Snake Shield - An Obscure, Open-ended Spell [Snakes of 3.5]

[Olive_Sophia]

I was digging through 3.5's spells a few months ago, looking for fun things to experiment with. In Dragon Magazine #330, p. 72, I found this gem.

Snake Shield
Evocation
Level: Clr 3, Drd 3
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level

Grasping a snake in your hands, you infuse it with magical energy that creates a shimmering field containing the essence of its predatory instincts and stinging fangs. To observers, it appears as a cloud of ghostly snakes floating in a tight spiral around you. Anyone who attempts to touch you, either to deliver a spell or to strike you with a weapon, suffer an attack from these snakes. These snakes attack with the focus snake’s normal bite attack bonus. If it has any special abilities, such as constrict, improved grab, or poison, it may use them against its target as normal (although it may only make a grapple check to hold and constrict for 1 round, and may not maintain a grapple in subsequent rounds).

The snake can attack a single target once per round, but there is no limit to the number of different targets it can attempt to strike.

Focus: A living snake.

That is just beautiful. I love spells like this - it's extremely open-ended, making it potentially quite powerful - but it's also dripping with flavor, and not so broken that it would truly upset the game compared to moderately optimized characters. I've done some searching, but have found practically no talk of Snake Shield online, so I wanted to take a moment to bring it to light.

Pros and Cons

Let's have a quick discussion about what makes the spell so interesting, if it isn't already apparent. Firstly, you can use as a focus any living snake, and then you get to make use of its stats and special abilities. With all of the content published for 3.5, you might be able to find some snakes that are quite powerful. Secondly, the effect of this spell is an automatic counterattack - very similar to feats like Rolibar's Gambit or Karmic Strike, and those are pretty decent feats. You don't get unlimited AOOs on a single target, but you also don't have to invest a ton of feats and stats into such an effect. Thirdly, as a spell with personal range, Snake Shield is persist-able. It's also natively on the cleric list at only level 3, so it's quite doable to persist this daily to gain a unique strength in melee. Lastly, the spell doesn't restrict the range of the counterattack. As long as you get touched or melee'd, the snakes should be able to bite your attacker - even if they are trying to keep their distance with a colossal reach weapon. They also don't have to actually hit you, as with Karmic Strike, they only to have to attempt to. This is obviously much stronger as even enemy misses will proc your extra attacks.

There are some difficulties here. First of all, your character will need to procure a powerful snake - and they aren't known for being naturally friendly. This also serves as a sort of built-in balancing factor. To use a powerful snake as the focus for this spell, it needs to be a monster that your party was already capable of defeating, or otherwise gaining access to. Secondly, there is no mention of what happens to the snake when you cast the spell, or when the spell expires. It's a focus, not a material component, so it shouldn't be consumed by the casting. It seems to me that one of two things must happen. Perhaps the original snake becomes the spectral creature surrounding your character for the duration, and then when the spell ends, it pops back out on the ground in front of you. This could be a real consideration if you're going to be using a hostile and very dangerous creature as the focus. Otherwise, I suppose we have to assume that the original snake stays put, while you gain your floating spectral snake as an independent entity based on the original. This can also prove problematic though, because now we're talking about keeping a dangerous and potentially very large creature in a cage for your daily use. Not to mention the transport and care of such a creature, which might be nightmarish. An adventuring party tends to travel a lot, and carrying hundreds or thousands of pounds of extra snake and cage might not be feasible. And then you always have to worry about it's escape. We have to prefer the first option as the most beneficial for the caster. The second is still potentially workable though. A cleric looking to make use of this tactic likely has a decent strength score or a means to get one - he might be able to lug around his pet beast. Otherwise magic items will be required. If you're looking to be on a friendlier basis with your beast, you could potentially make some decently high DC animal handling checks to tame him and prevent most of these issues.

So what is a "Snake" anyways?

The spell forces us to answer this question to know our limits. A simple "looks like a snake, bites like a snake" analysis could lead to some pretty crazy stuff being usable. If that's enough for you and your DM, you can work out together what you want to be usable with this spell.

Another simple definition might be "Anything that has 'Snake' in the name or is called a 'snake' by it's description." And this might work well enough - but then it might actually leave out some things that really should be considered snakes, depending on how the author worded everything. Or it might end up including non-snake options for the same reason.

