Gloves of Agility
Read the wording. The Gloves of Agility make your Dexterity 18 (+4) while worn. They set the score. They do not add to it. This is the whole trick, and the book does not hide it.
Set means overwrite. If your Dexterity is already 18 or higher, the gloves are a downgrade wearing the costume of an upgrade. A character sitting at 20 (+5) who slips these on drops to 18 (+4) and loses a point of modifier on attacks, armor class, initiative, and every Dexterity check. The gloves reward the clumsy and punish the naturally quick, which is the opposite of what most players assume when they see the name.
The correct owner is a low-Dexterity character. Give them to the wizard with an 8, not the thief with a 17. The lower the base score, the larger the swing.
At the table: Before the thief equips them, ask for their current Dexterity out loud. If it is 18 or better, let them discover on their own that “sets your Dexterity to 18” is a ceiling, not a boost, and hand the gloves to the fighter with a 9 instead.
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- Encounter Seed: The Monster Is the Question
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