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<blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 1642332" data-attributes="member: 2785">A few sessions ago I was running my monk in a fight verses the BBEG of the week in my buddy's campaign. I made a stunning attack verses the BBEG and nailed him, and he failed his save. When the BBEG's action came up in the initiative order, the DM said &quot;Well, he's stunned, so he'll simply delay until he's no longer stunned.&quot; Huh? we said in unison. That's not the way it works. Stunned is stunned, meaning you can't do anything until just before the monk's next action. Ah, but he's not doing anything, countered our DM, he's delaying.He can't choose to delay, we said, he's stunned.Show me in the rules where it says you can't do this, said our DM.We couldn't find any text to support our opinion. Strictly speaking, delaying is not an action. However, we argued that choosing to delay is impossible while stunned. The point of the feat, we continued, is that the stunned foe loses a round's worth of actions. Otherwise the feat is pretty much useless. He relented then, since nobody agreed with him, on the condition that I post the problem here for discussion.MY POSITION: Choosing to delay, while not an action, requires critical thought that a stunned character lacks. You can't choose to delay while stunned, then insert just before the monk's next action. It's counter-intuitive to the purpose of Stunning Fist.THE DM'S POSITION: I think you can. As written, there is nothing in the rules that say you can't delay while stunned.What's your opinion?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ForceUser, post: 1642332, member: 2785"] A few sessions ago I was running my monk in a fight verses the BBEG of the week in my buddy's campaign. I made a stunning attack verses the BBEG and nailed him, and he failed his save. When the BBEG's action came up in the initiative order, the DM said "Well, he's stunned, so he'll simply delay until he's no longer stunned." Huh? we said in unison. That's not the way it works. Stunned is stunned, meaning you can't do anything until just before the monk's next action. Ah, but he's not doing anything, countered our DM, he's delaying. He can't choose to delay, we said, he's [i]stunned[/i]. Show me in the rules where it says you can't do this, said our DM. We couldn't find any text to support our opinion. Strictly speaking, delaying is not an action. However, we argued that [i]choosing[/i] to delay is impossible while stunned. The point of the feat, we continued, is that the stunned foe loses a round's worth of actions. Otherwise the feat is pretty much useless. He relented then, since nobody agreed with him, on the condition that I post the problem here for discussion. MY POSITION: Choosing to delay, while not an action, requires critical thought that a stunned character lacks. You can't choose to delay while stunned, then insert just before the monk's next action. It's counter-intuitive to the purpose of Stunning Fist. THE DM'S POSITION: I think you can. As written, there is nothing in the rules that say you can't delay while stunned. What's your opinion? [/QUOTE]

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