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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kitoy" data-source="post: 2450618" data-attributes="member: 1819">17 Magic Gloves ReviewDespite the title, 17 Magic Gloves is actually a compendium of 18 different pairs of gloves with a variety of abilities.  They range from the conventional (gloves of thunder clap - clap your hands together to make a sonic boom), to the unexpected (gloves of spying - one glove animates and acts as a spy under the control of the wearer of the other glove), to the cliché (gloves of claws – look Ma, I’m Wolverine).  The writing style walks the line between irreverent and amateurish and the whole thing could use another round of editing.  This supplement opens up with suggestions on how to balance the gloves for different campaigns and some generic adventure ideas that apparently have no connection to the gloves themselves.  After some self-promotion for other The Le Games products, we get to the gloves themselves.  The first pair are the gloves of bitch slapping.  The name alone may give you a hint at how much utility you can find for this supplement in your campaign.  If gloves of bitch slapping are appropriate for your game, you’ll probably like this product.  If the name turns you off, you may want to look elsewhere.Anyway, here is a list of the gloves and a few comments on each:Gloves of Bitch Slapping – They allow you to attempt a Bitch Slap (Su) a few times a day with a melee attack.  If you score a critical, you then get a chart to roll on to determine what effect you get.  The bitch slap effects range from extra damage to staggering your foe to knocking off half their hit points!  These are probably only for those who miss that chart rolling goodness.Gloves of Blood Casting – Allows a spellcaster to sacrifice hit points in order to make their damaging spells do extra dice of damage.Gloves of Claws – Look Ma, I’m Wolverine!  They come in different flavors, including bone, iron, steel and adamantium.  Unusually, they all cost the same price and have the same stats, except for the adamantium gloves that cost 6,000 gp more.Gloves of Ensnaring – These gloves allow you to use an entangle-like effect once per day by enchanting a small object, like a stone, and throwing it at your enemy.  They also allow you to enchant goodberries instead to get a mass damaging effect instead.Gloves of Holy Storm – These gloves function as flashlights that you can turn on and off at will.  They also allow you to call down a storm of light that damages evil beings and, if you’re a paladin, heals your allies.  This includes evil allies of the paladin (?).  Gloves of Lighting – Available in four different ranges of power, these gloves grant resistance to electricity.  They also allow you to fire off a small lightning bolt once per day in exchange for giving up your resistance for the rest of the day.Gloves of Phantom Strike – Allow the wearer to make a single melee attack from a short distance a few times per day, interesting and flavorful.Gloves of Reconstitution – These gloves allow you to instantaneously shrink a shield down into your glove and use a portion of its shield bonus as a dodge bonus to your AC.  I’m not sure I like the name, but the concept is neat.Gloves of Speed – These grant an odd assortment of speed related benefits: a “speed” bonus to attacks, an enhancement to the Deflect Arrows feat, and the ability to cast spells without provoking an attack of opportunity.Gloves of Spying – One of the more interesting concepts, this pair of gloves allow you to animate and control one of the pair as long as you wear the other glove.  In addition, you can see and hear anything near the animated glove and the glove has a variety of useful skills based on your class level.  I really like the idea behind this item, but the actual mechanics of its use are a bit arbitrary.  For example, you have to make Concentration checks in order to achieve certain results, the animated glove’s skills are calculated off of the wearer’s class level, and the animated glove doesn’t have hit points.  Damage done to it has a chance to be passed on the wearer.  Personally, I feel it would’ve been easier and more consistent to stat up the animated glove as a tiny construct with actual skill points and hit points.Gloves of Squishing – Basically, these gloves allow you to manifest Bigby’s Thumb of Squishing once per day.  The effect is a funny visual, but, like some of the other gloves in this supplement, this item is a one-trick-pony.Gloves of Stickiness – A pair of cursed gloves that glue the wearer to whatever they’re holding.  The strength check to pull an item free gets progressively harder.  Fun for a few laughs at a PC’s expense.Gloves of Stone Fist – Another once per day, do something semi-cool pair of gloves.  These allow you to turn one of your hands into a big giant fist o’ stone.Gloves of Thunder Clap – Again, once per day you can clap your hands together to cause sonic damage and deafness to those in your immediate area.Gloves of Tremor – When wearing these you gain a small bonus to AC and the ability to cause a minor earthquake effect a few times a day.  Gloves of Vibration – Allow the wearer to make an unarmed melee attack once per day that causes the target to become shaken once per day.Gloves of War Drums – Once per day, the wearer of these drums can “air drum”, causing the sound of drums to be heard and granting a morale bonus to the attacks of allies and a penalty to the attacks of enemies.Gloves of Zapping – Wearing these gloves allow the wearer to add additional electrical damage to their melee attacks.  The downside is that every hit builds up a charge that can eventually start to harm the wearer.  I like this concept, it’s relatively straightforward and simple.Overall, I think this supplement has some neat ideas, but the execution leaves a lot to desire.  The “do x once per day” thing is overused, some of the mechanics for actually using the gloves are burdensome, and the prices for the items seem to be out of whack.  I haven’t done a detailed analysis of how they arrived at the prices, but why would the gloves of stone fist cost 17,170 gp for a relatively simple effect, while the more useful, and usable more often, gloves of tremor cost only 6,480 gp?  Similar, seemingly arbitrary choices are made for other prices or to determine how an effect functions.  As I mentioned before, the whole thing could really use another round of editing to weed out misspellings and grammar errors.  Lastly, the whole product is written in an irreverent, almost amateurish, tone that may be off-putting to some.On the good side, the art is professional looking, but seems to have been inserted into the supplement randomly.  I honestly couldn’t tell you what picture is supposed to go along with which glove.  However, the pdf comes in a variety of easy to use formats.  These include a “read-on-the-screen” version, a printable version, and a .doc file for easy cutting and pasting.With some more editing, polishing, and a little touch up to the rules, this could have been a useful and flavorful product, but, in my case, the negatives outweighed the positives.</blockquote>

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