As far I understand animate dead adds the undead template to the thing keeping most of the stuff it had in life (not quite sure)
What happens if there are wizards dead lying around can the skeleton /zombie still cast?
What happens if a sythesist summoner or any summoner gets animated
"As far I understand animate dead adds the undead template "
It does no such thing.
It turns corpses into zombies skeletons. They do not retain memories or abilities from their previous living existence.
If you are talking about the animate dead spell, it only animates the dead as skeletons or zombies. The creature(s) do not retain any of the abilities they had in life, nor do they retain their HD. They become standard zombies or skeletons with a number of HD based on size alone.
Yeah...humanoids are generally very weak things to reanimate with Animate Dead spell because they lose all class Hit Dice and are basically the zombies or skeletons stated out on the PRD when searching for zombie or skeleton.
Hit Dice: Drop HD gained from class levels (minimum of 1) and change racial HD to d8s. Zombies gain a number of additional HD as noted on the following table.
Zombies use their Charisma modifiers to determine bonus hit points (instead of Constitution).
Saves: Base save bonuses are Fort +1/3 HD, Ref +1/3 HD, and Will +1/2 HD + 2.
Defensive Abilities: Zombies lose their defensive abilities and gain all of the qualities and immunities granted by the undead type. Zombies gain DR 5/slashing.
Speed: Winged zombies can still fly, but maneuverability drops to clumsy. If the base creature flew magically, so can the zombie. Retain all other movement types.
Attacks: A zombie retains all the natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature. It also gains a slam attack that deals damage based on the zombie's size, but as if it were one size category larger than its actual size (see Natural Attacks).
Special Attacks: A zombie retains none of the base creature's special attacks.
Abilities: Str +2, Dex –2. A zombie has no Con or Int score, and its Wis and Cha become 10.
BAB: A zombie's base attack is equal to 3/4 its Hit Dice.
Skills: A zombie has no skill ranks.
Feats: A zombie loses all feats possessed by the base creature, and does not gain feats as its Hit Dice increase, but it does gain Toughness as a bonus feat.
Special Qualities: A zombie loses most special qualities of the base creature. It retains any extraordinary special qualities that improve its melee or ranged attacks. A zombie gains the following special quality.
Staggered (Ex): Zombies have poor reflexes and can only perform a single move action or standard action each round. A zombie can move up to its speed and attack in the same round as a charge action.
So they are pretty weak as I originally though... not sure how well a horde of zombies will work in higher lvls ...
If you can animate something like an ettin or a giant, or even some kind of troll, they'd be pretty effective.
So they are pretty weak as I originally though... not sure how well a horde of zombies will work in higher lvls ...
Yeah, you just need to kill things with racial hit dice. And then animate them.
You can also make fast zombie and plague zombies.
So they are pretty weak as I originally though... not sure how well a horde of zombies will work in higher lvls ...
Also, Ghouls and Ghasts work as great templates. Just change their descriptions to suit your zombie horde needs.
As for the question about Casters, take a look at Magus Skeletons, Magus Zombies, Skeletal Champions and Zombie Lords.