You are of course correct, don't know why I was thinking that. They are crap then. My apologies Blasphemous, I was under the impression they also reduced damage. From a few years back, thought that that was what they actually were supposed to be. A trick item thus, the same as wand of ball lightning is a trick item, like many.

This makes me wonder whether the missile modifier wasn't actually meant to be a damage modifier? Mmm, now I'm really confused about the gauntlets of eternal peace, why the heck is it a crowning gift.

You're right about it being a trick item, especially since it's autocursing. Oh well, we lived with it for many years, we will continue to complain and deal with that, I guess.

At the point in the game where equipping gauntlets that turn out to be "of peace" is a problem, -15 is a huge penalty for most PCs, which makes you hit way less often. So in a way I guess it does reduce damage :)

Anyway, I don't equip them on wizards either. 3 early points of DV and PV are not worth surrendering the ability of meleeing mooks to save spell castings, or equipping the occasional ring I might find. I drop all unidentified gauntlets and lure monsters into equipping them to see if they glow black (it's pretty fun what that happens!).

The missile modifier is correct (that's how the numbers in parentheses work on all armor). Yes it's a trick item and yes it can be useful (just like ball lightning). It would be utterly useless if it was -15 damage.

The gauntlets of eternal peace aren't bad (at least on a monk and despite my past griping). You get a great DV bonus for that point in the game (plus one-up on elemental gauntlets w/ acid, poison resist) and monks have great +to-hit, so it doesn't matter as much. Plus, the synergy w/ poison hands is amazing and TO DIE FOR: consumables are protected, but you still poison creatures. All in all, pretty situationally useful, though they'd be guaranteed use with twice as much PV or something.

wait, gauntlets of peace save your stuff from poison hands? I gotta remember that one.

But you still poison food and drink when trying to consume them, right? Or was that changed?

Only the artifact ones. This is probably because they grant poison resistance - one of those little things that make you go "wow, TB really thought this through".