Animate Greater Undead

A more powerful form of reanimation magic, this spell creates a powerful undead servant. Choose a pile of bones or a corpse of a Large creature within range. 2 piles of bones or corpses of Medium creatures may be targeted instead, merging together during the casting process. The target becomes a flaming skeleton if you chose bones or an ogre 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). 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 8th level or higher, you animate or reassert control over 2 additional undead creatures for each slot level above 3rd. Each of the creatures must come from a different corpse or pile of bones.