Armor and Mana loss

[riftor]

Another question from an enthralled newbie. Everytime I put on a single piece of armor, even something like a cloak or a pair of shoes, my mana plummets. Is this a bug? If it isn't, I think the restriction is a bit too harsh. While I do understand how you wouldn't want a spellcaster to become a walking tank, it seems like the current mana reduction system forces the character to forgo any armor if he or she was to use spells. While the agility skill compensates for this penalty somewhat, the character is forced to dump large amounts of points into the skill before offsetting the disadvantage of no armor. Pouring points into agility also prohibits the player from increasing other skills, like spellcraft, which are necessary for a spellcrafter.
My opinions aside, I still love the game. This variant is truly unique and fun. Thank you Variaz.

[Variaz]

Actually, if you raised your intelligence high enough, you will still get a nice amount of mana, even in heavy armor. And really, the penality is smaller than you think, and is only signifiant at the start. See, I just tried a character in debug mode, with 80 intelligence, 750 mana. Equipped an armor with weight of 30, mana dropped to 720. Equipped tower shield, mana dropped to 708. Equipped steel gauntlets... now got a signifiant drop to 516. But as you can see, you get a mana drop equal to the item's weight, except for gloves, where you get a severe penality. For a warrior/mage character, a drop of 12 mana for a high chance of blocking enemy blows is more than worth it, trust me! Just pump your intelligence some more, and that should do it.