Stunning Fist - 'Til When

[The Spectrum Rider]

If a character uses the Stunning Fist feat during an Attack of Opportunity, how long does the stun last? The feat says "for 1 round (until just before [the attacker's] next action." But I'm not sure if that applies to an AoO.

If the attacker is right after the opponent in the initiative order, then the opponent recovers pretty quickly. He loses whatever action he was performing when he provoked the AoO, of course, but then the attacker has her next action, and - according to the text - the opponent is now un-stunned. For example, he can make AoOs of his own. This doesn't feel like being stunned for 1 round.

On the other hand, if the attacker, goes just before the opponent in the initiative order, he's out of commission while all the other characters go through their actions. This is a lot longer. Should the length of the stun effect from an AoO depend on the apparent irrelevancy of what the attacker's intiative is?

I won't even ask about what happens if the attacker delays (so her next action comes later) - that doesn't extend the stun, does it? (Okay,so I asked.)

I know it's a Clintonian sort of question, but what does "for 1 round" mean, anyway?

The Spectrum Rider

 

[Hypersmurf]

Easiest way to define one round is "From the current initiative count in round N to just prior to the current initiative count in round N+1".

So if I act on initiative count 15 and hit you with a Stunning Fist, then you're stunned until just prior to initiative count 15 next round. Just before my turn next round, the stun wears off - even if I elect to Delay until count 12, you'd still "unstun" just before count 15.

If, instead, you act on count 7, and I take an AoO and stun you, then logically, the stun lasts until just before count 7 next round, even though my next turn begins at count 15 next round. After all, it wasn't on my turn that I stunned you, it was on yours.

As a general description of "one round", "until your next turn" is a reasonable approximation that covers 90+ percent of the time... but where that description is too simplistic, the definition of "What is a round, really?" becomes important.

-Hyp.

 

[RigaMortus]

On a semi-related topic, when do AoO's "refresh"? Does the ability to do more AoO's "refresh" when it is the creature's turn again, or at the beginning of the next round?

Let's say I go on init 18, my friend goes on init 2 and the monster goes on init 15. It is my friend's turn, and he provokes an AoO from the monster. Init for this round is over, and next round begins. It is now my turn. Seeing that the monster made his AoO (and trusting that he doesn't have Combat Reflexes, which in this example it doesn't have) I move through it's threat range so I am now in flanking position. Now, since it is a new round, does the monster get to make an AoO on me? Or does the monster have to wait for it's turn to come up before it can start to take AoOs again?

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I'd say your AoO's "refresh" just before your next initiative count.

AR

 

[Kae'Yoss]

On a semi-related topic, when do AoO's "refresh"? Does the ability to do more AoO's "refresh" when it is the creature's turn again, or at the beginning of the next round?

Kinda both, though it isn't really true: As soon as the combat has started there is no objective "start of the round" - combat just goes on and on. Subjective rounds are from the start of your actions to just before the start of your next actions. So in that 18-15-2 scenario up there, if the monster used its AoO on 2, it wouldn't get a new one until 15 again, and 18 can act without fear of AoO's, cause the round isn't over yet.