Topic: Stun and magic

[munchy]

Does a character who is stunned receive a malus on his RRs?
An RR is not really a manoeuvre but on the other hand it seems reasonable that a stunned mind is less able to use its full power against attacks on his will, magic, stamina RRs ....

[Dr_Sage]

No.

In the rules (and I particular agree) the penalty is not suposed to be for RRs. Think that more as a balance issue than a logical reason.

Just my 2 cents.

[Duskwalker]

By the way,
do you allow stunned spell casters to cast spells?
Of course, the -50 modifier would have to be applied and one might rule out attack and elemental attack spells.
As a pro, you might say its not stated in the rules and spell casting is "any other action requiring a Maneuver roll" (HARP core rules, p. 95).
As a contra, you might very well argue that stun is a situation in which you can't properly focus, especially not on a thing as complex as a spell.

Any opinions or other rules? Great fathers of HARP, any idea?

[munchy]

Nope, we don't allow spell casting - although an unstun spell would be something different in that situation. Have to check this.

[Dr_Sage]

As I pointed in other treads the word "stun" can be misleading in my opinion.

In ShadowRun for example it refered merely as non-lethal damage.

In other systems usually stun is a almost KO condition, when you can?t do much.

In HARP as I read it the "stun condition" is like a quick dizziness, or unbalance, or sudden pain that dirorients anyone.

* By the rules we don?t forbid a caster that have -100 wound penalty from casting spells, even if the caster was bashed in the head many times.
* But we do forbid a warrior from attacking.

So in my game the rule is simple: no direct offensive maneuver action. So no offensive spells, no ranged or melee attacks.

Of course i am impressed somethimes. In last week?s game, Petra, the partys cleric was stunned, wounded and grappled by a giant snake and almost drowning in the smelly swamps waters, but with the help of Mark, the party?s thief and a fate point she was able to cast Major Healing on herself, basicaly surviving long enough for the rescue.
At first I was bothered by this, being used to DnD where she would never be able to do such thing, but then I realised: she is a well developed 13th level Cleric Seer and Healer. Here is where she shines, not on the "butt-kicking department".

If anyone have a better rulling on this I would be glad to hear.

[mocking bird]

On a related note I recall reading that stun does not affect spell prep - unless it actually occurs in the round the spell actually goes off.  Looked for this in the book but alas the index is a bit lacking for stun.

[Fenrhyl Wulfson]

Wrong part of the forum, sorry. My contribution to this thread was completely out of subject.