I have seen references both on the forums and in books about using Animate Dead to create variant skeletons and zombies, but no rule under the animate dead spell for this. How do you create variant skeletons and zombies? Is it just a choice you make when you cast the spell? Can anyone quote rules for this?
Hiyo, resident necromancer here! I just finished playing Reagan in the Curse of the Crimson Throne (GREAT campaign for a necro!) and this came up quite often... It's not on Animate Dead, but on Zombie and Skeleton.
Bestiary page 251:
Variant Skeletons
Numerous variant skeletons exist, such as those whose
bones burn with an unending fire and those who drip
with gore and reassemble themselves over time. Both of
these variant skeletons can be created using animate dead,
but they count as twice their normal number of Hit Dice
per casting. Once controlled, they count normally against
the controller’s limit.
Perhaps the most dangerous variant skeleton, though, is
the skeletal champion. This skeleton retains its intellect,
and often any class levels it possessed in life. A skeletal
champion cannot be created with animate dead—these
potent undead only arise under rare conditions similar to
those that cause the manifestation of ghosts or via rare and
highly evil rituals.
Each of the following skeleton types modifies the base
skeleton in a few key ways. Except as noted, these variations
can be stacked with one another—it’s possible to have a
bloody burning skeletal champion.
Likewise on Zombies in the Bestiary, using haste for fast zombies, and contagion for disease bomb zombies. The more powerful Juju Zombie is created with Create Undead.
Pathfinder's "Undead Revisited" is also a very helpful reference.
Thank you!