[Shadow] Item - Murkweaver's Glove

Murkweavers have mastered the unique art of crafting objects from solidified darkness, uncovering its beauty in transience. Much like snow, the shaped void is ever temporary and gradually vanishes in the presence of light.

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Murkweaver Glove
Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

You only have access to the glove's properties while you are in an area of dim light or darkness. If you are ever exposed to bright light from a daylight spell or any sunlight, all properties of the gloves are suppressed until 1 minute after you are no longer exposed.

Blackhand. You can make unarmed strikes with this glove, which deals 1d6 damage. You can shape the shadows immediately before each strike (no action required), dealing your choice bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

Gloomshaper. As an action, you create a nonmagical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn.

Shadowboxer. Your glove blends into the darkness. For the first unarmed strike you make on your turns, you are considered invisible to your target for the purposes of the attack. Both you and your target must be in an area of dim light or darkness for you to gain this benefit. 

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Uncommon Variant. The uncommon version of this glove does not have the Shadowboxer property. 

Very Rare Variant: Murkweaver's Hand. The very rare version of this glove also has the Murkweaver's Hand property. You can use an action to cast darkness or arcane hand from the glove, using a spellcasting ability modifier of +5. The arcane hand spell ends early if the summoned hand ever enters an area of bright light. Once you cast a spell, you can't cast that spell again until the next dusk.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This item was designed for two niches; one to interact with darkness in a different way (I don't think the game has dealt with shaping darkness as a material? It's usually an area or the absence of light), and to design something for unarmed strikes. This would be pretty good for the Shadow monk. I hope to explore Murkweaving later on in the compendium; there's going to be a feat for it at the very least.

The Blackhand and Gloomshaper properties are mostly for flavor with minor effect on most gameplay. The Shadowboxer is the major one, which follows a general structure of two minor properties and one major property for a Rare item. Shadowboxer is a very nice and useful once-per-turn boost to attacks. You'd have to be careful, though, since the item's properties can be negated easily by sunlight.

Visually, I wanted something with a striking silhouette, hence the claws and the dark threads that run along the fingers. The glove was originally going to be a gauntlet, but the softer glove form meshes better with the idea of weaving. The smoke-like effect of darkness is the third form of darkness illustrated here, the other being the fire-visual for the shadow blade and the smoke-visual for the umbrashroud. It implies there's divisions even within the darkness.