Threads of dark power leap from your fingers to pierce up to 5 Small or Medium corpses you’ll see within range. Each corpse immediately stands up and becomes undead. you choose whether it’s a zombie or a skeleton (the statistics for zombies and skeletons are within the Monster Manual), and it gains a bonus to its attack and damage rolls adequate to your spellcasting ability modifier. you’ll use a bonus action to mentally command the creatures you create with this spell, issuing a similar command to all or any of them.
To receive the command, a creature must be within 60 feet of you. you opt what action the creatures will take and where they’re going to move during their next turn, otherwise, you can issue a general command, like to protect a chamber or passageway against your foes. you issue no commands, the creatures do nothing except defend themselves against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creatures still follow it until their task is complete.
Danse Macabre 5e
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 60 feet
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Scales: Yes
- Casters: Warlock, Wizard
The creatures are under your control until the spell ends, after which they become inanimate another time.
At higher level
When you cast this spell using a spell slot‘ of 6th level or higher, you animate up to 2 additional corpses for every slot level above 5th.
When cast, up to 5 corpses within 60 feet (18 meters) were reanimated as undead. The caster was ready to command the creatures. If no command was given, the undead only defended themselves if attacked. The undead followed the caster’s command until it had been fulfilled. When the spell expired, the spell was lifted and therefore the undead collapsed, becoming corpses another time.
Remember that outside of what you’ll consider an evil act in your individual campaign (which is true for anything) animate dead is comparatively unique that it’s specifically called out as a spell that only evil characters use often whereas dance doesn’t have that. Some may feel it should others might not.
While in D&D you are doing not always need to rationalize why something is good/evil/whatever (and usually don’t since alignment discussions are among the worst things in D&D especially on this board) but if you are doing need some kind of explanation about how the 2 are different as I recall animate dead creates a permanent undead creature that if not continually kept in restraint with the spell will leave and do evil actions. Dance may be a temporary effect I think and if something happens the spell will wear off and therefore the undead is going to be no more. which will not be enough for a few people except for others that distinction could also be enough.
This spell danse macabre 5e to your side a natural creature (typically an animal, magical beast, or a giant). The summoned ally appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the simplest of its ability. If you’ll communicate with the creature, you’ll direct it to not attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions as you command.
A danse macabre 5e cannot summon or otherwise conjure another creature, nor can it use any teleportation or planar travel abilities. Creatures can’t be summoned into an environment that can’t support them. Creatures summoned using this spell cannot use spells or spell-like abilities that duplicate spells that have expensive material components (such as wish).