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Gloves of Thievery 5e: +5 Sleight of Hand, Unseen Gloves
Gloves of Thievery are uncommon wondrous gloves from the 2024 rules that don't require attunement. While you wear them they are imperceptible, and you gain a +5 bonus to Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks. Because the 2024 SRD makes picking a lock with Thieves' Tools a Sleight of Hand check, that +5 covers lockpicking as well as picking pockets. The item isn't in the 2014 SRD; a version appears in the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide, which isn't covered here. For a rogue, it's a flat +5 that never costs an attunement slot.
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Gloves of Thievery Rules Text
The 2024 card (SRD 5.2.1):
Gloves of Thievery
2024 rules
Wondrous Item, Uncommon
UncommonNo attunement
These gloves are imperceptible while worn. While wearing them, you gain a +5 bonus to Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks.
Two sentences, two effects: the gloves can't be perceived, and they add +5 to one skill.
How the Gloves of Thievery Work
What Sleight of Hand covers in 2024
The 2024 SRD lists Sleight of Hand for picking a pocket, concealing a handheld object, or performing legerdemain. The equipment rules add several more uses, each a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check:
Task
DC in the SRD
Pick a Lock with Thieves' Tools
15
Pick the lock on Manacles with Thieves' Tools
15
Bind a creature with Manacles (Utilize action)
13
Escape Manacles (an action)
20
Tie a knot with Rope (Utilize action)
10
Pick a pocket, hide an object
Set by the DM
The +5 applies to all of them. The Thieves' Tools entry only names the ability (Dexterity) and the DC, but the Lock and Manacles entries spell out that picking them with Thieves' Tools is a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, and the Thief's Fast Hands feature uses the same skill for picking a lock or disarming a trap with Thieves' Tools. So the gloves add their +5 to lockpicking.
Lockpicking math
The 2024 tool rules give you Advantage on a tool check when you are also proficient in the skill used with it. A level 3 rogue with Dexterity 16 (+3), proficiency in Thieves' Tools and Expertise in Sleight of Hand rolls +7 with Advantage against a DC 15 lock: about an 88 percent chance. With the gloves it's +12 with Advantage, about 99 percent (only a 1 or a 2 on both dice fails). A Dexterity 16 character with no proficiency at all goes from needing a 12 (45 percent) to needing a 7 (70 percent).
Fast Hands
The 2024 Thief subclass's Fast Hands lets a rogue make a Sleight of Hand check as a Bonus Action to pick a lock, disarm a trap with Thieves' Tools, or pick a pocket. The gloves add their +5 to each of those. Picking a pocket mid-fight, or unlocking a door while still having your action, gets much more reliable.
Imperceptible
While worn, nobody can perceive the gloves: not by sight, not by touch. A guard who searches a prisoner won't find them and won't take them. That matters for the DC 20 check to slip out of Manacles, which the gloves boost by +5 and which the wearer can attempt wherever they're held.
The gloves don't hide your hands or what you're doing with them. Someone watching you lift a purse sees your hand move; the check, not the gloves, decides whether they notice.
Detect Magic shows a faint aura around any visible creature or object that bears magic, and the wearer is a visible creature bearing a magic item, so the spell outlines the thief even though the gloves stay hidden. Truesight is a different question. Its list covers Darkness, the Invisible condition, visual illusions, magical transformations and the Ethereal Plane, and "imperceptible" isn't on it. DM ruling, not rules text: Truesight doesn't reveal the gloves; nothing in its list applies to them.
What they don't do
The gloves add nothing to Dexterity (Stealth) checks or attack rolls. They take your glove slot, so you can't also wear Gauntlets of Ogre Power or Gloves of Missile Snaring.
Are Gloves of Thievery Worth It?
For a rogue, yes: no attunement, no charges, and a permanent +5 to the skill that opens doors. Bards and rangers who end up as the party's lockpick get nearly as much.
The +5 is bigger than it looks. Expertise adds your proficiency bonus a second time, +2 at level 1 and +4 at level 9, so the gloves add more than Expertise does until level 13, and the two stack. Combine them with Boots of Elvenkind for a burglar who also moves silently, again without an attunement slot.
They're a poor fit for a party that kicks doors in and never steals. If nobody has Thieves' Tools proficiency, the bonus still helps, but the party might prefer the Knock spell.
Gloves of Thievery for DMs
Where they turn up. Uncommon, so a low-level hoard or a city fence. The 2024 SRD values them at 400 GP. Since the gloves can't be seen while worn, a thieves' guild might sell them, and a buyer has no way to inspect them on a hand. The shop price calculator helps if they appear in a shady shop.
What they change. Locked doors and chests stop being obstacles. If a lock matters to your story, give it a higher DC (the SRD's Typical Difficulty Classes table calls 20 hard and 25 very hard), a trap, or a guard who notices the door is open afterwards.
Prisons. Captured characters keep the gloves, so plan escapes accordingly. At +12, the DC 20 check to slip Manacles succeeds on an 8 or higher (65 percent), and a prisoner left alone can keep trying.
Hooks.
•A noble hires the party to find out who's been stealing from her vault. The thief wears these gloves, and nobody has ever seen them on his hands.
•A pair of the gloves turns up on a corpse in a locked room, with the key on the inside. Was it a lockpick who locked himself in?
•A rival party's rogue steals the party's best item with Fast Hands during a tavern brawl. Tracking them down is the next adventure.
Thefts in the party's past are easy to forget a few sessions later. Loreify records your sessions and keeps the recap, so you can check who pocketed what.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Gloves of Thievery require attunement?
No. In the 2024 SRD they are an uncommon wondrous item with no attunement.
Do Gloves of Thievery help pick locks?
Yes, in the 2024 rules. The Lock entry makes picking it with Thieves' Tools a DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, so the +5 applies.
Can anyone see Gloves of Thievery?
No. They are imperceptible while worn. Detect Magic still shows an aura around the wearer, because they are a visible creature carrying magic.
Are Gloves of Thievery in the 2014 rules?
Not in the 2014 SRD. A version appears in the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide, which isn't part of the SRD.
How much are Gloves of Thievery worth?
400 GP, the 2024 SRD value of an uncommon magic item.
Item text: System Reference Document 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Analysis, rulings and ideas are Loreify's own.
This page includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 and 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Loreify is not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.