As the world watched Joseph R. Biden Jr. swear the oath of office to officially become the President of the United States, another inauguration attendee snagged the attention of the internet. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders made an appearance, wearing a disinterested demeanor and stylish mittens, which were quickly turned into a huge string of memes. This isn't the first time the Democratic Socialist Senator has given the internet meme material, but this time his mittens have been turned into an extremely powerful item in Dungeons and Dragons.
It's fairly common for Dungeons and Dragons players to come up with their own fun items or for popularized things to be made into items. Bernie's mittens have been immortalized as the "Mittens of Redistribution," with their design created by game designer Bebarce El-Tavis. With clever powers based on Bernie's ideals, the powerful magic item has official item descriptions for players to include in their games at home.
Bernie has said he is a gamer in spirit, and these mittens seem to represent him well. The flavor text on the item reads "When the cold winds blow, and change is in the air, one must grasp and hold on tight to the ideals of the greater good. Those ideals are knitted into the fabric of these mittens, and deliver boons to all within the party." The stat block is missing some requirements for use, such as attunement and the type of magical item the mittens are. However, Dungeon Masters should be able to decide on these things for themselves.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the mittens outside of their meme relation is their powers. The key power of the mittens is called Redistribution of Wealth, where if the party finds any unwanted gear or items, the player with the mittens can choose to pass their hands over that item and have it instantly converted into its fair market value in gold. Once converted, the gold is evenly distributed between party members.
The secondary power of the mittens is called Lending a Hand. It allows the user to give one of five powers to their entire party at a time.
- Grant +5 against cold attacks
- Grant +3 to Charisma checks when outside of combat
- Seize the Means of Production, giving +5 on all grapple and climbing checks
- Provide Universal Healthcare, granting every member of the party one use of the Healing Word spell
- Grant advantage in offensive rolls against Chaotic Evil creatures
The +5 against cold attacks will be especially helpful for parties adventuring through Icewind Dale. While the mitten's powers are well detailed, there are a few things that are left up to players. Dungeon Masters will likely want to tack on cooldowns or a limited number of charges for uses. Lending a Hand may be better served as a daily power.
In the end, the mittens will need a little bit of balancing, but that's all part of the fun when they're being added to games at home. Maybe even make the mittens a mythical item that players can get at the end of a long campaign. Regardless, it'll be interesting to see how this new magic item affects the recently-released Icewind Dale campaigns and Dungeons and Dragons as a whole.