Searching for a RAW answer, I found this in MM3.5 p.279 (and in the srd):

Snake
Snakes usually are not aggressive and flee when confronted.

Skills

Snakes have a +4 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, and Spot checks and a +8 racial bonus on Balance and Climb checks. A snake can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened. Snakes use either their Strength modifier or Dexterity modifier for Climb checks, whichever is higher. A snake has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.

That's pretty specific actually. So "Snake" isn't a specific race and it's not restricted to any one type. And we can be pretty sure that anything that has this set of skill bonuses is a snake. Older content from the 3.0 era doesn't include the Swim-related stuff, but otherwise defines "Snake" with the same block of skill bonuses. The one line description at the top of the quoted entry is pretty inconsequential. Serpent Kingdoms changes it to a different line, and elsewhere it's left off altogether. Otherwise Serpent Kingdoms only tells us that "Serpent" is another generic term that can be applied to all snakes (and provides a list of most all that were published at that time).

With all that sorted - what kind of snakes are out there? How good can this spell really get? I've started putting together a list of all the examples I could find and what special qualities they might offer. Keep in mind that the undead snakes aren't usable by this spell, as it needs to "a living snake". I'll try to clearly mark those.

Spoiler: Snakes of 3.5

Show

*note "I and S" means "initial and secondary damage" of a poison


Monster Manual
Constrictor Snake +5 bite (1d3+4) improved grab, Constrict 1d3+4 +5 grapple
Giant Constrictor Snake +13 bite (1d8+10) Improved grab, Constrict 1d8+10 +23 grapple
Tiny Viper +1 bite (1 + poison) Fort DC 10, I and S 1d6 Con damage -11 grapple
Small Viper +4 bite (0 + poison) Fort DC 10, I and S 1d6 Con damage -6 grapple
Medium Viper +4 bite (1d4-1 + poison) Fort DC 11, I and S 1d6 Con damage +0 grapple
Large Viper +4 bite (1d4 + poison) Fort DC 11, I and S 1d6 Con damage +6 grapple
Huge Viper +6 bite (1d6+4 + poison) Fort DC 14, I and S 1d6 Con damage +15 grapple

Monster Manual II
Dire Snake +10 bite (2d6+10 + poison), improved grab, 1d6+10 Constrict. Fort DC 16, I and S 1d6 Con damage. +20 grapple
Legendary Snake +19 bite (1d8+12 + poison), improved grab, 1d8+12 Constrict +24 grapple
Poison - DC 25 Fort Save. I and S 1d8 Con damage.
(These two also appear in Masters of the Wild. Legendary Snake is the same, but Dire Snake is slightly weaker there.)

Monster Manual IV
Sailsnake - +5 bite (1d8+3) +4 grapple
Venom Spray - 20ft cone, once every 6 rounds, blind for 1d4 rounds, Fort DC 13 half

Serpent Kingdoms
Amphisbaena +8 bite (1d6+1 + poison) Fort DC 15, initial and secondary 1d8 Con damage. +11 grapple
Deathcoils + 16 bite (1d8+10), improved grab, Constrict 1d8+10, poison breath. +26 grapple
Poison Breath (Ex): Twice per day, a deathcoils can breathe a 60-foot cone of poisonous gas (inhaled, Fortitude DC 16, initial damage sleep for 2d4 hours or until damage is taken, secondary damage 1d6 Con).
Jaculi +9 bite (1d6+4), improved grab, constrict 1d8+4, animal trance DC 9. +9 grapple
Mlarraun +5 bite (1d4-1 + poison) +1 grapple
Poison (Ex): Bite or spit, injury or contact, Fortitude DC 11, initial damage blindness 2d6 hours, secondary damage blindness 4d6 hours and 1d4 points of damage. The poison need not touch the eyes to cause blindness.
Dung Snake +5 bite (1d3+4), improved grab, constrict 1d3+4 +5 grapple
Glacier Snake + 4 bite (1d6+3), +2 sting (1d6+1) +0 grapple
Reed Snake +5 bite (1 + poison), Fort DC 12, initial and secondary 1d6 Con damage -11 grapple
Sewerm +5 bite (1d4+4 + poison), attach, blood drain - auto bite damage at beginning of turn when attached. Poison is anesthetic. +16 grapple
Tree Python +6 bite (1d3+4) improved grab, constrict 1d3+4. +6 grapple
Whipsnake +5 bite (1d3+4), improved grab, constrict 1d6+4, coil slam +5 grapple
Coil Slam (Ex): A whipsnake can whip its body against an opponent (+5 melee), dealing 1d4 points of damage on a successful hit. In addition, the target must make a DC 12 Reflex save to escape the coils. Failure means the opponent lands prone in its square, and the whipsnake automatically establishes a hold on it and can constrict as if it had made a successful grapple check.

Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
Two-headed Adder +4 bite (1d2-2 + poison). Poison Fort DC 10 I and S 1d6 temp con damage. -5 grapple
Winged Viper +4 bite (1d4 + poison). Poison Fort DC 11 I and S 1d6 temp con damage. +5 grapple
(it doesn't list the full racial skills for these guys but the bonuses are factored into their stat blocks already)

Races of Faerun
Deathfang +4 bite (1d3-2), improved grab, Constrict 1d3-2 -5 grapple
Chilling Bite(Su) - bestows one negative level on bite. DC 11 Fort save to remove UNDEAD
Flying Snake +5 bite (1d3-2 + 1 acid), improved grab, Constrict, Acid Spit - 1 point of acid ranged touch -5 grapple

Magic of Faerun
Celestial and Fiendish Viper - As medium viper, but templated. They get smite evil and smite good respectively.


Fiend Folio
Viper Swarm Swarm (1d6 + poison), Fort DC 13 I and S 1d4 Con, Distraction DC 13
Shadow Asp +8 Bite (1d3-2 + poison), create spawn (shadow) Poison: DC 12 Fort I and S 1d6 Str. +9 grapple
Minor Flame Snake +3 Bite (1d4+1 + 1d6 fire + poison). Fort DC 10 I and S 1d4 Str damage. 1 fire damage per round while poison remains no save. -3 grapple
Lesser Flame Snake +13 Bite (1d8+2 + 2d6 fire + poison), 2d6 + 3 + 2d6 fire Constrict. Fort DC 16 I and S 1d4 Str damage. 2 fire damage per round while poison remains no save. +10 grapple
Greater Flame Snake +24 Bite (2d8+8 + 1d6 fire + 1d6 negative + poison), improved grab, 4d6+12 + 1d6 fire + 1d6 negative Constrict, Poison - Fort DC 26 I and S 1d4 Str. 4 fire damage per round while poison remains no save.
Breath Weapon (Su): Every 1d4 rounds, a greater flame snake can unleash a 50-foot cone of dark fire. A Reflex save (DC 23) halves the damage. The breath weapon deals 12d6 points of damage, half of which is fire damage and the other half of which is negative energy damage
Fiery Aura (Ex): Merely being in the presence of a greater flame snake is damaging. Any creature within 5 feet of a greater flame snake automatically takes 1d6 points of fire damage.
Swallow Whole (Ex): A greater flame snake can swallow a single creature that is at least two size categories smaller than itself by making a successful grapple check (grapple bonus +33), provided it already has that opponent in its maw (see Improved Grab, above). Once inside the greater flame snake, the opponent takes 2d6+13 points of crushing damage, 1d4 points of fire damage, and 1d4 points of negative energy damage per round from the flame snake’s stomach. A successful grapple check allows the swallowed creature to climb out of the stomach and return to the greater flame snake’s maw, where another
successful grapple check is needed to get free. Alternatively, a swallowed creature can try to cut its way out with either claws or a light piercing or slashing weapon. Dealing a total of at least 20 points of
damage to the stomach (AC 19) in this way creates an opening large enough to permit escape. Once a single swallowed creature exits, muscular action closes the hole; thus, another swallowed opponent must cut its own way out. A greater flame snake’s stomach can hold 2 Large, 4 Medium-size, or 16 Small or smaller opponents. +33 Grapple

Stormwrack
Sea Snake variations of all vipers - they get +2 to poison DC. Still summonable by summon monster.

