

Insect Spies

School divination; Level druid 3, ranger 3, sorcerer/wizard 4, summoner 3, witch 4


Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S, M (a drop of honey)


Effect up to one insect spy/4 levels
Duration 10 minutes/level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no


You summon one or more glossy black beetles, which have a measure of intelligence and make for excellent spies. When they are in your presence, the insects obey your mental commands, and you can issue orders to any number of them as a single standard action, provided that you issue the same orders to each one. In order to issue different orders to different insects, you must spend a separate standard action for each set of orders. An insect in physical contact with you can answer simple questions about what it has observed, at a rate of one question per round. It can relate only what it perceived with its senses, and can’t repeat speech. It has difficulty making subjective judgments, and questions that demand such reasoning are unlikely to yield a clear answer.

For example, an insect is unable to relay someone’s emotional state or determine who among several people it saw might be in charge.

Each insects’ size is Fine. Each insect has 1 hit point, AC 20 (+2 Dexterity, +8 size), a movement speed of 5 feet, a climb speed of 5 feet, and a fly speed of 20 feet (perfect maneuverability). The insects use your saving throw bonuses, have a total Perception skill bonus equal to 5 + 1/2 your caster level, and can’t make attacks. Due to their incredibly small size and magical nature, they can make Stealth checks to avoid being noticed even if they lack a source of cover or concealment, and they have a total Stealth skill bonus equal to 18 + 1/2 your caster level. The insects can even climb onto creatures of Tiny or larger size while using Stealth, possibly riding on those creatures unnoticed. A Tiny creature gains a +16 bonus on Perception checks made to notice one of these insects currently climbing on it. For each size category larger than Tiny the creature being climbed is, this bonus is reduced by 4 (to a minimum of +0 for Huge or larger creatures).

You also maintain a faint mystical connection with these insects, which allows you to sense where they are. As a full-round action, you can concentrate on the spell in order to learn the direction and relative distance of each of the insects.

Insect Spies, Greater

School divination; Level druid 6, sorcerer/wizard 7, summoner 6, witch 7


As insect spies, but you can also borrow the senses of the summoned insects. As a move action, you can choose to receive sensory input from one of the insects, seeing what it sees and hearing what it hears. While doing so, you are treated as being blind and deaf. You can change to another insect, or return to your own senses, with another move action.

Section 15: Copyright Notice
