- Items in party inventory do not count against the carrying capacity and encumbrance of any of the party members. In that sense, every party could be thought of as having a "shared portable hole." However...
- No item in a party inventory may be equipped. (It would not mean anything to say "The party is wearing this pair of Boots of Judgment.")
- Party inventory may be interacted with at any time during normal exploration, but party inventory is strictly off-limits when combat begins. Objects may not be placed into or removed from party inventory during combat. So you might be carrying the Halberd of Ultimate Mastery in party inventory to save on weight penalties, but if you are ambushed while it is still in party inventory, no one will be able to use it to defend the party.
- When a thief attempts to pickpocket a victim, the victim's personal and party inventory are both considered. However, items in party inventory are considered to weigh twice as much as they would in a personal inventory. Items which have higher bulk-weight are more difficult to pickpocket, and there is also a hard cap on the bulk-weight of any item which may be stolen. Therefore, items in party inventory are more difficult to steal than they would be in a personal inventory, and only smaller/lighter objects may be stolen. (As an aside, equipped items may never be stolen.)
- When the last member of a party dies, then and only then do the contents of the party inventory drop.

In this sense, then, the party inventory exists in a state of uncertainty. Items are treated as possibly being available to all members of the party at all times (and to anybody attempting to steal from a member of that party), but the privileges of unlimited party inventory carrying capacity are balanced against the lack of access to party inventory in crucial combat situations.

The second linchpin is the itemset. Each creature in the game may have up to four unique, independently-managed lists of equipment ready to go at any moment. Switching between these equipment sets is done in zero-time--that is, the character incurs no penalty and the player need only click one button to make the switch. (If an attack is underway while an itemset is changed, however, that current attack is aborted.)

Any item in a character's inventory may appear in any number of itemsets--from zero to four. The only exceptions to this rule are "unswappable" items, which when equipped are considered equipped in all itemsets. Typically, unswappable items are those which cannot reasonably be considered to be quickly disposed of or changed. Armor, for instance, is unswappable. Most weapons and miscellaneous equipment is swappable.

Therefore, a typical warrior's itemsets might look like this:

Itemset One:
-    Longsword
-    Small shield
-    Helmet
-    Leather armor (unswappable)

Itemset Two:
-    Longbow
-    Helmet
-    Leather armor (unswappable)

Itemset Three:
-    Spear
-    Leather armor (unswappable)

Again, itemsets represent a certain amount of uncertainty and flux--Sanelon may wield any of these items at any moment. Rather than penalize him for all five unique items which might be equipped, we simply charge him the biggest amount he might pay at any given time by calculating the costliest itemset. Only those items currently assigned to an itemset are counted toward mana cost--anyone may carry around a sack of powerful magic rings without penalty.

Note that one may have mana but not have any magical proficiency. Such a person may equip and use magical items, provided that they meet the mana cost requirements, but not have any innate ability to cast spells. These people are generally considered to have strong willpower and an instinctive ability to shape the magic already infused into a device, but lack the knowledge or patience to work the raw magic inside themselves to cast spells.