Protection from Confusion or protection from Stun?

[icefyre]

Hi all,

I am playing a mage and have two Cloaks of the Magi, one with protection from stun the other with protection from confusion. Anyone have a strong opinion on which ability is better?

[PowerDiver]

The ultimate safety nets are scrolls. You can read a scroll if stunned, but not if confused.

[Derakon]

Confusion. Confusion is very common, several monsters can confuse with their melee, and confusion prevents you from casting spells or reading scrolls at all and also makes movement difficult, so it's more debilitating than stun assuming that you don't get knocked out. Stun does increase your spell failure rates (and worsen your melee, magic device skill, etc.), so being stunned isn't exactly great, but for my money confusion is worse.

As noted, there's the risk of getting knocked out if you get hit by enough sources of stunning quickly. Don't melee Grand Master Mystics, and don't stand in LOS of a pack of Plasma hounds. Beyond those two you should be safe from being knocked out.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Hi all,

I am playing a mage and have two Cloaks of the Magi, one with protection from stun the other with protection from confusion. Anyone have a strong opinion on which ability is better?

It depends. pConfusion is pretty much required, while pStun is high luxury. However, pConfusion is also more generally available, while pStun, especially off-head, is quite rare. Personally, if I'm lucky enough to find one, I tend to save any Cloak of the Magi with pStun, even if only as a swap. Usually, I can get pConfusion covered at some point, e.g., with Plate Mail of Isildur, and then don the pStun cloak.