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(5.5) Weight of weapons and armour, weight limits                               
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Weight of items in your inventory or equipment can have great effect on
martial artists. If you use martial arts, also see (5.3a) for more information.

Even if you're not using martial arts, there are certain types of encumberment
which may affect your character:


Weapon weight
-------------
If your melee weapon or ranged weapon is too heavy you will hardly be able
to use it, resulting in reduced attack number per round and less damage.
You will get the message "You have trouble wielding such a heavy weapon/bow"
and probably your blows will drop to 1 and tohit/todam go near to zero.
A weapon is too heavy for you if its weight is greater than the so-called
str_hold value. Below is a table with the str_hold values, depending on a
character's strength:

        str_hold    STRength of             str_hold    STRength of
                    the character                       the character
        -------------------------           -------------------------
        4           3                       45          18/40-18/49
        5           4                       50          18/50-18/59
        6           5                       55          18/60-18/69
        7           6                       60          18/70-18/79
        8           7                       65          18/80-18/89
        10          8                       70          18/90-18/99
        12          9                       80          18/100-18/109
        14          10                      80          18/110-18/119
        16          11                      80          18/120-18/129
        18          12                      80          18/130-18/139
        20          13                      80          18/140-18/149
        22          14                      90          18/150-18/159
        24          15                      90          18/160-18/169
        26          16                      90          18/170-18/179
        28          17                      90          18/180-18/189
        30          18/00-18/09             90          18/190-18/199
        30          18/10-18/19             100         18/200-18/209
        35          18/20-18/29             100         18/210-18/219
        40          18/30-18/39             100         18/220+


Armour weight (concerning magic)
--------------------------------
Wearing armour which is too bulky gives you this message:
"The weight of your armour strains your spellcasting."
That means your mana will be (from lightly to severely) reduced from the
bulkiness of your armour. Training your 'Combat' skill can counter this effect.

To cast freely ie to have an unreduced MP pool, you may wear 15.0 to 30.0 lb of
armour (depending on your class and hence the type of magic you utilize) plus
your combat skill * 0.3 lb (per 1.000 skill). Here is a table of the classes:

Adventurer    21.0 lb
Warrior       -
Istar         15.0 lb
Priest        25.0 lb
Rogue         20.0 lb
Mimic         28.0 lb
Archer        -
Paladin       30.0 lb (also Death Knight/Hell Knight)
Ranger        22.0 lb
Druid         20.0 lb
Shaman        17.0 lb
Runemaster    23.0 lb
Mindcrafter   26.0 lb (and will get penalty for head gear heavier than 4.0 lb)

So 50 points in 'Combat' would allow a paladin to wear 30.0 + (50 * 0.3) =
45.0 lb of armour parts without receiving mana penalty from being encumbered.
In general, praying is the easiest-to-use form of magic, and weaving spells
the most difficult one regarding encumberment.
Your total armour weight is the sum of the weight of any armour pieces worn
on head (helmet), body, hands, feet, and your cloak. Note that the weight of
a possibly equipped shield does not matter here (experimental).


Armour weight (concerning sneakiness/to-hit boni)
-------------------------------------------------
Wearing armour which is too heavy for you will reduce speed bonus from
'Sneakiness' skill and your to-hit boni received from your dexterity and weapon
class' mastery skill (eg Sword-mastery).
You will receieve a warning message, telling you:
"The weight of your armour encumbers your movement."
To move freely, you may wear 10.0 lb of armoury plus a strength-factor plus
0.6 * your combat skill. Strength factor is 0.6 * str_hold (see table above to
find your str_hold). So the top weight limit is

10.0 + 0.6 * 50 (combat) + 0.6 * 100 (str_hold) = 100.0 lb.

(Inspecting an item causing this type of encumberment would display that it
encumbers "your movement" accordingly.)


Armour weight (concerning flexibility boni and abilities)
---------------------------------------------------------
Some special abilities depend on armour weight (including shield) too.
Those are..
-dodge chance from 'Dodging' skill.
-critical hit bonus from 'Critical-strike' skill.
-stabbing attacks from 'Backstabbing' skill.
-extra parry bonus from dual-wielding two weapons. (Also see (7.11).)
-extra blow/round bonus from dual-wielding two weapons.
-area searching for the 'Rogue' class (exclusive ability).
-cloaking mode for the 'Rogue' class (exclusive ability).

If the armour becomes too heavy to perform those, a message will appear:
"The weight of your armour strains your flexibility and awareness."

This 'rogueish weight limit' (the skills are mostly used by rogues) is:
20.0 + Combat skill * 0.14 lb, ie max 27.0 lb (20.0 + 50 * 0.14).

IMPORTANT: If you get the above flexibility warning message, that means your
           secondary weapon is NOT APPLIED AT ALL!
           So you won't receive any boni/resistances/whatever from it, it's
           basically as if you don't have it equipped at all.


Armour weight (concerning ranged weapons)
-----------------------------------------
If you wear a shield on your arm, no matter its weight and your strength, your
hit chance with shooting weapons will be reduced by this encumberment. You will
get an orange message saying
"You find it hard to aim while carrying your shield."
and a yellow '}' icon will appear in the encumberment bar.
Note that boomerangs are one-handed ranged weapons and not affected by shields.

Also, the greater your total equipped armour weight is, the more your ranged
to-hit bonus is reduced. This is a fluent, continuous process, and therefore
it's not considered an 'encumberment' per se, ie you won't see any icons in
the encumberment bar about this.


Glove encumberment (concerning magic)
-------------------------------------
Wearing gloves as a sorceror may reduce your maximum mana points if they are
not magically enchanted, such as:
Providing 'Free Action' / increasing your mana / increasing your dexterity.
You will receive a warning message, saying:
"Your covered hands feel unsuitable for spellcasting."


Also see (3.2) at the end of the chapter, for information about the
'Encumberment status line'.


Very heavy armour and/or heavy items in your inventory may also slow you down
(slightly reduce your moving speed) if your STRength isn't very great.