The item only "reduces" damage, you cannot reduce damage to increase it. If the arrow normally does 6 damage and you rolled 1 with a -3 modifier then the damage reduction is 0 and the arrow still does 6 damage.

As a tip: it is best to stick to the spell, feature or item wording. It specifically says "reduce". It is not possible to increase something by reducing it - it goes against the very definition of the word. It's not a math equation in that sense: you cannot reduce something below nothing.

Quote from dbldrew >>

Quote from Cyb3rM1nd >>

The item only "reduces" damage, you cannot reduce damage to increase it. If the arrow normally does 6 damage and you rolled 1 with a -3 modifier then the damage reduction is 0 and the arrow still does 6 damage.

As a tip: it is best to stick to the spell, feature or item wording. It specifically says "reduce". It is not possible to increase something by reducing it - it goes against the very definition of the word. It's not a math equation in that sense: you cannot reduce something below nothing.

 

well the thinking for the extra damage in this instance is the gloves are deflecting arrows "kung fu" style. And because of the characters completely terrible dexterity, he ends up deflecting them into his chest rather then away from his chest.. at lest that was the reasoning that everyone kind of agreed to . We are def playing them with the extra damage. but just for other instances running into neg numbers its good to know the "real" rules

thanks

I don't really understand that though. Piercing objects like arrows and bolts as well as pretty much any thrown object are only really effective by the "point" and momentum. If you knock an item like this then you affect the trajectory and lessen the momentum: less accurate in trajectory and less momentum means less damage and less piercing. A fail of any kind on deflect missiles means you failed to touch it or affect it in any way. If you were able to affect it, then you immediately reduce the impact it has and lessen the potential damage it can do. So, if you hit an arrow aimed for you it is immediately going to damage you less - perhaps damaging your hand instead of your face. The negative modifier approach is therefore assume the missile is always hit, but from a physics point of view it still loses momentum and still does less impact. The only way to affect it and increase damage is to grab it and pull it in which doesn't happen because the ability specifically says you only grab it if you reduce damage to 0, so that doesn't happen or if you put hand behind the missile and pulled back to help ram it in but this takes longer, requires more precision, cannot be achieved accidentally and is not something you would do if attempting to deflect. You're literally going against the laws of physics in your reasoning.

So, no matter how I think about it the negative modifier approach doesn't work. Especially when you consider the flipside. If an arrow would do 2 damage and you got a roll of 4, the math results in -2 damage, do you then consider the arrow to somehow heal you 2 hp? No, but this is the same homebrew rule of yours in taking the negatives into account.

Making something more complicated and less realistic doesn't seem to be a helpful homebrew in my opinion. But if you want that, it's your game.

I'ts cute, it's funny, it's something I might do once in a while just for the laughs, but in the long run it's not an accurate representation the way the rules apply.

The majority of abilities, skills, items, and others in D&D will affect a number up to a minimum/maximum amount. There are no negative numbers in the game outside of ability modifier and skills. When adding these modifiers to a die roll you cannot go below 0 unless otherwise indicated. It is not indicated on the item that you can go below 0.