a FAQ
Other Planes and Effects
Below is information about this spell as it relates to other planes and area of effects (i.e. underwater). Some of the information is pulled official D&D sources (such as books and the twitter feeds of D&D officials), but other information is derived from forums and online discussions. As always, it is up to the DM to decide how they wish to handle spell effects.
Underwater - Verbal Component
Official rules have been verified by Jeremy Crawford - "No rule prohibits verbal components from working underwater. Keep in mind that if you're talking, you're not holding your breath." Hence, while submerged underwater and holding its breath, a creature can cast a spell that requires a verbal component. After casting the spell, if the creature can't breathe underwater, it immediately runs out of breath. The creature can survive for a number of rounds equal to its Constitution modifier (minimum of 1 round).
