That's a sneaky question, it depends so much on which side outnumbers the other. If your side is bigger, then being able to stunlock an enemy is a better than even trade, but if their side is bigger, it's a bit of a fool's errand. The way some people read the CR system, they have the players be ganking one enemy every time and then obviously you go for the stunlock, but that's definitely not the only way to DM this game. In a 1v1, a guaranteed at-will 1 round stun is actually a win for you, too, since you still have a move action. Save-or-Sucks usually have a saving throw in them, so that you can't just spam them on an enemy who's Better Than You and auto-win.deaddmwalking wrote: ↑Thu Sep 02, 2021 12:12 amHow much damage is a 1 round stun worth? Or put another way, if you were 100% certain that you would deal x damage or stun your opponent for one round (but not both), how big would x have to be before you might choose the damage option. It's okay to answer as a percentage of the opponent's hit points rather than a fixed number.
In practice, a Tome party consists of a blend of save-or-suckers and damage-dealers, they're kinda different roles. So an auto-stun makes all the save-or-suckers hate your class's author with a burning passion, and the X for damage should be "whatever fits in with the other damage-dealers in the party".
What I'm saying is, your question is a little bit like: "Imagine you could either play a skilled hacker in Shadowrun, or have a really large gun. How large would the gun have to be before you might choose the gun option?"