Steal My Idea: Witch-Knight Vincal’s Locking Gauntlets

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A while back, I made an item called The Helmet of the Witch-Knight Vincal. It’s a helmet containing the memories of its deceased owner and continually teaches the new wearer random spells so long as they do not take it off. Someone requested I make a full set for Witch-Knight Vincal, and I am happy to comply. Her full set includes three items beyond the helmet, and I’ll be doing a new one with each post.

Witch-Knight Vincal’s Locking Gauntlets

This item is made with d20 compatible games in mind (Arcana Evolved, D&D 3.x, Pathfinder), but you can tweak it to fit your system.

Vincal focused on killing spellcasters in battle and used the combination of her strength and her own magical prowess to either overpower them or subvert their magical abilities. Every aspect of her equipment reflected her goals, and none is more obvious than Vincal’s locking gauntlets.

Vincal’s locking gauntlets are masterwork gauntlets made for a size medium creature. They deal normal damage for a gauntlet (1d3 + str mod (bludgeoning). Each of the broad fingers has a hook that lines up with a lock in the palm of the gauntlet. When the wearer is not holding anything and closes her fist, the fingers lock to the palm of the gauntlet, effectively creating a manacle. Vincal used this in combat to grab and hold her target’s wrist.

If the wearer wants to use its locking ability, she must not be holding anything that hand. After that, she must make a touch attack against her opponent with a -2 penalty. The penalty comes from the user aiming specifically for the target’s wrist.

If the touch attack is successful, then the gauntlet locks around the target’s wrist. Neither the wearer nor the target is considered grappled. The gauntlet has a hardness of 10 and 15 HP. It requires an Escape Artist check of 35 to slip out of them or a strength check of 28 to break them. If the target successfully breaks the lock to escape, it costs 60 GP to repair it. The gauntlets are meant to bind a size medium creature. Size small creatures get a +4 on any attempt to escape from them. The gauntlets cannot bind any size tiny or smaller creatures or creatures larger than size medium. Once the gauntlet is locked on the target’s wrist, the wearer obviously cannot hold anything with that hand.

With a creature’s wrist locked in the gauntlet, the wearer gets a distinct advantage. When the target attempts to cast a spell that includes using somatic components, they must make a spellcaster check VS the strength check of the wearer. If they succeed, the spell goes off as normal. If they fail, they lose the spell.

While the neck of a size medium creature is too thick for the gauntlets to fit around, it can fit around the neck of a size small creature in order to choke them out.

The release mechanism to unlock the gauntlet is on the inside near the wearer’s wrist and is not visible from looking at it. It takes a move-equivalent action to use if they know where to find it.

The locking gauntlets have other uses as well. They can lock two items in its grasp so long as the two items have a combined size of being not much larger than person’s wrist. The fingers are too thick to lock anything small. While you can use the locking gauntlet to hold on to something, it does not guarantee you cannot lose your grip. Depending on what you are grabbing, such as the reigns of a horse or a rail on a ship being tossed at sea, you may only get a +4 bonus to the action (GM’s choice depending on the situation). You may also suffer some unexpected consequences, such as failing a ride check, falling off a horse, and being dragged by it because you cannot let go. Vincal designed the gauntlet to hold a person’s wrist, and thus it may not work perfectly in other situations.

If the user chooses, she can lock one gauntlet on her own weapon. This gives her a +5 bonus per locked gauntlet against disarm attempts but also means she cannot release the weapon. Since the release for the locking mechanism is on the inside, locking both gauntlets at the same time is not recommended.