Stun · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

A stun is an ability that stops its target from moving, attacking, and acting for a bounded time, after which the target acts normally. The status effects mechanic covers the timed condition as a system; the stun is the act that applies it. Saving throws cover the resistance roll; the stun records only whether a save gates it. Roots stop movement but not action, silences and disarms remove one kind of action, and blinds such as Valorant’s flashes deny perception. Street Fighter II’s dizzy, reached by taking too many hits, is a system threshold, not an inflicted ability.

Behaviour

Delivery ranges from a targeted word or spell to an area (Sleep, Color Flux, Curse of the Sad Mummy), a thrown projectile (Storm Hammer, Bandage Toss), or a melee strike (Cheap Shot, Stunning Strike). Duration is rolled in early tabletop forms, counted in rounds or turns in later ones, and fixed in seconds in real-time games, one to four in the examples. Counterplay sits on the target: a save, an immunity item such as Black King Bar, Tenacity on Mercury’s Treads, or boss immunity in Gloomhaven.

Variations

Sleep broken by damage (EverQuest, Warcraft III): the stop ends when the target is hit.
Hit-point threshold (Greyhawk, Players Handbook, 5th edition): Power Word Stun has no first save, and its effect depends on the target’s current hit points.
Chance on hit (Blackmoor, Warcraft III, Gloomhaven): a monk’s strong hit, the Bash skill, or a modifier card stuns as a proc.
Stasis (StarCraft): Stasis Field stops units and makes them immune to damage and abilities.
Charged stun (League of Legends, World of Warcraft): Annie stuns after four spells; Kidney Shot lasts longer with more combo points.
Repeated save (5th edition): the target saves again at the end of each of its turns.

Gating

Tabletop forms of the 1970s ration the stun by daily spell slots and limit it by the target’s hit dice or hit points; Wizardry keeps per-level spell points. EverQuest moves to mana. World of Warcraft and Dota 2 combine mana or energy with cooldowns, then add limits on the victim’s side: diminishing returns (a 15-second window in World of Warcraft’s 2004 guide, 18 seconds in later versions), immunity items, Tenacity. Fifth edition keeps slots but shifts part of the limit to the victim’s repeated save. Gloomhaven ties the stun to half of a turn’s card play and to card loss. Overwatch 2 cut most crowd control from non-tank heroes at its 2022 launch and partly restored it in 2023. Wild Rift’s patch notes tune its stuns through cooldowns, lengthened in 2025.

