The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 5: All You Need Is Gloves by Owen K.C. Stephens is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games (originally Super Genius Games) for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, this is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is the fifth in a series of supplements detailing low value permanent magic items.
This is a nine page PDF which is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $3.99 but which was purchased at the reduced price of $0.20 as part of a special bundle. Two thirds of a page are the colour front cover and one page is the Credits and Open Game License.
The supplement begins with the standard brief overview to the aims of the series (this is covered in more detail in the first in the series, The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 1: Armor and Weapons) which is to make low level NPC equipment, and therefore treasure, more interesting, to help low level characters build wealth by giving them permanent magic items, not one shots and charged items, worth less than 2,500 gp, and to give mid-level crafters more items to create.
Next is Body Slot Affinity. This to a degree recovers information from The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 4: Fantastic Footwear; that the Pathfinder game has an unwritten rule that body slots for magic items have specific affinities, with magic items for that body slot having specific tendencies. The affinity for gloves is stated to be quickness and speed and, although not every item in the supplement fits in this category, they all have to do with actions performed with the hands.
Next are the magic items themselves, fifteen in total. Not all are gloves, but all can be worn on the hands. There are gauntlets that put on a character’s armour for them, various types for causing damage, using force or preventing attacks, a couple for picking locks and sleight of hand, one that casts nets and some for enhancing spells and storing staves or spells and a some for healing. In general, fighter-types will get the most benefit from the gloves and items described, as the majority of them are related to fighting, there are some useful for casters and a few more general ones.
The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 5: All You Need Is Gloves in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, despite its length, these would have been useful. The text follows Super Genius Games’ unusual three column format, which is intended to be easier to read on tablets (less true for smaller tablets and awkward for printing) and no errors were noticed. There are a number of black and white images, which would appear to be stock and are in general related to gloves although there are no images of the individual items. Presentation is okay.
As always, there are Behind the Counter sidebars. With the core rules for pricing magic items in Pathfinder being not as helpful as they could be, in a number of cases how the price of the new magic items was calculated is gone into. Different GMs might come up with different calculations naturally, but these do explain the logic, which is useful.
The new gloves are surprisingly pretty focussed on fighting, and less so on magecraft, potentially limiting their utility for other classes. This is partly by design – gloves that would appeal to rogues have generally been avoided, as it’s assumed that such classes are going to aim to get gloves of dexterity, rather than the items detailed here. So there is a definite tendency for gloves related to hitting things. The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 5: All You Need Is Gloves does have some interesting and well explained new magic items and it can be found by clicking here.
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