please explain the bead of force. does it essentially deal damage then lock the target(s) in a bubble? or is it a kind of protection?
for the glove of storing, I plan to give one to a character who, as a part of their character is always slight of handing a weapon.
does a glove of storing essentially eliminate the need to use slight of hand or is it more of a huge bonus to slight of hand?
1. Explosion, then wraps the target in the bubble, taking it out of the fight. It encloses one creature. It doesn't really say which creature is bubbled. If you struck a creature, it'd be that one, I'm certain, but if you miss I have no idea--probably the closest creature to the point of impact.
2. With the glove, Sleight of Hand is unnecessary for hiding your weapon in nearly any circumstance. The only situation I could think of involves already being in combat. You can retrieve your weapon as a free action, so usually this is fine. If you wanted to go from "no weapon" to "weapon" during someone else's turn, though, you'd have to retrieve the weapon during your turn, then immediately Sleight of Hand it to hide it until the appropriate time. That's a pretty unusual scenario, though.
sleight of hand can hide more than one weapon on your body, for an extreme case look at a knife thrower rogue.
Also I believe that the rogue has a few abilties only for hidden weapons (faster drawing them, dealing more damage etc.) that wouldn't work for the glove.
But your general fighter has a way better chance to get past city guards with glove of storing.
Glove of storing is pretty much automatic hiding. The one circumstance where Sleight of Hand would be better is vs. a creature with true seeing. That would reveal the stored weapon.
The item is shrunk down so small within the palm of the glove that it cannot be seen.
Can true seeing helps you see something physically shrunk to microscopic size? There's no illusion to pierce.
What Blahpers said.