Is there a spell or item that can protect against stun? Not having much luck in my search.
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I believe freedom of movement would work since it protects against effects "such as paralysis" and stun is extremely similar.
I believe freedom of movement would work since it protects against effects "such as paralysis" and stun is extremely similar.
"This spell enables you or a creature you touch to move and attack normally for the duration of the spell, even under the influence of magic that usually impedes movement, such as paralysis, solid fog, slow, and web."
I think you are stretching it. Freedom of Movement specifically calls out effects that impede movement, not effects that are similar to paralysis. Stun doesn't specifically impede movement so much as it just loses you actions.
On the topic at hand, no, I can't think of any item or spell that specifically negates stun.
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Both conditions are primarily defined by the inability to act. The inability to act includes the inability to move - while Stunned does not explicitly state an inability to move like Paralyzed does, it places the same limitation on your movement. Namely, you can't.
(I'm honestly not sure why both paralyzed and stunned exists as conditions - their mechanical effects are somewhat different but they seem to represent essentially the same effect.)
A paralyzed character is frozen in place and unable to move or act. A paralyzed character has effective Dexterity and Strength scores of 0 and is helpless, but can take purely mental actions. A winged creature flying in the air at the time that it becomes paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls. A paralyzed swimmer can't swim and may drown. A creature can move through a space occupied by a paralyzed creature—ally or not. Each square occupied by a paralyzed creature, however, counts as 2 squares to move through.
A stunned creature drops everything held, can't take actions, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any).
Attackers receive a +4 bonus on attack rolls to perform combat maneuvers against a stunned opponent.
Paralysis and Stunned are very different mechanically due to one simply losing your your turn and the other actually making your helpless. Also note that paralysis doesn't actually remove your actions, it just limits them. Freedom of Movement looks to be about conditions that specifically limit movement, not conditions that de facto do so by removing actions like Stunned (barring the specific call out for Slow/Staggered). If we are saying that any limiting of actions at all is defeated by Freedom of Movement, would that too would include Confused 50% of the time, Cowering, Dazed, Fatigued, Exhausted and Fascinated and arguably Unconscious, Dying, Petrified and Disabled? Freedom of Movement could arguably make you immune to half the conditions in the game by that logic.
Would Freedom of Movement protect you from:
Death?
Sleeping?
Unconsciousness (such as having a 0 Ability Score)?
Charm Person (or other Domination-type spells)?
Petrification?
All of those effectively cause your brain and/or your body to be unable to move/take actions, but none of them specifically target your movement. Likewise, Stun causes your brain to be unable to move/take actions.
I think Stun belongs on my list here, not on the list of movement-impairing effects that Freedom of Movement can protect you from.
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I agree that what counts as limiting your movement is too fuzzy and could stand to be better defined. However I'm not sure how it ought to be clarified. Effects that target the body vs the brain would be one way to draw the line, but then Freedom of Movement would protect against petrification or physical ability damage and both of you are arguing that should not be the case (I'd definitely agree on physical ability damage, unsure on petrification).
Including paralysis in the explicit list of things Freedom of Movement protects from means that you can't define it as external limits to your movement (as would include grappling, entangle, web, water). Perhaps the best way to have written it would be "under the effects of paralysis and slow, as well as effects that limit your movement, such as entangle, solid fog, and web." At that point there would be no argument over whether stunning limits your movement in the same way as paralysis, because paralysis got a special call-out rather than being an example of something that limits your movement.
chaoseffect is also correct that helpless is a step worse than losing Dex bonus to AC. (Though Dazed would be the condition that just makes you lose your turn.)
Likewise, Stun causes your brain to be unable to move/take actions.
Is there something in the text that leads you to conclude that? I interpret Stunning as physical. The monk's other Stunning Fist options are all physical in nature - sickened, fatigued, blinded, paralyzed... staggered is maybe ambiguous? Stunned also seems to be resisted by Fort saves and things immune to physical effects, like undead. See Stunning Fist, Touch of Cruelty, Stunning Critical, Thunderbird. There do seem to be a few exceptions to that, namely Colour Spray, detecting an overwheming aura, and Word of Chaos.
I can maybe see it being a half-physical, half-mental effect like a hybrid of Dazed and Paralyzed (which also makes sense given the gradient of defensive penalties), but there are too many obviously physical stun effects for me to call it a mental effect.
And if it is defined as half Dazed half Paralyzed - it's still ambiguous whether FoM should work on stunning like on paralysis.
Heal will negate the Stunned condition. A Contingency coupled with a Heal (doable at 18th level) could provide some protection vs Stun.
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Yeah heal negate the condition, beside that, I guess the spell undead anatomy(III and above) gives you a massive save bonus (+8) vs stunning effects.
Beside that might be better to avoid the situation which could potentially stun you in the first place, stunning critical for example, get some fortification to negate crits.
Thanks for the feedback. Weve been running into power word stun amongst monsters with stun ability.... looks like its time to stock up on heal. :-)