@HVargavinter @ChrisPerkinsDnDWould you allow for a monk with gloves of missile snaring to reduce damage with 2d10+dex+monk level? No. The monk has to choose which one to spend the reaction on.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 23, 2016
@HVargavinter @ChrisPerkinsDnDWould you allow for a monk with gloves of missile snaring to reduce damage with 2d10+dex+monk level? No. The monk has to choose which one to spend the reaction on.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 23, 2016
The reaction would be to deflect or catch a missile with your free hand. The reaction is just one: to deflect or catch a missile. If you do not have the natural ability, then you use the magical effect from the gloves to attain certain level of proficiency for that reaction. If you have the ability, then the question is if the gloves enhance that proficiency that you already have. The use of the amount of damage to determine if you catch it or not is a mechanism to measure your proficiency to do so. And that proficiency can increase as the monk ability does each level (one point of damage per level). So, this ability to catch missiles can be increased. If you do not have the proficiency to deflect or catch the missiles, then the gloves give you the stated proficiency: 1d10 + Dex. If you have the proficiency, it would enhance it, meaning that mechanically, you add that damage roll to your original damage roll, since it is just one reaction that you are taking and you have the natural proficiency and the magical bonus (this would be same as using a magical weapon with a bonus, you add the magical bonus to your existing proficiency). They are not two different reactions, just one reaction with a magical bonus. That would be my take.
“They are not two different reactions, just one reaction with a magical bonus. That would be my take.”
No where in gloves description it mentions giving bonus to do it, the gloves allow you to use your reaction to do something similar of what a monk can do, but it does not enhance the monk natural abilities, that’s like saying that a wizard with a fireball wand could cast 2 fireballs using the same action or that his fireball would deal double damage, does not matter they are similar and are done in the same way
The fireball wand creates the magic by itself and not the user. I think it’s a legitimate interpretation that adding the gloves would give you a form of expertise.
The wand of Fireballs, like most (though not all) magic items, allow the user to *cast* “x” as-noted; that is, it’s not like a loaded gun with a separate effect — it syncs with the user and allows *them* to cast “x” (Fireball, in this case), just as if they were a spellcaster in the specific regard noted. (That’s a key point of mechanics/metaphysics that gets overlooked in 5E’s metaphysics by some players/DMs, relative to prior editions’ rules/metaphysics.) To be clearer: when a magic item (whatever) says that the user is casting, it means exactly that: the user is the one casting, with the item (wand) allowing such to occur… but it’s still the user doing the casting. (Counter-example: Necklace of Fireballs, conversely, has different language that makes it the, in effect, “loaded gun” that does “x” without the user having to do any “casting”.)