Unarmed Combat (Punching) with Gauntlets

[The Cartographist]

So I've imposed a house rule in my campaign that effectively adds a small amount of damage if a character is engaged in unarmed combat while wearing gloves, gauntlets, etc. I've done it for a long time but am curious to know what the community thinks.

Effectively, unarmed combat (striking, punching, chopping) deals 1d4 ([W]). If the character is wearing light gloves (defined as thin cloth or very supple leather), no extra damage is done. If the character is wearing heavy gloves (thick leather, etc.), [W] = 1d4 + 1. If the character is wearing gauntlets or gloves that are armored, spiked, etc, [W] = 1d4 + 2.

 

[Nytmare]

There's a spiked gauntlet in Adventurer's Vault that's a +2 1d6 offhand weapon. They don't sound overpowered or anything, but I'm not sure if I'd want to add that kind of granularity between a spiked gauntlet and bare fists.

What denotes what characters are wearing in your game? Is there something mechanical in place stopping everyone from just saying that they're wearing metal gauntlets regardless of what armor they're wearing?

 

[Garthanos]

There's a spiked gauntlet in Adventurer's Vault that's a +2 1d6 offhand weapon. They don't sound overpowered or anything, but I'm not sure if I'd want to add that kind of granularity between a spiked gauntlet and bare fists.

What denotes what characters are wearing in your game? Is there something mechanical in place stopping everyone from just saying that they're wearing metal gauntlets regardless of what armor they're wearing?

Wearing heavy gloves (metal ones) when you only have the feats to wear light ones is terrible.. you feel massively clumbsy. Its probably almost as impairing as wearing a whole set of the stuff (if anyone bother to try it they wouldnt like it)