Flock of Birds

This spell summons a dense flock of ordinary birds. In an environment free of normal birds (for example, underwater), the spell fails. The birds obscure vision, limiting it to 20 feet. Spellcasting within the flock is impossible.

If the spell caster is of 11th level or greater and so desires, he can cause the birds co attack any one being within the area of effect, heedless of their own safety. Creatures within the flock are subject to countless suicidal attacks by diving birds and suffer 1d2 points of damage plus 1 point of damage for every four levels of the spellcaster (round down) per round. (Note that monsters immune to weapons of a nonmagical nature suffer no damage from the birds, which are in all respects ordinary avians.) Invisibility provides no protection, and neither does protection from normal missiles, as the birds are not missile weapons. Any creature within the area of effect must also make a morale check every other round (beginning with the second round of the spell's effect) or flee until it is more than 240 yards from the birds.

Nothing drives the flock of birds from the area of effect or dissuades them from attacking (if the spellcaster is of sufficient level and so desires). However any area-of-effect spell that inflicts a minimum of 4 points of damage (assuming all saving throws would be successfully made by the birds), encompasses the entire flock, and is cast after the flock of birds is summoned ends the flock of birds spell effect immediately by killing all the birds. Other attacks that inflict insufficient damage or have a smaller area of effect kill many of the birds, but do not noticeably decrease the size of the flock. An all-compassing protective barrier, such as that created by a cube of force, protects anyone within its confines for as long as the barrier exists or until the spell expires.

Note that while the weaker version of this spell is fairly harmless, if the priest causes the flock of birds to attack, many of the birds are likely to perish during the aerial assault. As a result, some nature priests (particularly druids) are unhappy with the use of this spell and may seek to make the caster atone in some manner for its use.

The material components for this spell are the priest's holy symbol and a handful of feathers.