Oars to Snakes (Reversible)

This more powerful variant of the sticks to snakes spell transforms the oars aboard a ship into giant sea snakes. It may be cast in one of two modes: defensive or offensive.

Using the defensive mode, the caster essentially transforms the oars of his or her own vessel into sea serpent defenders. These serpents remain within the oarlocks of the vessel which bore them, but may attack beings outside of the ship who are nearby, such as boarders. Each serpent can attack one boarder once a round with a THAC0 11, inflicting 3d6 points of damage for each successful strike. The serpents remain until the spell expires or they are slain; they are 10 HD creatures of AC 5.

This spell may also be cast offensively. In this mode, the oars become serpents of similar Hit Dice and THAC0 to those above, but rather than attacking outside the ship, their poisonous heads are aimed within a ship within range (including the caster's ship), attacking the oarsmen and destroying the ship's ability to maneuver. The poisonous bite of these serpents does 1d6 points of damage, but anyone bitten must make a successful saving throw vs. poison against type C poison. Those who successfully save suffer only 2d4 points of additional damage; those who fail their saving throws suffer an additional 25 points of damage. The poison has an onset time of 1d4+1 minutes. Creatures struck repeatedly must make a saving throw every time they are bitten.

While the spell continues, the ship does not have the use of those oars turned into serpents, and thus its speed may be reduced. The serpents turn back into usable oars when the spell expires, although those which were "killed" are broken and useless.

The reverse of this spell, snakes to oars, changes giant sea snakes to oars for the same duration or negates the oars to snakes spell according the level of the priest countering the spell (for example, a 12th-level priest casting snakes to oars can turn four sea serpents back into oars).

The material components of this spell are a small piece of wood and the scales from a sea snake.