What kind of Undead can you create with Animate Dead?

[alexperience]

I apologize in advance, I'm sure these have been asked before but I still can't find the answer to them.

• While using Animate Dead, can you only create Skeletons and Zombies (and Beheaded), along with their respective variants, or can you also create ghouls, ghasts or other?
• Also can you Animate whatever is nearby, if hypothetically a Gorgon died nearby, could you Animate Dead the Gorgon and create an Gorgon Skeleton so long as it is within your HD budget for the spell, using the Skeleton template?

Final optional question: Purely for Semantics, can you only Animate Dead what is nearby? or in the middle of nowhere could you create an undead skeleton or other from the carbon in the materials nearby, etc, even if there are no bones nearby?

Thanks,

Alex

[ShoulderPatch]

1) Only Skeletons and Zombies. (Clarified: Only creatures the spells text or some other rules text says can be created by this specific spell). From the spell text...
"This spell turns corpses into undead skeletons or zombies that obey your spoken commands."

[Edit: See also the spells Create Undead and Create Greater Undead from the CRB, along with specific Bestiary entries and other exceptions, for ways to create more types of undead. Example: a Ghast comes from Create Undead, a Necrocraft (from B4) requires Animate Dead, Make Whole, and a ritual process.]

2) Yes you could. From the template text...
"“Skeleton” is an acquired template that can be added to any corporeal creature (other than an undead) that has a skeletal system (referred to hereafter as the base creature)."

3) You must have the creatures remains nearby. It is a template added to a preexisting corpse. See both spell and template text.
Same quotes as above.

[Nefreet]

Search the PRD for the term "animate dead" and you will find quite a few different types of undead you can create, from different Bestiaries.

They aren't all listed within the spell's text.

[alexperience]

Thanks for the clarifications.