About Control Undead

[Xar Zarath]

The Control Undead spell doesn't look exactly 7th level. Has anyone changed the duration to days/level or instantaneous?

[The Viscount]

That's what Command Undead is for, and it's better in almost every way. Unintelligent undead (a lot of undead) don't get a save, it lasts one day per level, and it's only a 2nd. I think the reasoning for placing Control so high is that it offers a greater degree of control over intelligent undead and can control more than one target (though it still has an HD cap). In realistic play most people will end up using Command Undead a lot more.

[Xar Zarath]

Are there any spells Officially or in terms of 3rd party that can control the undead besides the two stated?

[TheifofZ]

I've always thought that WotC messed the two up in terms of which went to which level.
One of them lets you completely control the undead, as Dominate, but in an area.
The other makes them follow a single set of commands, as the much lower level spell Command.

But I've been told that isn't the case, so I just shrug and ignore it.

I don't recall very many spells that let you directly control undead besides those, although there are several that expand your HD cap for controlled undead, class features that add to it or modify it, Turn Undead itself, and so on.

[The Viscount]

Are there any spells Officially or in terms of 3rd party that can control the undead besides the two stated?

Certainly.Ghoul gauntlet technically makes a ghoul out of the target, but it is under your control. If you're pulling of some control cap stuff this isn't for you since it sets absolute cap at 4 HD per cl.

Crown of the Grave is short term but low level, good for temporary fixes.

If you're concerned about money or downtime, fell animate will give you a zombie for free, though only zombie, and imposes an annoying +3 metamagic cost.

Touch of the Graveborn for the sake of completeness. It's a level 8 spell that's mostly supposed to be used to hurt living creatures, but can also control touched undead for 1 round/level. Requiring a touch attack means it's annoying, but it does technically have a higher save.