Getting your grubby mitts on undead

[TheLooker]

I was wondering if there was a template out there that, when applied to a creature that is slain, they rise as that type of undead while retaining all special abilities and being under the control of the master. One such example is the vampire, although I don't want to be using that. Basically what I'm trying to do is make it so that my guy can create/find an undead that would normally be too powerful for him to control through rebuking or whatever, and instead kill them (while using shapechange) so that they can rise as that kind of spawn while under my control and while retaining all abilities.
Any ideas?

[The Gilded Duke]

Might not be exactly what you had in mind, but the spell awaken undead gives them back many of their old abilities. It has an xp component, but I don't think the component is that big. Also I think there is an Oriental Adventures spell maybe? Something Dread Warrior? which makes zombies with abilities.

As far as creating templated spawn, I'm not sure. However the idea does have significant merit with non templated spawn. The base creatures abilities doesn't matter much with say ghouls or forge wraiths, so 1 HD commoners are perfect for making higher cr minions.

[Wavelab]

The closest to that I know of is Animate Dread Warrior(as mentioned above) basically it's a 6th level spell that raises a creature as undead with all the stats it had in life with IIRC +6 Str and -x Int. There's also Bone and Corpse creature in BoVD that does the same.

I don't think there's something that does precisely what you're looking for. You might just need to leave the undead somewhere until your powerful enough to command or rebuke it.

[VGLordR2]

I think the Mummified Creature template from Libris Mortis allows the base creature to retain all of its abilities. I don't remember what the LA is, or how to create them.