Miniatures Handbook
Displacer Serpent +5 bite (1d6 + 4) +5 grapple

Secrets of Xen'drik
Dream Serpent +14 bite (1d8+9 + poison). DC 15 I and S 1d6 Wis + dreams. Sleep Gaze, Fort Save DC 15. +19 grapple



Aren't Technically Snakes But Maybe Should Be:
Ice Serpent (Monsters of Faerun) +8 Constrict? (1d8+7 + cold), pseudo improved grab, 2d4 subdual cold Constrict. Power Attack. +12 Grapple
Starsnake (Shining South) +10 bite (1d4-1 + poison), Poison Fort DC 12 I and S 1d6 Dex. SLAs (Eyebite, Hold Monster, Suggestion, Charm Monster, Hold Person, Charm Person.)
Shadow Sea Serpent (Anauroch) +20 bite (2d6+10). Special free Trip ability. Sonic Lance (120ft ray 6d6 sonic, 1d4 round recharge). Sonic Wave (120ft stunning spread, DC 24 fort negate. 1/hour)
(I really wanted to include these guys on the official list above. They look the part, they play the part. They have a skill block with almost identical language to the snake block, but it's not a perfect match. Personally I think they stripped out the climb/balance stuff as these guys are meant to be aquatic, but then they kinda butchered it in the editing process and left it in no man's land. It doesn't get a flat racial swim bonus, only the special conditional snake swim bonus. It also gets extra hide and search bonuses, probably to reflect its connection to the plane of shadow)
Serpentir (MM5) +5 claw (1d6+2), improved grab, churning ribs (a special kind of constrict) UNDEAD
(This guy isn't literally a snake but is meant to be very evocative of one. He fights a lot like our other snakes and has a very similar racial skill block (though different enough to disqualify him as an official snake)
Wereserpent (SK) Bite, Improved Grab, Constrict, Curse of Lycanthropy
(These guys are hard to parse because SK didn't bother to break down any skill bonuses for us. And Lycanthropy swapped out your skills for those of an animal in 3.0. It seems like they should count, because the alternate form is described as a "medium constrictor snake". But when I tried to reverse engineer the skill bonuses it wasn't quite working out. It may be that they are fair play pending further investigation)

Aren't Technically Snakes But Hey, What If?:
Dendar the Night Serpent (Champions of Ruin) CR 26 BEAST
(And I suppose this might be a case of the skill bonuses already being baked in and not listed separately, but with a quick glance at the stat block it doesn't look like it)
Bronze Serpent (MM2) +17 bite (1d6 + 10 + (1d8+16) electric), improved grab, constrict 2d8+10.
Iron Cobra (FF) +2 bite (1d6+1 + poison)
Not really that interesting, and doesn't have any of the right skill bonuses. But it does look exactly like a snake and you can fill it with whatever poison you like.
Elder Viper Tree +18 bite (2d6+12 + poison), +7 Broken Branch (4d8+28 + poison), Snatch, Ingest, Poison DC 23 (1d4 Str + Paralysis 2d6 rounds/2d8+2 str)
(Although a plant by type, this is a snake lore wise (supposedly descended from Nidhogg and Yggrassil). It doesn't have the right skills, but it is quite strong)

I feel sure this list isn't complete, so if you know of any others, tell me and I'll add them here.


The Biggest Winners

Obviously, the the higher the HD and CR of a prospective Snake, the stronger it will be with Snake Shield. Bigger snakes are generally better, if you want to make use of Improved Grab and Constrict. Special attacks like breath weapons are also good, because arguably the permissive language of Snake Shield would allow you to use one of those special abilities instead of a standard attack. But I wanted to pull out some of the best from the list above for the reader's convenience.

Greater Flame Snake - This is probably the strongest of all snakes that I know of. It has the highest attack bonus and deals very high damage. Its Poison save DC is very high. It also has the full package of snake special abilities and more. Poison, Improved Grab, Constrict, Swallow Whole, Bonus Fire Damage, and a Breath Weapon for good measure. This guy is pretty relevant even at mid-high levels.

Dream Serpent - A step down in raw power, but with a lot of flavor. It has good attacking stats, a fairly powerful poison, and a gaze attack which puts enemies to sleep. It has no improved grab or anything though.

Legendary Snake - A huge beefy snake with no frills. It has very solid attack and grapple bonuses, and it's Poison DC is very high. It also has the full suite of abilities. Poison, Improved Grab, and Constrict

Deathcoils - This guy is pretty awesome. His attacking stats are about on par with the Legendary Snake. He has Improved Grab and Constrict, but no poison. He does have a poison Breath Attack though which is pretty interesting. A 60ft cone can hit a lot of enemies, and if any of them fail, they are put to sleep for multiple hours.

