Free Action and stun immunity

[Ardanis]

Potion of Freedom gives immunity to stun. Doesn't anyone find this a bit strange? When you have got a heavy blow into head the world is darkening in your eyes, you lose your thoughts and can't gather them again. But your body is free to move, only your mind can't accomplish that.

Free action doesn't mean free mind. Or should that sorry potion provide immunity to confusion, charm (heh-heh) and other mind affecting spells as well?

For that purpose there is Chaotic Commands which gives immunity to stun opcode.

 

The same thing I want to say about Free Action spell.

[CamDawg]

I'm surprised no one commented on this.

 

Bioware was fairly consistent in having Free Action protect against stun. It seems pretty straightforward that it is developer intent. Whether or not it makes sense is, of course, another matter.

[BigRob]

Odd, I never noticed this before. It would depend on the source of the stun... Free Action probably shouldn't prevent loss of action through a head wound, but it does protect against Hold Person, which is a mind affecting spell, so Free Action does sheild the mind to some extent.

 

Given that Stuns all come from the same opcode (unless I'm mistaken) it's probably fair enough to keep the stun protection there.

[Ardanis]

"Hold..." is mind affecting? I thought it's not... *runs dltcep*... well, indeed. Though "hold creature III" (Hold Undead) is not, but anyway there is no defense against it in casting Chaotic Commans.

 

If Bioware wanted to make free action in such, then it seems to be normal for FA to have stun immunity.

But anyway I won't use such cheats - will go with my own version

[Meddle.]

from what i know, without looking into ie-resources explorers, hold is supposed to affect one's nerves and muscles. never mind how one is willing, he is unable to move.

stun looks to me like a "true" mind-affecting thing, when your brain freezes and... well, you know what.

from this perspective, i say free action should not prevent stun.

[Caedwyr]

How about Stun being a blow to the head that makes the person all woozy, and unable to function. Kind of like how stuns normally happen in the real world. Stun doesn't have to be some sort of mental attack, even though the two effects can seem similar.

[BigRob]

Hmm, having gone through the PHB to check this, it seems there isn't any information that specifically states that Hold Person is a mind affecting spell. I think this is a house rule my roleplaying group came up with because high Wisdom grants immunity to the spell and the spell is an enchantment, rather than a necromancy spell.

 

I happily withdraw my statement.

[Loké]

IIRC Hold Person/Monster specifically states it immobalizes the person, but they can still think and feel and so forth. Stun does look a bit of a silly one.

[CamDawg]

Cam asks...

 

An example that's currently in discussion in the Fixpack forum: should free action protect against stun effects (i.e. from mind flayer psionics or Celestal Fury)? The spell doesn't, but the ring does.

 

Sayeth David Gaider:

 

As for Free Action, it was supposed to be something that freed you from physical impediments -- like Web or Paralysis. Anything that affected your body. Stun affects that worked against the mind shouldn't be affected by the spell. Not sure why the ring does that.

[Salk]

Well...the man has spoken then!

[CamDawg]

There's a good, ongoing discussion of stun going on in the Bio forums, for anyone who's interested.

[CamDawg]

So, just to wrap this up... Per Gaider, the spell free action should not protect against stun, and neither do the various items that provide it (Ring of Free Action, Potion of Freedom, Flail of Ages +5); this is being changed in the core fixes. Since there were some concerns that this might overpower stun, a new OBC component entitled 'Change Free Action to Protect Against Stun' is being added.

[Salk]

I like it! Good job, Cam!

 

It's just an instinct but are you perhaps pulling the strings for version 3 ?

[CamDawg]

I wanted to knock out IWD Tweaks 4 (which is more or less done pending future bug reports from grogerson), but yeah, we're due for a new release here.