i keep getting coup de graced by monks

[kakarot]

well i play a barbarian and in our campaign there is a good monk group that hates us. everytime we fight them they use lots of stunning fists on us and the check is like 19 or up to 21 and when we fail we are stunned. then we are just standing there helpless and the monks cut our throats with kamas and usually the fort check is like 25 so they kill our party a lot. is there anything we can do against these guys? but whats worse is they have a rogue and sometimes he sneak attacks me so the fort check is really high like in the 40's. our part is mostly lvl 9s right now but we will have to resort to using bows or something to take these monks since bows are probably the best thing versus them

 

[Geoff Watson]

Try following the rules.

Being Stunned doesn't make you helpless.

Geoff.

 

[Jhulae]

Yes, exactly. Hand your DM the rulebook.

Being stunned does not make you susceptible to coup de grace.

 

[kakarot]

what do u mean? when we are stunned we cant do anything and they just slice our necks

edit: well we don t ahve any of the rule books but our dm has never winter nights the game

 

[Jhulae]

From the SRD:

As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless opponent.

A helpless opponent is someone who is bound, sleeping, paralyzed, unconscious, or otherwise at your mercy.

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A stunned creature drops everything held, can’t take actions, takes a -2 penalty to AC, and loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).

Notice that while you can't take actions while stunned, you are not at their mercy. Compare stunned to Paralyzed.
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A paralyzed character is frozen in place and unable to move or act. A paralyzed character has effective Dexterity and Strength scores of 0 and is helpless, but can take purely mental actions.

 

[Jhulae]

Definitely check out the SRD for the actual rules of the game, if you don't want to buy or can't afford rulebooks.

There's a sticky post in this forum to the SRD.

 

[kakarot]

but if he loses dex ac then he cant move so thats why they just slice our necks

 

[Shin Okada]

but if he loses dex ac then he cant move so thats why they just slice our necks

There is no such rule in D&D. Losing dex bonus to AC does not mean you can't move.

As Jhulae says, check SRD for the definition of various condition and coup de grace.

 

[Scharlata]

but if he loses dex ac then he cant move so thats why they just slice our necks

Hi!

Yes, but that does not constitute a coup de grâce. It's a regular melee attack (with the above mentioned modifications) and does normal damage. It's not an automatic critical, because you and your fellows aren't helpless.

Keep your neck protected!

 

[Daermon]

but if he loses dex ac then he cant move so thats why they just slice our necks

Okay, now you are going in circles. So maybe we can clarify this for you a little better.

A stunned character loses his actions for one round, loses his Dex to AC and has a -2 to AC on top of all of that.

In order to suffer a coup de grace, a character must be helpless. Helpless, in D&D, is defined as bound, sleeping, paralyzed or unconscious.

Now, read this part here. D&D has an implicit rule of keywords. In other words, if stunning fist could subject you to the penalties of being helpless, the above definition would have the word stunned in it. As well, both the feat description and the above definition would explicitly state that stunning fist makes one helpless.

It does not.

Basically, your DM is wrong. D&D is more or less full-proof in it's clause of definition. And the next time your DM tries this trick against you, I suggest you flat out tell him to familiarize himself with the rules before actually trying to arbitrate them. If he is unwilling to abide by the rules (or simply canges this particular one to continue screwing your party over), then I suggest you find a new DM.

Have a nice day.