Skeleton Crew

4th-level necromancy

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: touch

Components: V, S, M (a humanoid corpse or corpses)

Duration: 24 hours

This spell turns up to 10 corpses into skeletons that act as crew and obey your commands to the extent of their abilities.

The undead you create will be a skeleton that and is proficient with Navigators tools, Carpenters tools, and all water vessels. It has a skill level equal to your spellcasting ability modifier. The skeleton can perform the duties of one crew member but has no other abilities. The skeleton cannot speak, attack, or even defend themselves. The only orders it obeys are ones pertaining to the operation of a ship. Skeletal crew members are not proficient with any weapons or armor.

On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command any skeleton you made with this spell if the creature is within 60 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn. The skeleton crew will continue to man the ship and keep it on course to their best of their abilities even without specific orders to do so.

The skeletons are under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you’ve given it. To maintain control of the creature for a further 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creatures again before the current spell ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over up to twenty creatures you have animated with this spell, rather than animating new ones.

A skeletal crew member can only be created from a mostly intact humanoid corpse. The corpses must have bones. When you cast this spell, any flesh left on the corpses melts away into fog.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th or higher you can create a further two Skeletons per spell level or control a further four skeletons you have already created. To create further skeletons, you must have a corpse for each additional skeleton you wish to create.