Gauntlets of Hedged Fate [3.5, random item idea]

[Baron Corm]

Gauntlets of Hedged Fate

Each of these red- and black-striped gauntlets has a hole in the center of the palm, which is a portal to the plane of Limbo. As a free action, as part of another action, the wearer can activate the gauntlets to spew something forth, which may be either helpful or harmful to the current situation. The wearer can activate up to 5 charges at a time, to subtract and add (as a luck penalty/bonus) the listed numbers to any d20 roll that he has made, after seeing the original result. The gauntlets may not be used more than once with a single action.

1 Charge: -3/+1d6
2 Charges: -6/+2d6
3 Charges: -9/+3d6
4 Charges: -12/+4d6
5 Charges: -15/+5d6

For example, if you activated 3 charges to modify an attack roll you have just made (and seen the results of), you would then subtract 9 from the roll and add 3d6 to it.

The gauntlets have a ring of engraved pictures circling the portal to Limbo. Whenever the gloves are activated, a picture corresponding to the number of charges used glows either red or white, depending on if the net luck addition was negative or positive, respectively. 1 charge lights up the prince picture, 2 charges lights up the queen picture, 3 charges lights up the king picture, 4 charges lights up the number "1", and 5 charges lights up the jester picture. The lighting up is accompanied by a "ding" sound.

The gauntlets do not spew forth things with effects other than what is listed. For example, if used during an attack roll, they might spray non-damaging pebbles at the enemy's face, or spew a slippery grease onto the wearer's own weapon which slides off after the action.

A total of 10 charges may be used per day.

Moderate conjuration; CL 10th; Craft Wondrous Item, plane shift, creator must be chaotic; Price 7,200 gp; Weight 3 lb.

[Cedrass]

Could you give a little more details? As I understand it right now, they use the gloves and get the first penalty on their attack rolls and the bonus damage if they hit?

And they can use the gloves as a free action until they are satisfied with their roll? So, let's say I roll a 12 for my touch and with all modifiers I'm not happy, I get to reactivate the gloves and reroll ? If that's the case, it's really powerfull.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

If I understand correctly, this item is incredibly overpowered, allowing you to inflict a 5d6 bonus or a -15 penalty to a d20 roll up to twice a day for a mere 7,200 gp.

Compare this with, for example, the Fatespinner. The capstone ability (character level 13th) allows a single opponent's save per day to suffer a -10 penalty. And it is a very powerful ability even at that level.

Perhaps if this inflicted either a +2 or -2 bonus, usable 5 times per day (non-stacking) it would be balanced for the cost. As it is, it's so overpowering it's not even amusing.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Originally Posted by Djinn_In_Tonic

If I understand correctly, this item is incredibly overpowered, allowing you to inflict a 5d6 bonus or a -15 penalty to a d20 roll up to twice a day for a mere 7,200 gp.

So far as I understand it, it's subtract and add--you add a +5d6 bonus and subtract a -15 penalty, generating a modifier between +15 and -10. If you use it on an ally you could get a penalty, and if you use it on an enemy you could get a bonus.

Whether that brings the cost down to 7200gp is up to interpretation, but I'd say something that swingy would be around 7500gp, with a possible boost for being usable multiple times on the same roll.

[Baron Corm]

Yeah, Pair'ODice has it. I added an example in the stat block. I got the price by first looking at just the use of it that gives the best odds, which is -15/+5d6 for an average of +2.5. Then I added .5 to that because of various tricks you can pull. Then I squared it and multiplied by 2000, and divided by 2.5 because you can only use the best odds twice per day. If you're really lucky, the item is worth much more than that, but if you have average luck, I think it's about right.

I'm not even sure if it's something your everyday sane player would buy. It's a fun thing for a DM to include in treasure, though.

Edit: Just realized that if I let them use it multiple times on a single roll, there's no reason to ever use more than 1 charge at a time. Changing that.

[brujon]

I love it. It's flavorful, it's balanced, it's pretty. I have nothing to add but praise. Cept', if you want to make it a Swift Action to activate the gloves, then it makes it limited to 1 use/round, and makes it so that you can't use this and a quickened spell, for example, unless you Prc into something like Ruby Knight Vindicator or something.

[Baron Corm]

Changing it to swift was a lazy way of making it usable once per action. I thought that the Seal Fate fatespinner ability also was a swift action so it followed suit, but I just checked and it is not. The gauntlets are now a free action.

[Mark Hall]

The Mod Wonder: Reopened at creator request.