Gloves of Sublime Gesticulation
Gloves of Sublime Gesticulation
Aura faint evocation; CL 5th
Slot hands; Price 22,000 gp; Weight —
Description
When the wearer of these fine silken gloves casts a spell with a somatic component, the gloves gracefully and nimbly guide the wearer’s hands through the necessary gestures, granting a +4 bonus on concentration checks to cast the spell.
When both hands are free, the wearer can increase the casting time of a spell with a somatic component to a full-round action. (The spell must have a casting time of 1 standard action.) The following round and each round thereafter, the wearer can choose to either complete the spell or continue casting it for an additional full round, up to a maximum casting time of 3 full rounds. While casting the spell, the wearer’s hands gesticulate and whirl around at supernatural speeds, protecting the wearer like a wind wall spell, except that deflected objects and creatures rebound harmlessly rather than being directed upward.
Upon completing the spell, for each full round spent casting, the wearer can increase the spell’s caster level or DC by 1, or gain a +1 bonus on the spell’s attack rolls. These benefits stack with themselves, and they can be applied in any combination.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, Heighten Spell, mage hand, wind wall; Cost 11,000 gp
COMMENTS FROM THE JUDGES:JACOB: First of all, congratulations; welcome to the Top 16 of the very first DesignFinder! What an interesting item: While the basic effects are largely numerical, what really makes this work is the decision making it allows a player, which reminds me a lot of what I experienced in the 2e playtest I did at PaizoCon. With these, a player has to decide do they want to get a spell off immediately or spend a little more time to increase the DC/attack roll -- or do they want to keep casting to simply keep themselves warded with the wind wall effect. I wonder if there are times someone might use these with even a cantrip just to get the warding effect. I even like that multiple rounds of using this means choosing between adding to the caster level or DC.
The template use looks perfect to me; I like the inclusion of Heighten Spell as one of the requirements. I think my biggest criticism would be I’d like to know a little more description of the gloves themselves, but obviously not all magic items have those. Good job, designer!
KATE: This is a neat item with some interesting and original effects! I really would have liked a more vivid description of the gloves themselves, but I do like the mental image of the wearer’s hands moving so fast as to generate a wind wall. This is an interesting design space, since the item makes it very tempting to spend a long time casting one spell. There’s some nice synergy here: the wind wall and the bonus to concentration checks make it less likely for the user to lose the spell. Great job!
MIKE: These gloves create nifty interactions with spellcasting and add decent effects for the cost of additional rounds of casting. The gloves’ inherent bonus to concentration effects and the wind wall effect mitigate potential disruptions to spellcasting during the increased casting time. I had trouble reconciling the whirling hands and quick gesticulations with managing somatic components, but that was more of a quibble for me.
Congratulations and welcome to the top 16!
REP: Congratulations! This item evokes fantastic visuals, though I was worried at first this would be too powerful, but as the wind wall wouldn’t protect the user from Medium or larger creatures’ melee attacks (and thus force a concentration check). This could have been just a spell-in-a-can but you managed to elevate it. Copy is clean, perfect template.
Comments
Congratulations to the others in the top 16, and good luck in the next round(s).
About the only comment I would have from an editor standpoint, would be making sure that GMs and players are fully aware of the ramifications of its powers. As you've written the wind wall ability, you've mostly focused on the arrow/ranged deflection aspect of the spell (and understandably, using an established spell or effect is the best way to save word space when having to describe an item's effect). While you also briefly touched on the deflected small and smaller creatures aspect of the spell, there's a few things I feel would need to be discussed before I cleared this item (which obviously isn't the issue here; I am not your editor
Typically wind wall is a line and blocks attacks, small creatures, gasses, etc. from one side or the other (ie, it doesn't fill or ward squares). I'd want to know if using your gloves means that there's a full 360 degree effect around the wearer's space (which seems the case) or if the wearer's entire space is shielded or domed or otherwise impervious to such things, from any direction. For instance, the wearer is also protected from attacks 'from behind' or that he's unaware of.
An example, your wearer is full-round casting, and an enemy caster uses stinking cloud in his area. Is the wearer considered impervious and immune to gases now because of the wind wall effect? Certainly from one side (which is how the spell functions) but are we to assume he's whirling and blurring his hands in a full circle, spinning in place in circles to guard his back (I know facing isn't a thing in combat, but the concept of watching one's back or being flanked or aware of attacks isn't ignored.) Are his hands also swirling over his head in a dome, like a raver with glow sticks, preventing the gas from entering his space from above? What about the gas formed in his space already, is that just prevented, or is it purged from the space, or not affected? These things should be considered (and maybe they were).
Assuming most readers will take the item's wind wall power at face value, your item could be read as allowing the wearer to walk through gases and poison clouds as long as they just keep casting (even with 5-foot steps since they're using a full-round action) or just outlast some short-term effects. The immunity to small flying creatures, including most swarms, is another big protection (it's weird that a roach or ant swarm isn't affected, but some GMs might rightly rule they can't pass), granted, technically it might prevent a wearer's own familiar from entering and leaving, but that is almost never really an issue. What I am saying is that your item has far more potential uses or ramifications I would want to make sure you were aware of and intending. A wearer could basically just use cantrips over and over for near infinite shielding and warding in certain scenarios (and having the spell's CLs or DC or whatever increased between castings is a bonus).
If these concerns were all considered and thought of, I apologize. Otherwise I would almost be more comfortable just granting the wearer the equivalent of the Deflect Arrows feat while using the glove's enhanced casting power, with unlimited usage. This would more accurately portray blinding hand speed and protection (as opposed to blinding hand speed so fast it creates a physical whirlwind and sheet of blasting air). It would stop protection from swarms, gas clouds, and would also address behind attacked from hiding or concealment, meaning from an angle you were not facing or looking at. The upside to this change, is that the wearer can now actually deflect bullets, axes, and javelins consistently as well as arrows and bolts (wind wall only has a 30% chance to stop such attacks).
Just my thoughts.
I realize that by-the-book pricing for an all-day wind wall effect is quite high, but the action- and opportunity-costs to maintain the effect are also high, putting significant downward pressure on the price. Because of the free-hands and must-be-casting requirements, you basically can't do anything else while benefitting from the gloves' wind wall effect, which is less powerful (and thus less $$) than a constant wind wall (or fickle winds) effect under which you can act normally.
You do make good points, though, and I don't strongly object to a higher price for the gloves. Had this been an assignment rather than a contest entry, I'd include a few brief margin notes to address some of your points in advance. For example, regarding potential cantrip abuse, something like "Optionally, add clause to rule out 0-level spells, such as _of 1st-level or higher_."
Or, regarding the actual details of the wind wall effect, a note saying, "Spell reference and requirement might also be fickle winds if UM source OK (increasing aura str, CL)."