History and provenance

Chainmail used “stunned” for a combat result that costs turns, and gave wights and wraiths a paralysing touch, both cited from a later reprint. Men & Magic (1974) made the stop a cast spell with Sleep and Hold Person, and Greyhawk (1975) named an ability Power Word-Stun. Blackmoor (1975) attached a stun to a monk’s hit. Wizardry (1981) carried sleep and hold spells into computer games, EverQuest (1999) added a mesmerize that damage breaks, and the hero stuns of Warcraft III (2002), Storm Bolt, War Stomp, and Bash, preceded those of Dota 2.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the ability behaves in each game; gating is what limits its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Gating	How the ability behaves
Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (Tactical Studies Rules)	1974	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots	Sleep, a 1st-level Magic-User spell, affects 2 to 16 creatures of up to 1+1 hit dice and fewer of higher hit dice, with no saving throw, at 24 inches. Hold Person (Magic-User 3rd level, Cleric 2nd) affects 1 to 4 persons for 6 turns plus the caster's level, with the save at -2 against a lone target; Hold Monster extends it to monsters.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord Sir-Tech	1981	Video	Spell slots	KATINO, a Level 1 Mage spell, puts most of a monster group to sleep for a time inversely proportional to the monsters' power; MANIFO, a Level 2 Priest spell, holds some of a group "still as statues" for one or more rounds so they cannot attack. Sleeping monsters take double damage. Each cast spends a spell point of its level.
EverQuest Verant Interactive	1999	Video	Mana	The Cleric's 5th-level Stun stuns a target and can interrupt an NPC's casting; the Enchanter's Mesmerize leaves a monster unable to fight until any damage breaks it, and Color Flux stuns everything in an area. Warrior Bash and Barbarian Slam stun as melee skills. Holding extra monsters out of a fight this way is called mezzing.
World of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment	2004	Video	Cooldown, Mana	Paladin Hammer of Justice at rank 1 stuns one target for 3 seconds at 10 yards for 30 mana, on a 1-minute cooldown; the rogue's Cheap Shot stuns for 4 seconds from stealth for 60 energy. Against players the 2004 strategy guide halves a repeat stun within 15 seconds and makes the target immune after the fourth; later versions use an 18-second window.
Dota 2 Valve	2013	Video	Mana, Cooldown	Sven's Storm Hammer is thrown at a target and stuns enemy units in a small area, for 1 to 1.75 seconds by level, radius 250 to 310, cast range 600, 110 mana, cooldown 21 to 12 seconds in the current patch. The Black King Bar item, on a 95-second cooldown, lets its holder ignore negative effects from enemy spells for a few seconds.
Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition Wizards of the Coast	2014	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots, Mana	Hold Person (2nd level, one action, 60 feet, concentration up to 1 minute) paralyses a target that fails a Wisdom save, repeated at the end of each of its turns. Power Word Stun (8th level) stuns a creature of 150 hit points or fewer with no first save, then a Constitution save each turn. The monk's Stunning Strike spends 1 ki point on a hit.
Gloomhaven Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games)	2017	Board & card	Action cost, Per rest, Consumable	STUN on an ability-card action applies the condition to every target after the main effect, with no save and whether or not the attack deals damage. A stunned figure cannot perform abilities or use items on its turn; the token is removed at the end of its next turn. The card is discarded and recovered by resting, or lost, and some bosses are immune.
League of Legends: Wild Rift Latest Riot Games	2020	Video	Cooldown	Amumu's Bandage Toss is thrown at a target, stunning and damaging it while pulling Amumu to it; his ultimate, Curse of the Sad Mummy, entangles surrounding enemies so they cannot attack or move, a stun of 1.5, 1.75, or 2 seconds by rank since December 2020. Since May 2025 the cooldowns are 13 to 11.5 seconds for the toss and 105 to 85 for the ultimate.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Dungeons & Dragons (1974), tabletop rpg. Confidence: medium. Men & Magic (1974) has two cast abilities whose effect is that targets stop acting: Sleep, gated by the targets' hit dice and with no save, and Hold Person and Hold Monster, of limited duration and resisted by a save. The 1974 text never states what a hold does; the Players Handbook (1978) is the earliest cited text to say the spell "holds immobile". Chainmail is an antecedent: in its Fantasy Supplement wights and ghouls paralyse a figure they touch for one turn and wraiths until a friendly Elf, Hero, or Wizard touches it, and its medieval rules leave an unhorsed man stunned for one or three turns as a combat result. Those rules are cited from a third-edition reprint, and their presence in the 1971 printing is unconfirmed; whether creature traits count as abilities is an editorial call, hence medium confidence. Chainmail's wizard has no hold or sleep spell. The earliest cited ability named stun is Power Word-Stun in Greyhawk (1975), and the earliest cited video instance is Wizardry (1981); earlier video forms in PLATO games or Rogue are unconfirmed.

