After casting crown of vermin, one thousand venomous, biting and stinging spiders, scorpions, beetles, and centipedes erupt from the very air around the character. This swarm forms a living aura around the character to a radius of 10 feet. The character is immune to his or her own crown of vermin. The swarm goes where the character goes at his or her speed, even if the character takes to the air or water (though water drowns the vermin after 1 full round of immersion, unless the spell is cast underwater, in which case aquatic or marine vermin answer the call and cannot leave the water). Each vermin in the crown of vermin bites a creature who enters the area occupied by the effect (or the character forces the effect into an area occupied by another creature) for 1 point of damage, and then dies. Each victim takes enough points of damage to kill it, destroying that number of vermin in the process. Victims get a Reflex saving throw each round to avoid the full press, and if successful, take only 10d10 bites (and 10d10 points of damage). A total of 1,000 points of damage can be dealt to those who fall prey to the crown of vermin. The vermin have damage reduction 1/epic, so the vermin’s natural weapons are treated as epic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. If there aren’t enough vermin to kill all the creatures in the spell’s effect, the creature with the fewest hit points is affected first, then the creature with the second fewest hit points, and so on. After all creatures that can be killed have been killed, any remaining damage is distributed among the survivors equally.

The character has utter control over the vermin in his or her aura, and can force them into areas that would normally deter common vermin. The character can completely suppress his or her vermin aura as a free action so that no vermin are visible at all. The time that vermin are suppressed does not count toward the spell’s duration. Alternatively, the character can roughly shape and move the vermin in any fashion he or she desires within the limits of the 10-foot-radius spread as a move-equivalent action. The vermin cannot be wrested from the character’s control through any means. The vermin make all saving throws to avoid damaging effects using the character’s base saving throw bonuses. They gain the character’s Spell Resistance, if any, and they get saving throws against spells that would otherwise automatically slay vermin. A character can see through his or her crown of vermin without difficulty, but gains one-half concealment against enemy attacks launched both outside and within the character’s crown of vermin.

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