Clawed Gloves & Shoes

Clawed gloves will be familiar to Oriental Adventures players as tiger's claws, but the DM may allow their availability in any fantasy campaign. Clawed overshoes, similar in design to clawed gloves, also existed and may be permitted (although they are a lot less common). The overshoes are slipped over the thief's normal footwear. The thief uses these clawed items for extra grip on small nooks and crannies of whatever surface he is climbing, so the bonus to the climb walls roll depends on the type of surface being climbed.

On very smooth surfaces where almost no nooks and crannies exist, clawed gloves and boots will not add anything to the climb walls chance for a thief. For smooth/cracked surfaces, clawed gloves add +5% to the climb walls chance, boots add +5% also, the two together add +10%. For any other type of surface, clawed gloves add +10%, clawed boots add +10%, and the combination adds +20% to the climb walls roll. Rates of movement are not altered. The use of clawed gloves reduces silent movement rolls by -5%, the use of clawed boots by -10%, and the combination by -15%, if the thief is attempting to move silently during his climb (e.g., trying to evade detection by guards atop a parapet).

Clawed gloves can be used as a melee weapon—no weapon proficiency is required for their use. A successful hit inflicts 1 additional point of damage to that normally delivered by a fist blow. Clawed overshoes may similarly be used as a weapon, adding damage to a kick attack, if the DM allows such attack options in melee.