Gloves of object reading

[Weyroc]

What are some good, fun, or creative uses for gloves of object reading? (from the magic item compendium, page 107)

I am getting them for a couple specific reasons (identifying items through their use, and a few plot specific things)

Can you think of any other fun things I could do with it that won't make my DM murder me?

[gurgleflep]

Talk with the DM. It says "Read Object" so maybe he'll classify the mind as an object? When somebody's asleep, place your hand upon their head, do whatever your gloves require for you to read an object, and learn about them, something relevant to your quest or mission, or one of countless other options.

[Bakeru]

Actually, "Gloves of object reading" gives you a quite specific list of things you can learn: Race, gender, age and alignment of the previous owners, and how they gained and lost the object you're reading. Nothing beyond that. Also, "casual owners" don't show up, and if the object was un-owned for ten years or more, it looses all informations about previous owners.
It really doesn't allow nearly as many shenanigans as some people seem to think.

Still, if you're in an intrigue- or detective-game, it can be very useful if you get your hands on the weapon used (if a person used the object to attack someone, then he is explicitly not a casual owner).
Your friend just attacked you out of nowhere, then escaped? Oh hey, you got his weapon, and - wait, Race: Doppelganger?
Some kid tried to kill the king. Hey, it actually was an 40 year old lawful evil male halfling. Also, he bought the dagger, so let's ask the local blacksmiths.

[Weyroc]

That latter stuff is more what i was going for. I was thinking the identification because if you bought a wand, you'd probably get the command with it, and so on.

[Bakeru]

Getting command words and such would be DM call. It depends on how inclusive the "how previous owner gained/lost item" is. If it's just a basic "Bought it", "crafted it" or "stole it", then you're not getting any command words from it, and nothing really states that you get more than this. RAW, it doesn't even tell you where the previous owner got the item from, only how he got it.

But if your DM decides that you get a full description of the scene? Hurray, you can gain tons of informations, including any command words, and the faces of people previous owner bought from. Also, the face of the previous owner, since you'd see him as well. I wouldn't let you get this level of information, but I'm not a DM.

[Weyroc]

That's a very good point. I should discuss it more with my DM.

[Bakeru]

If you're looking for cheap identification, the Artificer's Monocle (for 1'500 gp, so only half the price), together with five ranks in "Knowledge (Arcana)", allows you to turn the cantrip "Detect Magic" into a free "Identify" (no material component), which gives you command words, charges left and what exactly the item does. You still need a spellcaster, but it's the cheapest way to identify objects of which I know.

[Weyroc]

I also like the flavor of the gloves...but that monocle would definitely be something to get.