Sources

Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (Tactical Studies Rules). (1974). Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 1, Men & Magic. Rulebook Magic-User spells, Sleep p. 23, Hold Person p. 25, Hold Monster p. 28; Cleric spells, Hold Person p. 32. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 1974 Sleep and Hold Person wording, ranges, durations, and saves.
Gary Gygax and Robert Kuntz (TSR). (1975). Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk. Rulebook Magic-User spells, Power Word-Stun, p. 25; Cleric spells, Holy Word. Accessed 2026-10-24. Power Word-Stun and its hit-point-banded durations; the scan is a 1979 printing.
Dave Arneson (TSR). (1975). Dungeons & Dragons Supplement II: Blackmoor. Rulebook Monks (stunning on a strong hit). The monk's 75 percent chance to stun for 3 to 12 turns on a hit well above the minimum.
Gary Gygax (TSR). (1978). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook. Rulebook Cleric Spells (2nd Level), Hold Person, p. 45; Magic-User Spells (7th Level), Power Word, Stun. Accessed 2026-10-24. The explicit "holds immobile" wording and the no-save, hit-point-banded Power Word, Stun.
Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren (TSR). Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures, 3rd edition. Rulebook Fantasy Supplement, Wights (and Ghouls), Wraiths; Mounted Men (unhorsing); Escalade. Accessed 2026-10-24. The paralysis and stunned-for-turns antecedents, from a black-and-white reprint.
Sir-Tech. (c. 1981). Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, Player's Guide. Rulebook Level 1 Mage Spells (KATINO); Level 2 Priest Spells (MANIFO), pp. 63-65. Accessed 2026-10-24. KATINO and MANIFO, from a printing dated 1981-1987.
Juanita Jones, Russell Phoenix, Jimmy Monkerface, and Damien Waples (Prima Games). (2001). EverQuest Players Guide. Book Cleric spells (Stun); Enchanter spells (Mesmerize, Color Flux); Mesmerized Targets. Accessed 2026-10-24. The Stun and Mesmerize wording, the break on damage, and the mezzing tactic.
Blizzard Entertainment. (2002). Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos manual. Rulebook Mountain King (Storm Bolt, Bash); Tauren Chieftain (War Stomp); Dreadlord (Sleep). Accessed 2026-10-24. Hero stuns, the chance-on-hit Bash, and a Sleep that any blow ends.
Blizzard Entertainment. (1998). StarCraft manual. Rulebook Ghost, Lockdown, p. 37; Arbiter, Stasis Field, p. 84. Accessed 2026-10-24. Stasis Field, which stops units and makes them immune to damage, and Lockdown on mechanical units.
Warcraft Wiki, Diminishing returns; Cheap Shot; Hammer of Justice. Wiki Diminishing-returns fractions and the later 18-second window, and the Classic Cheap Shot tooltip.
Michael Lummis and others (BradyGames). (2004). World of Warcraft: Official Strategy Guide. Book PvP, diminishing returns. Accessed 2026-10-24. The launch-era rule that a second stun, fear, or charm within 15 seconds is reduced to half its duration, with immunity after the fourth.
Wowhead Classic database, Hammer of Justice; Kidney Shot. Wiki Rank 1 Hammer of Justice values and the Kidney Shot cost and cooldown.
Valve. Sven hero data (Storm Hammer). Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Current-patch Storm Hammer values, not those of 2013.
Valve. Black King Bar item data. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. The immunity item and its cooldown in the current patch.
Wizards of the Coast. (2016). System Reference Document 5.1. Rulebook Monk, Stunning Strike, p. 28; Hold Person, pp. 154-155; Power Word Stun, p. 170; Conditions, Paralyzed p. 358, Stunned p. 359. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 5th-edition rules, matching the 2014 text.
Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games). (2017). Gloomhaven rulebook. Rulebook Conditions, pp. 22-23; Bosses; Card loss and resting. Accessed 2026-10-24. The STUN condition, its timing and removal, boss immunities, and card recovery.
Riot Games. Annie champion page. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Pyromania, the stun after four spells.
Kenneth Shepard (Kotaku). (2023). Overwatch 2 Is Gently Reverting One Of Its Biggest Changes. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. The cut to crowd control at the 2022 launch and its partial reversal in 2023.
Cristina Mesesan (Pocket Gamer). (2021). LoL: Wild Rift Amumu Champion Guide. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. The Bandage Toss and Curse of the Sad Mummy wording.
Ben Forbes and Jonathan Chao (Riot Games). (2020). Wild Rift Patch Notes 1.1. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Curse of the Sad Mummy stun duration by rank, and Tenacity on Mercury's Treads raised because stuns "feel extra long".
Riot Games. (2025). Wild Rift Patch Notes 6.1b. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Bandage Toss and Curse of the Sad Mummy cooldowns.

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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Stun." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-24. http://localhost:4321/abilities/stun

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