Stunned but still standing?

[CorPse]

Hello Steve,

Just had a quick one for you: can a character be stunned and still standing? (Or does getting stunned automatically knock you down?)

In every campaign I've been in and, come to think of it, every tournament game I can recall, if a character is stunned this is indicated by laying his/her/its counter down. Now, usually if you get your bell rung enough to be stunned you've at least been knocked down. But this is by no means always the case. Obviously this could make a huge difference in combat. If a character can recover and still be on his/her/its feet then there's a half phase somewhere that doesn't have to be burned.

Have I been playing this wrong all these years? There's no mention in 5E of ending up prone from being stunned.

I'm pretty sure of what you're going to say, but I'd love to see it in black and white!

Thanks,
Charles Picard

[Steve Long]

There's no requirement that a Stunned character fall down. In fact, as indicated on 5E 274, even a mildly Knocked Out character may remain on his feet. It all depends on the "special effect" of being Stunned or Knocked Out, so to speak. However, the GM's well within his awesome powers to rule that a Stunned character does fall down -- that would certainly be a common sense interpretation of many situations that Stun a character.