losing SP

[Ehrblast]

I've lost a lot of mana. Had 25 and now Ive got 13. Damn magic mushroom. Does Restore Mana Levels restore you to the level you once had, or does it simply fill up your mana to your current level? Sucks, I havent come across it in the dungeon, and hasnt yet been sold in the town.

[Angrist]

You need to get the level-up. Then mana return.

[MattB]

Are you sure you're not wearing too much armour or wearing gloves without FrAct or dex bonus? Try taking off your gloves and body armour and see if that works. If not, it must be that your INT/WIS is drained in which case, as Angrist said, they will return upon level up (or potion of INT or WIS, or mushroom of vigor).

[Ehrblast]

The messages go by fast enough during events that I miss something important. Gotta be doubly careful.
The numbers werent in yellow and I had just leveled up.
Turns out it was a Partial Plate Armours of Elvenkind (-3) [40, +15] <+2> and a Sets of Caestus (+0, +3) [5, +2]. Just dropped it, and I went from 13 to 29 SP. Was using them for several levels, cant believe I missed that.
Thanks. I'm playing a high-Elf Ranger, I should probably just stick to leather armors. Got lured in by the numbers.
Glad I had just defeated Nar The Dwarf before dropping that armor, as he left Leather Scale Mail of Resistance (-1) [20, +15] racid rlightning rfire rcold.

[Derakon]

There's two restrictions at play here. First, as a mage/ranger/rogue, if you wear gloves that don't provide either Free Action or a DEX bonus, your SP is cut massively ("Your covered hands feel unsuitable for spellcasting" or something like that). Second, if your armor is too heavy, you pay a penalty of 1SP per pound of armor over the limit ("The weight of your armor encumbers your movement").

The latter penalty is not usually a big deal, especially once you start getting your INT up and thus have a larger mana pool to work with. The former penalty is almost always a big deal, because it takes out a flat fraction of your SP, and thus scales with your mana pool.

[Carnivean]

Second, if your armor is too heavy, you pay a penalty of 1SP per pound of armor over the limit ("The weight of your armor encumbers your movement").

Is this laid out anywhere?

[Derakon]

Is this laid out anywhere?

You mean documented? Not that I'm aware of, but the message makes it pretty straightforward to determine the penalty experimentally since it should lead you to start playing with how much your equipment weighs.

[MattB]

I believe it's one Sp per lb over 35lb total armour weight.
And, I think, it's 1/3 of SP for wearing gloves without either FrAct or a DEX bonus.

[Carnivean]

You mean documented? Not that I'm aware of, but the message makes it pretty straightforward to determine the penalty experimentally since it should lead you to start playing with how much your equipment weighs.

I was hoping that it would scale with strength for example, and that there'd be a function to calculate at what point you'd run into the limit at the current point in the game. That would be a pain to experiment on.

Matt's answer leaves me a little deflated.

[MattB]

Matt's answer leaves me a little deflated.

If it cheers you up, I've just experimented and it's only 1/4 of your SP for wearing inappropriate handwear - so that's not so bad, eh?

[Carnivean]

If it cheers you up, I've just experimented and it's only 1/4 of your SP for wearing inappropriate handwear - so that's not so bad, eh?

I usually set squelch fairly high early in the game, with auto-inscribe on Alchemist gloves. This time around though I lost my save file in a computer format and have no character knowledge of them even existing. Now I have a choice between id-ing every set of gloves or missing Alchemists gloves that aren't awesome.

Also annoying is finding the artifact gloves and not being able to use them.

[Estie]

Have had randart gauntlets with +4 int and no mage enabling mod more than once
I equipped the last ones I found for a while, as my spellpont pool was exactly the same with or without them

With ranger or rogue, I usually just take the spellpoint hit, unless htroll who often drops so low he wouldnt be able to cast basic spells anymore.

[Derakon]

I usually set squelch fairly high early in the game, with auto-inscribe on Alchemist gloves. This time around though I lost my save file in a computer format and have no character knowledge of them even existing. Now I have a choice between id-ing every set of gloves or missing Alchemists gloves that aren't awesome.

You don't have to ID them. Just test-wield them, and if they nuke your SP, then you know they aren't worth using. I guess that'd lead to a lot of resting to restore SP, but for hybrid classes who are terrible at casting Identify, I doubt it makes much difference.