"Weight of your armor encumbers your movement"

[PowerDiver]

It might be nice if you received a warning before wearing armour that will severely encumber you (loss of more than 1/2 of your mana). I was just clearing a small vault on DL51 when I put on a heavy suit of armour that took my mana from 24/24 to 0/0. Although I took it off immediately, a short time later I was unable to phase away when the mystic summoned gravity hounds.

IMO the problem is that putting on the armor and then removing it is not a no-op. <insert arguments about "adders should add">

[buzzkill]

So could making certain you're safe before changing equipment, though.

I agree totally. It was an odd situation. I had sold my old suit of artifact armour to buy a stat potion from the BM. I wasn't wearing any armour at all when the suit I had recently found pseudoed as {excellent}. I just wanted to free up a slot in my pack so I put it on. I did manage to escape with a staff of teleportation.

[Derakon]

His point is that equipping armor can drain your mana without warning. which could lead to death. Something that says "Equipping this will reduce your max mana to X. Are you sure you want to equip it?" could prevent this. So could making certain you're safe before changing equipment, though.

[Marble Dice]

It might be nice if you received a warning before wearing armour that will severely encumber you (loss of more than 1/2 of your mana). I was just clearing a small vault on DL51 when I put on a heavy suit of armour that took my mana from 24/24 to 0/0. Although I took it off immediately, a short time later I was unable to phase away when the mystic summoned gravity hounds.

Maybe it would make sense to color max mana yellow when encumbered, similar to how drained stats are displayed?

[buzzkill]

It might be nice if you received a warning before wearing armour that will severely encumber you (loss of more than 1/2 of your mana). I was just clearing a small vault on DL51 when I put on a heavy suit of armour that took my mana from 24/24 to 0/0. Although I took it off immediately, a short time later I was unable to phase away when the mystic summoned gravity hounds.

[Marble Dice]

It's only a problem early in the game when your mana is low. At that point, wearing very heavy armor is probably a mistake anyway, as it is likely to slow you down.

I don't see much reason to get rid of the penalty; it makes better sense to adjust some armors to be lighter if necessary.

I tend to agree with this - the mana penalty is small and linear, and it has never impacted my gear decision one way or another. Any armor with a deal-breaking mana penalty is already unusable due to carry weight and speed penalties.

[NeoWizard]

Does it affect fail rates for spells?

I think I notice in some of my games, the ones in which I bothered to look, the fail rate increased by one or 2%. But I think its only when you are low level, meaning INT is below 10/40 or 10/30! Might have been changed in later versions.

[Pete Mack]

It's only a problem early in the game when your mana is low. At that point, wearing very heavy armor is probably a mistake anyway, as it is likely to slow you down.

I don't see much reason to get rid of the penalty; it makes better sense to adjust some armors to be lighter if necessary.

[Magnate]

Has removing this penalty altogether been considered at all? To a certain extent, it can contribute to the TMJ problem, and heavy armor is already underpowered. Honestly, if a mage is willing to put up with the weight and to-hit penalties, I say let them and don't punish them further.

This is a very good point. I am planning to look at heavy armour at some point during 3.1.3's development, and I think it's worth considering this. My initial feeling is that I'd rather play about with the scale than remove the penalty altogether (i.e. allow mages to wear slightly more armour, but not unlimited), but it's definitely worth reviewing.

Thanks for the idea.

[Netbrian]

Has removing this penalty altogether been considered at all? To a certain extent, it can contribute to the TMJ problem, and heavy armor is already underpowered. Honestly, if a mage is willing to put up with the weight and to-hit penalties, I say let them and don't punish them further.

[fyonn]

I have notice that it is pretty significant, I have seen my mana cut in half do to heavier armor types, and not full plate armor either.

ha! my clvl 26 half troll rogue just found a set of adamantite plate mail on the floor on dlvl 23 and it cut his SP from 23 to 1... made a few quid at the armoury though..

dave

[Magnate]

It affects my paladin, so I'm guessing that it affects all spellcasters.

Ooops, my mistake. The gloves thing only affects those three, the armour weight limit does indeed affect all casters (though they don't all have the same limit).

[stalza]

It's linear. Once you pass a certain threshold (which varies by class), each extra pound of armour costs you a mana point. Only affects mages, rogues, rangers.

It affects my paladin, so I'm guessing that it affects all spellcasters.

[Magnate]

Does it affect fail rates for spells?

No, just mana. Same goes for gloves - you lose mana (about 1/3 I think), but no effect on fail rates. You mage-casters have it easy ...

[miyazaki]

It's linear. Once you pass a certain threshold (which varies by class), each extra pound of armour costs you a mana point. Only affects mages, rogues, rangers.

Does it affect fail rates for spells?