9

I remember reading about gauntlets that had an effect what somewhat like Monkey Grip (Complete Warrior feat). The thing was that the wording was off just a bit. How I read it, and my DM agreed, was that you could use this with the Monkey Grip feat, and you player would be able to wield a weapon as though it was two sizes larger.

I think it was in the Magic Item Compendium. What are the gauntlets called? I loved them, but now I cannot find them.

daze413
  • 28,621
  • 13
  • 112
  • 202
Jackskel21
  • 723
  • 1
  • 5
  • 12

1 Answers1

13

Strongarm bracers, Magic Item Compendium pg. 139. It’s 6,000 gp to wield a weapon as if you were a size larger without penalties.

In most cases, that’s an average of +1 damage, which not amazing, but if you’re stacking size bonuses it can be worth more than that. Certainly, in all ways, better than the terrible Monkey Grip feat. You should never take Monkey Grip, since a feat is worth quite a bit more than 6,000 gp (and way more than +1 damage), and because with Monkey Grip you still take penalties, it just lessens them.

As for whether or not they stack, strictly speaking they would not. Both say that they allow you to wield a weapon one size category larger “than you are,” not “than you otherwise could.” Since neither actually changes your size, if you are say Medium, strongarm bracers allows you to wield Large weapons with no penalty, or Monkey Grip allows you to wield Large weapons with a −2 penalty, but they don’t interact or stack.

Seeing as strongarm bracers explicitly do not stack with powerful build (racial trait of half-giants and goliaths that allow them to behave in some ways, including for the wielding of weapons, as if they were a size category larger), it seems likely that the authors of Magic Item Compendium intended that the strongarm bracers could not be used to wield weapons more than one size category larger than yourself.

KRyan
  • 350,913
  • 58
  • 915
  • 1,459
  • Could this answer also address the possibility of wielding an oversized shield as mentioned in this (now-deleted) answer? – Hey I Can Chan Jun 08 '17 at 19:46
  • @HeyICanChan Improved Shield Bash deals more damage as if the shield were larger, but doesn’t actually increase the size of the shield. Kind of a corner case. The DM’s ruling in that case that the larger shield grants more AC is, I believe, either mistaken or a houserule. – KRyan Jun 08 '17 at 19:47
  • O, that part's totally a house rule. I'm more concerned about the idea that the bracers may allow a Medium creature to employ effectively (rather than as, for instance, a sled) any kind of Large shield at all, a shield being armor and the shield bash being the weapon. That kind of thing. – Hey I Can Chan Jun 08 '17 at 19:53
  • @HeyICanChan Oh, I see. Seems to me you could argue that you can use the Large shield as a weapon just fine, but are unable to actually use it as a shield. That would seem the most consistent? Though really I’m not particularly concerned by Medium characters using Large shields, honestly. Either way, probably better as a separate question, I think. – KRyan Jun 08 '17 at 20:09
  • I'm a little bothered by it since that would make the bracers' effect—being able to use effectively a shield sized for a creature bigger than the wielder—unique (so far as I'm aware) in the entire D&D 3.5e corpus (Large shields, for instance, being typically vendor trash no matter their special abilities!). I would, however, argue much the same as you put forth: a wielder could use the shield as a weapon but couldn't benefit from it as a shield. In sum, fair enough. I guess we'll wait and see if it gets asked separately. – Hey I Can Chan Jun 08 '17 at 20:15