Intelligent Skellies?

[JellyPooga]

Given that there are plenty of places/planes that are inhabited by the Undead (whether solely or not), is there any rules that anyone knows of for non-mindless Skeletons/Zombies? And I don't mean more powerful "I've got a paralysing touch/death vision/uber-strength/whatever" Skeletons/Zombies...just plain ol' Skally-wags and Shufflers, but they've grown a brain (metaphorically).

I'm aware of the Awaken Undead spell, but that's not really what I'm after...that's a spell for 'brain-ing up' your Undead minions so they can do more complex tasks...what I'm after is a 'Race' (so to speak) of Skellies/Zombies that have 'evolved' on one of the Undead 'homeworlds' somehow (don't ask me how, this is the Planes we're talking about...just about anything is possible...maybe there's a Plane/layer of the Abyss/whatever with a warped area of Negative Energy (near a portal to the NegEn Plane maybe?) which, if a corpse is left there, animates it and grants it sentience...I dunno, something like that maybe...).

I'm guessing there's not, but I thought I'd ask before brewing my own version of what I have in mind. Oh yeah, this is intended to be a PC playable race...just thought I'd point that out.

[DomarSaul]

In Eberron, the soldiers of the nation of Karrnath serve even after death, as intelligent skeletons and zombies. So, if you can take a look at the Eberron campaign setting book, Karrnathi Skeleton would have what you want.

[JellyPooga]

shucks. why is it that everything I have an idea for is in a book that I don't have? Oh well...looks like I'll be brewing my own...

Just out of curiosity, these Karrnathi Skeletons are little more than Skellies with Int and Charisma scores right? Do they have a LA?

[Ramza00]

Bone and Corpse templates in BOVD, no LA, retains effectively all abilities, not mindless (which is seen as a disadvantage normally for it is harder to control such creatures)

[puppyavenger]

So what spell do use to animate them?

[Ramza00]

So what spell do use to animate them?

As it says in bovd, create undead or create greater undead can create both types of undead.

Note these undeads are effectively the same as the original creature. A beholder who is a corpse creature will still have its eye rays and anti magic cone. It retains its intelligence. Thus the only way to control it is by rebuking, the command undead spell, and/or diplomacy likea normal npc.

[Bauglir]

There are the Eleti, from a 3.0 3rd party sourcebook, if you're really desperate for a race. They're basically sentient skeletons with eyeballs. Mythic Races, by Fantasy Flight Games. Probably not the best source just to port over, but good if you want a basis for a similar race.

[nooblade]

Ghouls are fairly intelligent, and can speak the same language the spoke in life, if you have access to create undead. Another interesting idea is that you could have a commanded ghoul or ghast (via evil cleric levels or the necromancy spell "command undead" or something) speak commands to skeletons or zombies. You'd just say "follow the commands of this ghoul". Ghouls are pretty smart too, ghouls and ghasts both have 13 intelligence. Even good necromancers can command ghouls, and the party would understand as long as there isn't a paladin or insanely good cleric.

Edit: I didn't see what you said about race. There's a pc ghoul race, but I didn't ever look into it. I think its on Wizards.com.