Non-body armour and spellcasting

[Lugh]

So, do helmets and gloves incur spellcasting penalties, like body armour? If I'm playing as an elf caster of any kind, is it advisible to wear elven armours of leather and above?

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Only body armour and shields affect spellcasting. I don't know the extent of the elven armour bonus. Just try it out and check II, I guess.

[KoboldLord]

If I'm playing as an elf caster of any kind, is it advisible to wear elven armours of leather and above?

The benefit is not so much that you'd notice. If your eventual target is to train up to being a medium-armor caster, you'll be able to switch to the next level up slightly earlier without losing your 'Excellent' casting chance. Under no circumstances, however, is it worthwhile to wear armor that causes a regularly-used spell to drop below Excellent. The one or two extra points of AC are not worth the chance of miscast.

I usually stop with leather armor for my casters. You can still combo it with Ozocubu's Armor, which makes it higher-AC than plate armor for most of the game. Swamp dragon, regular dragon, and ice dragon armors are another good place to consider stopping, because there's a big boost in AC there and the casting success rate is manageable.

Of course, if you can keep success rate at 'Excellent' with the harder armor, and you're not using Ozocubu's, then there's absolutely no reason not to upgrade. Resistance is the only brand that you might want to stick with robes for, but even then upgrading to leather armor of fire/cold/poison resistance will give you a nice little chunk of AC for just one resistance pip.