ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Okay, that makes more sense in general now. Thanks a bunch everyone!

{MODERATOR UPDATE]The Dumb Questions Thread now has its own forum found here:

http://forums.te4.org/viewforum.php?f=64

Right, I thought as much. Thank you. Still doesn't seem to address the returns thing tho, however. Like it seems I'll get smaller bonuses than listen on the item. Say, +12 spell power, I get maybe +6 or something on a higher tier item(numbers pulled out of thin air, not an exact figure). That a feat...

Can someone explain to me exactly how tiers on items work? I did the tutorial and all but I still got confused halfway through somehow. And the wiki didn't really make me go less 'duh-huh?' to it. Seems like higher-tier items have some diminishing return mechanic, is that mitigated by having say, ti...