Is there a way to speak with vermin (spiders specifically)?

Question

Is there a method in any first or second party source, be it a spell, item, feat, class feature or what have you, that grants the ability to speak with vermin (spiders specifically)? I understand that vermin are mindless. But there are spells to speak with plants and with stone. There's no way a rock is any more intelligent than a spider. I'll even accept first party Pathfinder if that's the only option. But I've scoured every book I can find and I've got nothing.

There's the Vermin Trainer feat (Drow of the Underdark page 53) that allows you to handle animal vermin as if they had an Int of 1; There's the Circlet Of Spiderkind Command (Drow of the Underdark page 99) which allows you to give psychic commands to spiders; There's the Verminfriend feat (Drow of the Underdark page 53) which makes spiders friendly towards you. But nothing to actually talk to them. Does any one know anything I'm missing?

Answer 1

Wizards of the Coast's Cliffhanger Adventures Web column "The Approaching Swarm: Episode 5: Hive Mind" includes the 2nd-level Clr and Drd and 1st-level Rgr divination spell speak with vermin that has V and S components, a casting time of a standard action, a range of personal, and a duration of 1 minute per caster level. The spell functions "[a]s per speak with animals, but it applies only to vermin. This spell does not work on animals, beasts, or magical beasts" (link added). So far as I can tell, the spell was never reprinted.

Answer 2

The Mark of Vermin feat (Dragonmarked, p. 143) allows you to speak with vermin 1/day as a spell-like ability, explicitly referencing the Speak with Animals spell:

This is identical to speak with animals, but can be used only with vermin and vermin swarms.

It requires an aberrant dragonmark, which might make it unsuitable for your character, depending on your campaign setting and character details.

Answer 3

A 9th-level Master of Flies (Savage Species 80) can awaken vermin once per week, which would allow the vermin to speak to anyone, not just you. While it doesn't come online until level 14 (Druid 5/Master of Flies 9), if you just want to talk to a specific vermin, tracking down an NPC Master of Flies might be an interesting way of going about it.

Answer 4

In Pathfinder 1e the Witch hex "Feral Speech" allows you to speak with vermin when you are 12th level:

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/witch/hexes/hexes/common-hexes/hex-feral-speech-su/

Answer 5

Pathfinder 1e has some very easy options, the most prominent being the Vermin Heart feat, which would let you simply target vermin with Speak With Animals. The Vermin domain would let you do the same, provided you have Wild Empathy.

Without Wild Empathy, you could talk to them by proxy with a spider familiar at 7th level, or even a non-spider familiar if you took the Polyglot Familiar feat.

Feral Speech, as pointed out, is both a Wizard discovery and a Witch hex, though it only affects vermin starting at 12th level.

Finally, a Scarab of Khepri is a wondrous item (7,800 gp) that lets anyone speak with vermin once per day.