Power Word Stun
- Level: 8
- School: Enchantment
- Class: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
- Casting Time: Action
- Range: 60 feet
- Components: V
- Duration: Instantaneous
You overwhelm the mind of one creature you can see within range. If the target has 150 Hit Points or fewer, it has the Stunned condition. Otherwise, its Speed is 0 until the start of your next turn.
The Stunned target makes a Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the condition on itself on a success.
Tactical Usage
Reliable Incapacitation Tool. Power Word Stun provides guaranteed stunning effects against targets with 150 hit points or fewer, offering powerful crowd control without saving throw resistance.
Flexible Threshold Benefits. Even targets exceeding the hit point threshold suffer speed reduction until the caster's next turn, ensuring some tactical benefit regardless of target resilience.
Constitution Save Recovery. The ongoing stunning effect allows for sustained incapacitation while providing regular escape opportunities through Constitution saves, balancing power with counterplay.
Spell Combinations
Follow-Up Coordination. Stunning high-value targets creates opportunities for party members to position advantageously, cast preparatory spells, or execute coordinated attacks on helpless enemies.
Damage Reduction Strategy. Combining with damage effects to reduce target hit points below the 150-point threshold before casting significantly improves the stunning effectiveness.
Concentration Protection. Unlike many control spells, Power Word Stun doesn't require concentration, allowing casters to maintain other ongoing effects while controlling key enemies.
Material Component Details
Verbal-Only Casting. Power Word Stun requires only verbal components, making it accessible even when physically restrained, disarmed, or in situations preventing somatic gestures.
Component Independence. The lack of material component requirements eliminates preparation concerns and resource management, allowing focus on timing and target selection.
Silence Vulnerability. The verbal requirement makes silence effects a potential counter to this powerful control option, requiring tactical awareness of sound suppression threats.
Creator Notes
Encounter Control Tool. Power Word Stun can dramatically shift encounter balance by removing key enemies from combat, requiring careful consideration of action economy and party coordination.
Hit Point Threshold Management. The 150 hit point limit prevents overwhelming low-level enemies while maintaining effectiveness against appropriately challenging mid to high-level threats.
Duration Balance. The Constitution save recovery mechanism prevents permanent incapacitation while allowing for potentially significant control duration based on target resilience.
Environmental Interactions
Positioning Requirements. The 60-foot range necessitates medium-distance positioning that might expose casters to enemy retaliation or area effects during control attempts.
Line of Sight Dependency. Standard targeting rules require clear visibility to intended targets, potentially complicating control attempts in cluttered or obscured environments.
Environmental Hazard Synergy. Stunned targets become vulnerable to environmental dangers, falling damage, or area effects that might not normally threaten mobile enemies.
Common Rulings & Clarifications
Hit Point Threshold Effects. Targets with exactly 150 hit points or fewer become stunned, while higher totals result only in speed reduction until the caster's next turn.
Constitution Save Timing. Stunned targets make Constitution saves at the end of each of their turns, with success ending the stunned condition immediately.
Speed Reduction Alternative. Targets exceeding the hit point threshold have their speed reduced to 0 until the start of the caster's next turn, providing brief but meaningful movement control.
Condition Interaction. The stunned condition prevents actions, movement, and reactions while imposing disadvantage on subsequent saving throws and granting advantage to attackers.
Alternative Applications
Interrogation Control. Stunning hostile subjects prevents escape attempts and resistance during questioning, though the condition prevents verbal responses until recovery.
Crowd Control Priority. Targeting enemy spellcasters, leaders, or other high-priority threats removes their influence from encounters while allies handle remaining enemies.
Escape Facilitation. Stunning pursuing enemies creates opportunities for party retreat, tactical repositioning, or environmental manipulation without immediate retaliation.
Related Spells
Power Word Series. Power Word Kill and Power Word Heal share the verbal-only, no-save mechanics but provide different tactical applications with varying effectiveness thresholds.
Stun Alternatives. Stunning Strike, Hold Person, and similar effects offer different approaches to incapacitation with varying save types, durations, and targeting restrictions.
Mind Control Magic. Hypnotic Pattern, Hold Monster, and other enchantment effects provide alternative crowd control options with different mechanics and effectiveness profiles.
Scaling Analysis
High-Level Effectiveness. As an 8th-level spell, Power Word Stun maintains relevance throughout high-level play where the 150 hit point threshold affects many significant enemies.
Resource Investment Value. The spell provides substantial tactical advantage for an 8th-level slot, particularly when successfully incapacitating key enemies during critical encounters.
Campaign Phase Utility. The spell becomes increasingly valuable in epic-level adventures where single-target control of powerful enemies can determine encounter outcomes.
Narrative Flavor
Mental Overwhelm. The spell should emphasize the complete cognitive shutdown that occurs when the power word overwhelms target consciousness and voluntary control.
Word of Dominion. Different magical traditions might use specific stunning words - divine commands that compel stillness, arcane formulas that freeze thought, or cosmic truths that overload mortal comprehension.
Graduated Effects. The spell's varying effectiveness based on hit point thresholds creates opportunities for dramatic description of partial versus complete mental overwhelming based on target resilience and magical resistance.