Giant Constrictor Snake - Admittedly not as good as the options above. The real strength of the Giant Constrictor though is its ease of use. If you want to play around with this spell, but aren't able to hunt down the rarer beasts, take a look at this guy. His stats are actually pretty solid - he can almost outfight a Dire Snake, for reference. No poison, but Improved Grab, Constrict, and a Grapple bonus that can hang in there with the big boys. A giant constrictor is more readily available for use, as one can be summoned by a friendly druid, cleric, wizard, or bard. (Summon Nature's Ally 5, Summon Monster VI for a fiendish version).

Shadow Sea Serpent - Also worth a look if you can get it allowed. It has good combat stats, strong sonic attacks, and likes to trip rather than grapple.


Further Cheese

Since everything you get from Snake Shield is based on the specific creature that you use, there is some room to push things further. You could always use a templated Snake (as long as he remains a snake), or decide to buy magic items for your snake before putting him to use. I'm not gonna dig into this too much here because the possibilities are so vast. My interest isn't really in breaking the spell to this extent, I just wanted to see what you could get out of it without resorting to such tactics.


I'd be happy to hear feedback about this. Otherwise, enjoy!

[Olive_Sophia]

~~~~~Reserved for further info~~~~~~~

[Pezzo]

Clerics and druids can have snakes as animal companions, and share the spell. A cleric with travel devotion can trigger AoOs all day long, and his snake could follow him, cutting some corners if he takes lots of move actions.

[Chronos]

Clerics and druids can have snakes as animal companions, and share the spell.

That gets really interesting if you take the interpretation that the snake itself becomes the shield. I have a shield, that is my snake. And since the shield is my snake, and I shared it, the shield has the shield, too. But it's shared, so it's the same shield, so the shield's shield still has a shield. Snake shields all the way down!

[Olive_Sophia]

Clerics and druids can have snakes as animal companions, and share the spell. A cleric with travel devotion can trigger AoOs all day long, and his snake could follow him, cutting some corners if he takes lots of move actions.

These are some good thoughts actually. I need to take a look at the available animal companion snakes and their progression with the classes. They might end up being contenders depending on how built you can get them. Maybe some intersection with Uber mount style optimization there.

The idea of sharing the snake shield with your own snake hadn’t occurred to me, but that does seem effective. Both the caster and his companion would have spectral snakes surrounding them, and attacking either one would provoke the companion’s best attack. And then the companion just does that anyways on his own turn. Interesting, that’s definitely a way you could take this for a build!

[Menzath]

A druid can have a giant constricter companion at lvl 10 with a -9 to it's companion chart bonuses.
To counter that the natural bond feat for an effective +3 up to ecl, and one level of beastmaster for another +3.
That would be just shy of the final bonuses on the companion chart. The bonus HD should advance the snek size too.

If you don't have the money to dump, or just don't want to track a second inventory you can take exhalted companion to have a celestial version, upping its int and changing it to a magical beast(d10hd, full BaB, some other bonuses) but more importantly now it can take vow of poverty. A free +8str, and enchanted +5 natural attacks go far for making sure it hits.

And thanks to exhalted companions second to last sentence you can still cast spells on it as though it was an animal, incase you had some druid specific buffs for animals you wanted to do.

I suppose sharing dmg/turn AoE effects centered on you would work with your companion as well to double up on those 🤔

[Zamboza]

A druid can have a giant constricter companion at lvl 10 with a -9 to it's companion chart bonuses.
To counter that the natural bond feat for an effective +3 up to ecl, and one level of beastmaster for another +3.
That would be just shy of the final bonuses on the companion chart. The bonus HD should advance the snek size too.

Combine this with the Totem Druid variant class from Dragon #335 for additional +2 effective druid level for even more shenanigans, cast the spell and change to a snake yourself...

...on that note, could a druid with Natural Spell wildshaping into a snake use themselves as a focus?

Alternatively, as mentioned already, you can persist that spell - at level 5, use Summon Monster III to summon a Fiendish Constrictor Snake, then persist Snake Shield using the summon as a focus - seems pretty good already!

Love that spell, I really have an urge to play a snake-oriented divine caster now.

[Bullet06320]

