Anatomists come from a relatively recent branch within the School of Necromancy. They are dedicated to anatomy and all that they can do with superior knowledge of the body. Like other necromancers, they face intense suspicion from society if their practice becomes known. In the most enlightened kingdoms or republics, they might find official patronage and acceptance. At the other extreme, would-be tyrants seek them out as torturers who can pass as court wizards.

Necromancy Savant
2^nd-level Anatomist feature

The gold and time you need to copy a necromancy spell into your spellbook is halved.

Lore of Flesh and Blood
2^nd-level Anatomist feature

Inflict wounds is a wizard spell for you. You can cast it without expending a spell slot a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

When you cast inflict wounds and hit with your spell attack, you can use a bonus action to choose another creature within the spell’s range. That creature regains hit points equal to 1d8 per level you expended. If you cast inflict wounds without using a spell slot, the creature regains 1d8 + your Int modifier hit points (minimum 1). This healing energy is lost if not used before the end of your next turn. Constructs can’t regain hit points from this feature.

Plague Lore
2^nd-level Anatomist feature

You gain proficiency in the Medicine skill.

You have resistance to poison damage, and advantage on saving throws against disease and to avoid or end the poisoned condition.

When you spend at least an hour giving treatment to a creature that has to make a saving throw against disease or poison, you can choose to give them advantage or disadvantage on their saving throw. You can give this treatment to a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus at the same time.

Science of Life and Death
6^th-level Anatomist feature

When you cast a necromancy spell that has a range of Touch, you can instead target a creature within 30 feet of you.

You learn the lesser restoration spell, and it is a wizard spell for you.

During a short rest, you can give medical care to one creature. When it rolls a Hit Die to regain hit points, any die result that is less than your proficiency bonus is treated as a result equal to your proficiency bonus.

The Weakness of Flesh
10^th-level Anatomist feature

You understand exactly where to hit so that it hurts the most. Your attacks critically hit on a die result of 19 or 20.

When a creature you can see within 30 feet of you hits a target you can see with an attack and the die result is a 19, you can use your reaction to make the attack a critical hit. You can use this reaction a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Reanimation
14^th-level Anatomist feature

You touch a dead creature whose body is mostly intact and restore it to a semblance of life. This feature can’t be used on an Undead or a Construct. It gains the lesser of 50 hit points or its hit point maximum and obeys your command for 1 minute. During that duration its type changes to Undead and it can use any of its actions except for legendary actions or lair actions.

At the end of that duration, you can choose for it to die again, or you can expend a 5^th-level spell slot and a diamond worth at least 500 gp. If you do, it remains alive, regains its previous type, and ceases to be controlled by you.

You can use this feature once, and regain the use of it when you finish a long rest.

Design Notes

This is my 500^th Harbinger of Doom post!

This is specifically designed to be a healing wizard, which is something Kainenchen asked me to create a long while back. It’s inspired by reading the Complete Book of Necromancers for Edition Wars, and by reading Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth last summer.

My concern is that I’ve leaned so hard on inflict wounds that it becomes tedious. You’ve got the whole rest of wizardry to play with, though, including spells like life transference.

I hope it’s clear that you can hold onto the healing energy you harvest from inflict wounds for up to a whole round, so you can cast your inflict, then move… and move again if needed. That means you’re not wasting hit points of healing that you gather if, say, you win initiative and no one is hurt yet.

Life is very risky for you from 2^nd to 5^th level, but the range stretches out at 6^th. On the plus side, at those lower levels, the odds that your inflict is a kill are rather higher.

Reanimation is inspired by Glorious Rejuvenation in Dust to Dust, except that this also has handling to keep your target alive afterward. I’m trying to reference on Victor Frankenstein (flesh golem, I get it, go with me for a second), “Herbert West—Reanimator,” and Diablo II necromancers all at the same time.

I made a few tweaks between the Patreon posting and this one – the 10th-level feature is completely reconcepted, I added the second paragraph of Plague Lore, and I clarified how Lore of Flesh and Bone’s healing works if you use a free inflict wounds casting. Also added a clarifying clause to Reanimaton.

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