Stunning/Paralysing

[blaster219]

Settle a (friendly) dispute. In our first game tonight, the players and myself disagreed in the interpretation of the rules regarding these perks. Specifically the wording "a quarter of your opponent’s total Health" and "If this attack ever deals half of an opponent’s total Health". My interpretation is that it refers to the total current Health whereas the players interpret it as total fully healed Health.

I'm arguing the the first as in the section on complications it uses the wording "maximum Health" rather than "total Health". Which in turn means that the more injured a character is, the more susceptible the character is to these complications. The player's seem concerned for the same reason, albeit in the view they do not want to suffer an increase chance of being afflicted.

[Lord Specineff13]

My personal interpretation is quarter of the maximum health. No particular reason, I just saw it that way.

That said, my experience with Stunning, Impeding and Paralyzing have been that they are very powerful perks, really easy to tack onto an opponent especially if you use the no-damage option.

[Chris Brady]

It's based off max health.

Assuming Base 40.

Stunning et al. happens (normally) when the target has 10 Health left.

[Lord Specineff13]

Aren't Conditions normally inflicted at half maximum Health? In which case, at base 40, a Condition would be dealt at 20 Health (whether Stunned or Impeded).

[sniffycrab]

Aren't Conditions normally inflicted at half maximum Health? In which case, at base 40, a Condition would be dealt at 20 Health (whether Stunned or Impeded).

Correct. If the Target has 40 max health and you have the stunning perk you must deal 10 or more HP Damage to stun him. It don't matter if he is at the full 40 hp or 28 hp. It is till 10 or more damage to stun.

[Chris Brady]

Half? I remember reading a quarter. OK, then if you have 40 health, you get Stunned at 20 using base rules. If you have more or less health, you adjust accordingly.

[sniffycrab]

Half? I remember reading a quarter. OK, then if you have 40 health, you get Stunned at 20 using base rules. If you have more or less health, you adjust accordingly.

Half HP damage is WITHOUT the perk. Any attack that removes Half a character's health in one blow stuns the target. The Stunning perk means the attack only needs a quarter damage to the character's health.

[Chris Brady]

Hunh, so I've been misreading that section too! Thanks, Sniffy!

[Trailblazer57]

feeding on that topic is it possible to stun lock? like say in a 1 v1 scenrio? and if so what can i as a gm do to prevent tun locking from the player side?

[Clay]

Total Health refers to the total amount of Health a character can possess. If you were to use a character’s current Health (and "current Health" would be the wording I would use), I think you’d find characters falling into a “death spiral” where they are increasingly unable to fight due to the sheer amount of complications they’d keep receiving. In fact, at zero Health, the character would receive a complication from receiving as little as 1 point of Damage.

As for a stun lock scenario, ideally neither side will be so outmatched that no one ever makes a successful Defense Roll against a Stunning attack. If the PCs are ever subject to that sort of misfortune, it would probably be in their best interest to burn some Endurance for extra drama dice to roll in Defense.

If you’re worried about the PCs abusing it against enemies, load up on Armored or Tough so that inflicting complications become more difficult. And if all else fails, don’t be afraid to tweak Abilities during the game to make a combat less one-sided.

[sniffycrab]

Well if Bob stuns Steve and Sharon stuns Steve. Steve is still only stunned for one round. To stun lock bob would have to Stun Steve, then Steve get's over it, then Bob stun Steve again. It sounds simple but it is tricky. Steve could try refooting, countering, or a number of tactics to throw Bob and Sharon off their game.

If Steve is a Boss with Extra Actions, I'd say Stun only cancels one of those actions not all of them. Tough tacos hero. If all else fails Steve could do the classic Villain move of tossing/ordering one of his mooks in front of the attack thus negating the stun.

[Trailblazer57]

I went with the stun resistance tactic. A homebrew gm ruling.
pretty much no character can be stun locked as consecutive stun attacks lose their stunning factor. their needs atleast a round where the stunned character is not hit with another stun before they can be affected by a stun effect again.