spiralshadow's page

I agree, it's very bizarre that Mountain Stance has a Trigger rather than a Requirement, and the only rules I've seen regarding triggers are like you mentioned with reference to Reactions. But looking through other threads here where people have asked about it, it does appear to be a deliberate choice by Paizo. Not sure why they decided to make it a Trigger that you can only use an Action to activate, rather than just adding another line of text stipulating that leaving the ground doesn't drop the stance.

And yes it seems like equipping armor mid combat might be the only way to drop the stance! Which is truly bizarre. I feel like this must be an oversight and would probably have to ask a GM if they're ok to just add voluntary stance dropping.

I'm not sure why you would want to.

If the restrictions become burdensome, do something that violates them and that automatically ends the stance. For example, the monk stances that only allow certain attacks - just make a different attack. Do the attack that you want to use. It is still available, it just ends your stance in the process.

So what stance has a penalty that you want to end that you can't end by violating the stance requirements?

As I mentioned, Mountain Stance. Here is the full wording:

Trigger - You are unarmored and touching the ground.
You enter the stance of an implacable mountain—a technique
first discovered by dwarven monks—allowing you to strike
with the weight of an avalanche. The only Strikes you can
make are falling stone unarmed attacks. These deal 1d8
bludgeoning damage; are in the brawling group; and have the
forceful, nonlethal, and unarmed traits.
While in Mountain Stance, you gain a +4 status bonus to
AC and a +2 circumstance bonus to any defenses against
being Shoved or Tripped. However, you have a Dexterity
modifier cap to your AC of +0, meaning you don’t add
your Dexterity to your AC, and your Speeds are all reduced
by 5 feet.

It actually doesn't have a Requirement like other stances, but a Trigger: must be unarmored and touching the ground. It was apparently designed this way so that activating Mountain Stance and then leaving the ground (e.g. due to a shove, jumping, etc) would not drop you out of the stance. So unfortunately I cannot intentionally violate it to drop out of the stance.

As for only allowing certain attacks, is that how it works? I took that to mean you simply *cannot* use other attacks while in that stance, rather than "using attacks other than this will drop the stance." For example, Mountain Stance says "the only Strikes you can make are falling stone unarmed attacks"; I took this to mean that I simply cannot take any other type of Strike action while in Mountain Stance.

So, the rules state "A stance lasts until you get knocked out, until its requirements (if any) are violated, until the encounter ends, or until you enter a new stance, whichever comes first."

Say I'm a Level 1 Monk with Mountain Stance, so I know no other stances. If I want to lose the -5 foot speed penalty for being in Mountain Stance, how can I do that? The rules don't seem to indicate that I can choose to leave a stance voluntarily, and I have no other stance to change into.

I figured if anything I could break the Requirement to be touching the ground by jumping, but upon researching it turns out this was deliberately made a Trigger for Mountain Stance so that one *can't* drop out of Mountain Stance by leaving the ground after entering it.

Is there anything I may have missed that would indicate I could choose to leave a stance without going into another one? Thanks!