[Un] You draw on your reserves?

[cellwalls]

What is the concept/idea behind the "You draw on your reserves" thing? I can't find any mention of this phenomenon anywhere! When I google Unangband and "draw on your reserves" I got 0 hits! I mean, nothing generates 0 hits these days!

Having fun playing the game, though. This is my first forray into Un. I like the dungeon decorations. Much more interesting than the big V!

[andrewdoull]

What is the concept/idea behind the "You draw on your reserves" thing? I can't find any mention of this phenomenon anywhere! When I google Unangband and "draw on your reserves" I got 0 hits! I mean, nothing generates 0 hits these days!

Having fun playing the game, though. This is my first forray into Un. I like the dungeon decorations. Much more interesting than the big V!

Your constitution as well as your mana spell stat (usually wisdom) determine your total mana. Part of this constitution mana is unavailable until you are running low on mana. When you 'draw on your reserves' the additional mana becomes available.

However, while you are using your reserves, it becomes possible to damage your con. This manifests first by a temporary con drain - then by damaging your con stat (if you cast whilst temporarily drained).

Note that if you cast a spell while you are on your reserves, and you get your con drained (either temporarily or via stat damage), you keep the mana that you would have used on the spell. So you have an incentive to cast higher cost mana spells while you are using your reserve. For very high con spell casters, reserve casting should mean they effectively get a massive amount of mana, equal to number of times you're willing to let your con stat get drained * the maximum cost spell you can cast. Of course, each drain reduces the effectiveness of this.

Andrew

[Bandobras]

Sounds logical, but it's still a little unintuitive at the beginning of the game, when I have 6 SP and then out of a sudden I get 13 SP by "drawing on my reserves" and then I can still cast a lot of spells from those 13 SP without any risk (or so it seems) and then at 5 SP or something it starts asking me if I'm sure. The last thing may actually be the "warn to low mana" options that I have turned on and that superimposes on the already mysterious notion...