Animate Dead + Crown of Intellect

[Cikomyr2]

So.. What if you out a crown of intellect on an animated skeleton under your control...

Would you end up with a super smart slave skeleton?

[ProsecutorGodot]

I don't see why not, though I don't see it being very noticeable as they still can't speak.

It's unclear whether the fact that they take commands overly literally is due to a lack of intelligence or the slave like domination effect of raising them. The text seems to imply it would be the latter, as it notes their intellect offers more to self preservation during their following of orders than ability to adapt to changes that might happen trying to follow an order.

Your mileage may vary, I personally don't see it being a worthwhile investment.

[Greywander]

Skeletons are not sentient, so the effect would likely be rather limited. They might more accurately recognize danger and/or enemies (like if an enemy disguises themselves), thanks to higher passive Investigation. Since they also retain their memories, you might be able to command them to interact with things they were familiar with in life (e.g. tools), so an INT boost might give some benefits there.

If you want an intelligent undead, then you'll either need to appeal to DM fiat or go beyond just Animate Dead. IIRC, Create Undead can get you sentient undead.

[Quoz]

We don't just want minions, we want *competent* minions.

Intelligent but still highly obedient makes for an interesting travel companion. I would buy him some formal clothes and make him my personal butler, doing all of the menial chores for me. There are even ways around the not speaking part. Writing or sign language work, but with a few dozen well phrased magic mouth spells you could give it a limited vocabulary to express itself.

[MrCharlie]

We don't just want minions, we want *competent* minions.

Intelligent but still highly obedient makes for an interesting travel companion. I would buy him some formal clothes and make him my personal butler, doing all of the menial chores for me. There are even ways around the not speaking part. Writing or sign language work, but with a few dozen well phrased magic mouth spells you could give it a limited vocabulary to express itself.
I mean, you could also just give the crown to a familiar if that was the goal. Or a pet.