The Necromancer is one of the most powerful classes in Diablo 4 due to its summoning capabilities. You’ll have the means to raise ghastly creatures to fight alongside you. Here’s our Diablo 4 Necromancer Book of the Dead guide to help you with the undead minions that you can unlock, as well as their ideal upgrades.

Diablo 4 Necromancer Book of the Dead minions guide

The Diablo 4 Necromancer Book of the Dead mechanic becomes available fairly early in the campaign. However, most other minion options can only be unlocked as you level up further. You can open this panel by pressing Shift + C on a keyboard, or checking the appropriate tab once you’ve opened the character/abilities menu.

Likewise, it bears mentioning that there are particular groupings or categories: Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and Golems. Each grouping has its own type of creature variants, as well as selectable perks.

Moreover, each variant also has a Sacrifice perk. With it, the Necromancer receives a passive boon, but you won’t be able to summon a minion from that category anymore (i.e., receive X effect, but you won’t be able to summon Golems). As such, you’ll need to swap to the other perks if you want to be able to reraise them once more. Last but not least, apart from the Diablo 4 Necromancer Book of the Dead mechanics, you might want to take a look at our overviews regarding active skills, talents/passives, and leveling build.

Skeletal Warriors

Skirmishers – Deal 30% increased damage but have 15% reduced life.

• Perk 1 – Lets you raise one additional Skirmisher.
• Perk 2 – Critical strikes cause Skirmishers to deal criticals with bonus 50% crit damage; can happen once every three seconds.
• Sacrifice – +5% crit rate; unable to summon all types of Skeletal Warriors.

Defenders – Shieldbearers with 15% increased life.

• Perk 1 – Every eight seconds, Defenders can negate one instance of direct damage that they take.
• Perk 2 – Defenders gain 50% of your Thorns value.
• Sacrifice – +15% physical resistance; unable to summon all types of Skeletal Warriors.

Reapers – Scythe-wielders that do a high-damage wind-up attack every 10 seconds.

• Perk 1 – Reaper attacks versus immobilized, slowed, stunned, or vulnerable enemies reduce the cooldown of their wind-up attacks by two seconds.
• Perk 2 – +15% chance to create a corpse via their attacks.
• Sacrifice – +10% shadow damage; unable to summon all types of Skeletal Warriors.

The Diablo 4 Necromancer Book of the Dead has Skeletal Warriors as the first category/grouping. Reapers with their first perk are the ideal choice here. If you have debilitating skills (i.e., Decrepify), you can guarantee that their wind-up cooldowns get decreased often.

Skeletal Mages

Shadow – Spirit casters that deal shadow damage.

• Perk 1 – +10% chance to stun for two seconds; can only happen to the same enemy once every five seconds.
• Perk 2 – Fire an additional shadow bolt every sixth attack.
• Sacrifice – +15 maximum essence; unable to summon all types of Skeletal Mages.

Cold – Spirits that chill, then freeze targets.

• Perk 1 – Gain +2 essence when Cold Mages deal damage with their normal attack.
• Perk 2 – Enemies frozen or damaged while frozen by your Cold Mages become vulnerable for three seconds.
• Sacrifice – +15% damage against vulnerable enemies; unable to summon all types of Skeletal Mages.

Bone – Mages that deal damage by using a part of their own HP.

• Perk 1 – The HP lost per attack is reduced by 5%; +40% damage if the Bone Mage is still alive after five seconds.
• Perk 2 – Gain a percentage of fortify and leave behind a corpse whenever a Bone Mage dies.
• Sacrifice – +30% overpower damage; unable to summon all types of Skeletal Mages.

Cold Mages (second perk) are decent, if only for additional crowd-control and the vulnerable effect. However, the Bone Mage Sacrifice adds a huge chunk of overpower damage, too. Assuming you’re using Paranormal Blood Surge, this leads to a decent proc chance.

Golems

Naturally, Golems are the strongest type of summon among all Diablo 4 Necromancer Book of the Dead minions. Golems are unlocked once you reach level 25, whereupon you’ll receive the Call of the Underworld quest.

Bone – A tanky giant that can taunt nearby enemies.

• Perk 1 – Gain a corpse whenever a Bone Golem loses 20% of its max HP.
• Perk 2 – The Bone Golem gains +10% max HP and 50% of your Thorns value.
• Sacrifice – +10% attack speed; unable to summon all types of Golems.

Blood – Primarily uses its life to assist you (i.e., damage absorption or damage reduction/increase).

• Perk 1 – The Blood Golem absorbs 15% of the damage you take.
• Perk 2 – The Blood Golem will have 25% damage reduction and 25% increased damage when it’s healthy (i.e., 80% HP or more).
• Sacrifice – +10% max HP; unable to summon all types of Golems.

Iron – This variant has huge AoE slams and attacks.

• Perk 1 – Every fifth Iron Golem attack creates a frontal shockwave.
• Perk 2 – The Iron Golem’s slam will make enemies vulnerable for three seconds.
• Sacrifice – +30% critical damage; unable to summon all types of Golems.

Due to the Diablo 4 beta’s level 25 cap, only the Bone Golem is available. However, the others can be summoned once you reach the required levels once the game has officially launched. We recommend the Iron Golem for this category.