Gauntlets of power
[  [  [  [  gauntlets of power | |
|---|---|
| Appearance | random |
| Slot | gloves |
| AC | 1 |
| Special |
|
| Base price | 50 zm |
| Weight | 30 |
| Material | iron |
The gauntlets of power, often abbreviated to GoP, are gloves that appear in NetHack. Their weight of 30 makes them the heaviest set of gloves.
Contents
Effects
Wearing gauntlets of power sets your strength to 25 regardless of enchantment and will auto-identify them; therefore, it also affects the accuracy and damage of melee attacks and thrown weapons, and also increases carrying capacity. Mjollnir can only be thrown while wearing gauntlets of power.
They are made of iron, and thus interfere with spellcasting; this allows them to be distinguished from other gloves without wear-testing using an unidentified touchstone, as it will make a "scritch, scritch" noise. They also give a -2 penalty to hit with bows.
As of NetHack 3.6.1, gauntlets of power add 3-6 damage to a monster's weapon attacks.[1] They have no effect for monsters that cannot wield weapons.
Strategy
Even though gauntlets of power are made of metal, wizards may still want to wear them to shore up their strength. Unless you are wearing other metallic items, this will not significantly impact your spell failure rates. Characters who are less naturally adept at casting spells, however, may experience a much greater increase in spell failure rates.
These gloves are optimal for melee characters and can be quite helpful if found, but are probably not worth a wish; a strength level of 18/01 or above makes the bonuses of gauntlets of power marginal, and is also easy to obtain for most characters.
Be aware that due to how exercise works, you cannot train strength while wearing them; actual strength increases will still occur as normal. Unless it severely impacts combat performance, it may benefit some characters to remove them during tasks that actively or passively exercise the attribute, e.g., solving Sokoban. This is largely moot if you do not plan on replacing the gauntlets as your primary gloves, however.
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, gauntlets of power do not automatically raise your strength to 25. Instead, they set your strength to 18/**; your strength is then further modified by the gauntlets' enchantment: a +1 pair will give you 19 strength, while a -1 pair will give you 18/99. Valkyries can safely enchant gauntlets of power up to +7, which allows them to gain the 25 strength required to throw Mjollnir.
References
This page may need to be updated for the current version of NetHack.
It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.
