This spell turns the bones or bodies of dead creatures into undead skeletons or zombies:
They obey the caster's commands.
They are unable to use any special abilities (including spell casting) that they possessed in life.
They remain animated until they are destroyed or until a dispel magic spell is cast upon them.
The spell animates a number of HD of zombies or skeletons equal to the caster's level:
A skeleton has AC 7 and Hit Dice equal to those the creature had in life.
A zombie has AC 8 and Hit Dice one greater than it had in life.
If a PC or NPC with levels in a class is reanimated by this spell, the levels are not counted as HD. For example, the reanimated corpse of a 5th level fighter would have 2 HD (1 HD as a normal human, +1 for being reanimated as a zombie).