Ok so I keep getting a bit confused applying typical CRPG logic to MMVII when it turns out lots of stuff works different then I might assume, what is worse is neither the manual nor game really indicates well what is going on.

I've been stocking my sorcerer wtih INt items, and cleric with personality.....

but I noticed its not upping their mana. It does up the INT score etc. but the mana number doesn't change....

Besides beating challenges is there any reason to wear Personality and Intelligence items? If not then it kinda sucks i spent so much money and time stocking up them and sold off other stuff which may obviously have been a much better way to go.

Live and learn I guess.

Also it seems everything resets and that means you can get lots of extra statistical points and skill points be revisitting areas after you been gone awhile. Is this game timed? LIke will quests fail or run out if i take too long wandering around, will the PCs age and like die or lose stats for age?

Dazed and confused with this game at times.

In MM6 thru MM8, there are specific stat values that will increase spell points.

21, 25, 30, 35, and 50 are the manageable breakpoints. After that, you need 25 additional points to a stat to get an increase until you reach 300. The same breakpoints apply to all of the other stats.

Your characters do age, and the age has a variable effect on their stats. Old age benefits caster classes while greatly penalizing everyone else. Generally the only time that your characters' ages will be a factor is when employing the spell divine intervention, which artificially ages all of your characters ten years.

Quests are not timed and NPCs will not die; however, dungeons and overworld maps will periodically refresh themselves at a variable rate (dungeons are less frequent).

As DaveO said, stats are subject to diminishing returns. +10 to Intellect increases a sorcerer's spell points much more when the sorcerer had 20 intellect to begin with than, say, when he had 50 intellect to begin with.

To give some examples... The bonus to a sorcerer's spell points when his int is 20 will be +3. With 30 int, it will be +6; with 40 int, it will be +8; with 50 int, it will be +9; with 60 int, it will be +9...

It's not a good idea to min-max in any case, in my opinion: Knights and clerics might not gain any mana bonuses from int, but they could gain skill points from Contests, Tests, or Challenges of Intellect if it's high enough. And skill points are always at a premium in MM7.