This spell creates an undead servant. Choose a pile of bones or a corpse of a Medium or Small humanoid within range. Your spell imbues the target with a foul mimicry of life, raising it as an undead creature. The target becomes a skeleton if you chose bones or a zombie if you chose a corpse (the GM has the creature's game statistics).

On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command any creature you made with this spell if the creature is within 60 feet of you (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete.

The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you've given it. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature again before the current 24-hour period ends. This use of the spell reasserts your control over up to four creatures you have animated with this spell, rather than animating a new one.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you animate or reassert control over two additional undead creatures for each slot level above 3rd. Each of the creatures must come from a different corpse or pile of bones.

Alternatively, a creature of a size larger than medium may be animated when casting at higher levels. A creature is worth double the number of undead as an undead of the next size category lower. So a large sized undead is the equivalent of 2 medium sized undead, a huge undead is equivalent of to 4 medium sized undead, and gargantuan would be the equivalent of 8 medium undead. This spell is unable to create undead larger than gargantuan. The undead creature must be summoned in a single casting of the spell. This would mean that a dedicated necromancer could raise a single large creature with a 3rd level spell, or a huge with a 4th level, but wouldn't be able to raise a gargantuan creature until they have 6th level spells.

When you recast this spell to retain control of your undead, an undead larger than medium counts as a number of creatures as noted on the chart 1.1.