Kingdoms of Kalamar Dangerous Denizens: The Monsters of Tellene

Hypnosnake paralyzing gaze, swallow whole, improved grab, poison, 3/day charm person, 1\day charm monster

Rock Serpent the description says snake-like creature disintegration ray


Dragon magazine 313 has the elder serpent template adds ability scores and virulent poison-increase to dc and damage and some other stuff
the while article could be usefull, starting with a follower of set and using the snakeshield spell to base a build around

[Saintheart]

Summon Nature's Ally II-IX would allow you to summon 1d4+1 snakes, which with Greenbound Summoning could give you maximum 5 Giant Constrictor snakes with the Greenbound template. Since this spell functions per individual snake I see no reason you couldn't have 5 iterations of the spell active at once (level 3 spell, it can be put in a wand).

[Anthrowhale]

Venomfire seems like a serious additive. Adds caster level d6 acid damage on top of poison. Lots of things are immune to poison, but not so many are immune to poison and acid.

I expect the snake shopping to be the hardest part of pulling this off in practice.

[Saintheart]

Otherwise Serpent Kingdoms only tells us that "Serpent" is another generic term that can be applied to all snakes (and provides a list of most all that were published at that time).

Master of Vipers PrC from that same book accordingly gets a lot of use out of the spell. Variously it can paralyse, charm, produce, and turn into all sorts of 'serpents', which as said above is an interchangeable term with 'snake'.

- Would it be hilarious to note the Snakebite spell (SpC) transforms one of your arms into, I quote, "a poisonous serpent?" Does damage of 1d3+your STR, and does 2 Con damage initial and secondary.

- Further hilarity from the Wu Jen 4 (CArc) spell Snake Darts, which turn your tattoos into, I quote, "real poisonous snakes" that:
The snakes always hit, dealing 3d6 points of damage each.
The poison each snake carries deals 1d6 points of Constitution damage immediately and another 1d6 points of Constitution damage 1 minute later.
The snakes are not an instantaneous effect, you get them back in your hands after your throw and have to swallow them to get your tattoos back.
The Yuan-Ti Cultist 3 from Savage Species gets a similar ability as a class ability.

- Serpent Arrow (Sor/Wiz 4, Justice of Weald and Woe 3) creates tiny vipers from arrows.

- Gutsnake (Sor/Wiz 5) (SpC) comes very close to generating a snake. "The tentacle created by the gutsnake spell is equivalent to a giant constrictor snake (MM 280) except that it is completely obedient to you and moves as you command." Has a 10 foot Reach and can attack as a free action once per round.

[Menzath]

I feel like the spell requirements only being
1: Snake
2:Alive
Allow for some interesting interactions.
The normal gamut of buff spells and companions and familiars aside, other interactions that come to mind would be template stacking, or some alternate form/polymorphing with ways to get different added special attacks such as master transmogrifists infinite variety.

This raises the question of how much snake does one need to be considered a snake? A Medusa has snake hair and half a snake body, so would a tauric templated creature not count?
What about a multiheaded template on a snake, or chimeric?
When does a snake stop being a snake?

What about magically created almost snakes?
What about things that make or change serpents?
Are there other abusable ways to change creatures that we can apply to snakes?

I know that stone to flesh when affecting a petrified creature doesn't have a size limit.

Edit: I suppose another contention would be creatures that have explicit descriptions of "serpent" or "snakelike" but have other creature types. The most notably being linorms, a type of dragon(mm2). Another would be the Chiang lung(oriental adventures)
With a precedent of some snakes being constructs, undead, and magical beasts this does open the possibility of other non-animal snakes.

[Prime32]

This raises the question of how much snake does one need to be considered a snake? A Medusa has snake hair and half a snake body, so would a tauric templated creature not count?
What about a multiheaded template on a snake, or chimeric?

A yuan-ti halfblood can have the ability "human head, but arms are snakes", with the arms having venomous bite attacks. Not just part of a snake, but snakes explicitly.

Due to the wording you can potentially attack with things other than bites, too (mouthpick weapons anyone?).

[Fero]

I feel like Arcane Hierophant could open some fun combos.

Also, this makes me want to play a snake themed druid. Energy Substitution [acid] call lightning that look like giant serpents would be awesome.

[Condé]

That is a really nice find. It become rater and rater but that is what I like about 3.5. there is so much stuff forgotten or sparse everywhere you Always find new ways to abuse it.

You did a really good job preventing the spell too. Well done sir.