ToME Wiki
General Info
Skill in Stunning-blows affects your ability to stun opponents when doing critical hits with a hafted weapon that weighs more than 5 lbs. Stunning-blows skill also increases your Hafted-mastery skill.
Code-related Information
If you are wielding a hafted weapon that weighs over 5 pounds and you score a critical hit with that weapon, the monster will be stunned with probability of skill percent (so 50 percent chance at 50 skill level). If the monster is not currently stunned, the stunning will last (skill*1.2)+20 game turns (where 10 game turns is equal to 1 player turn at normal speed). If the monster is already stunned, the stunning length is increased by (skill*3/5)+10 game turns, to a maximum of 200 game turns.
Spending one skill point on your Stunning-blows skill also increases your Hafted-mastery skill by 0.05 skill points.
Editorial
I, MrConceit, haven't played with this yet, but it seems like it would mix great with Tulkas' Divine Aim, where every blow is critical. This skill should shine in the mid-game, but later on it seems as if monsters throw off stun relatively immediately. In deep Angband, don't depend on this skill to do a heck of a lot. This is just my opinion, though I've read that some others agree with me on forums.