What is this??!!!

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

I had a successful mage running for a while... he looked like a winner, but before he was able to make it out of Stat Gain, he ran afoul a hall full of Impact hounds. I assessed the situation to determine my chances of success. I knew that they had a lot of hp so it would take a lot of lightning-bolts to kill them. So they started breathing "force" on me and I was stunned, then that progressed to being heavily stunned. Since this wasn't really affecting my spell cast rate, I wasn't worried. The next turn, I went from 250 hp's to a grave screen. I looked at the last messages before my character died, and apparently my mage was "knocked unconscious" then he was breathed on 8 times. He had everything he needed for that depth.

Can you tell me a little about the "Unconscious" status effect? I've been playing this game for years, but I have never read about nor encountered this status effect. (Of course this was completely avoidable if I had known that this contingency existed)

[Slick]

There is a "stun counter". Being stunned starts the counter. Time, high Constitution, Regeneration and various forms of healing/curing will lower the counter. More stunning increases the stun counter. At higher and higher levels, there ARE effects (see spoilers if you really want to know) and culminate with being knocked unconscious; at which time you are helpless and usually die.

Best to look at it on the positive side. Every death should be a lesson which makes you a better player.

[Zikke]

This is why people avoid Grand Master Mystics even at lvl 50 (or as a mage, just nuke them down with Raal's before they get to you). They can insta-KO you.

[Inquisitivephysicsguy]

Irritating... but at least I now know for next time. Thank's for the advice. I did get a bad feeling before facing that corridor... is there anything that heals the "stun" status?

[Mondkalb]

The stun effect can be removed by potions of CCW, potions of healing, potions of *healing*, and all staffs and rods of healing and curing and staff of holiness.

[Pete Mack]

One other thing-being stunned raises your minfail to 15%; heavy stun to 25% (IIRC). This is a big deal especially if you are expecting your escape to be 0-fail. It also raises magic device failure; I don't know by what amount.

[PowerDiver]

It also raises magic device failure; I don't know by what amount.

Stun does not affect magic devices currently. See the code I posted in the other thread. That might change in 3.1.