Can you stand up from prone while stunned?

Question

If you are Stunned, your movement isn't reduced to 0 (unlike grappled.) Can you stand up from prone while Stunned? Can you also drop prone from standing?

Stunned

• A stunned creature is incapacitated (see the condition), can’t move, and can speak only falteringly.
• The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity Saving Throws.
• Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.

How about with Paralysed? (Identical, except with the additional clause:

• Any Attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature.

In other questions, the bonus damage on Booming Blade on movement doesn't occur on a target standing up from prone, which suggests that standing doesn't count as moving. See Does standing up from prone trigger the secondary damage from the Booming Blade cantrip?

Answer 1

It's up to the DM.

Both booming blade and this issue are going to come down to a DM call as it is not made explicit or clear in the rules.

To me, "a stunned creature ... can't move" seems pretty clear. The difference between this use of "move" and its use in booming blade¹ seems clear to me, but it is admittedly not explicit, and may be seen another way by another DM.

I would rule that you cannot stand up from prone while stunned or paralyzed. This is how I've ruled it before and met no objection from my players, even the one who tried to test it out - likely because the ruling is completely intuitive.

We can find some guidance from the grappled condition:

A grappled creature's speed becomes 0

Notice, when you are grappled, your speed is 0, so you cannot "move" in the sense that you cannot change your position relative to other creatures. But you are still able to move your body. It seems natural to me that this is a weaker condition than "you are unable to move". Stating "a creature can't move" includes "your speed is 0", but is a stronger condition, that further restricts any movement at all; and since this means you speed is 0, we cite the rules for being prone:

You can't stand up if you don't have enough movement left or if your speed is 0.

Again, the implicit nature of all of this means it is a DM ruling, but this ruling seems quite natural and most supported.

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¹ "If the target willingly moves before then" quite naturally seems to be talking about changing position on the battlefield.

Answer 2

No, unless you overcomplicate movement

In the linked question regarding booming blade, a ruling by Jeremy Crawford makes the distinction between positional movement (i.e. movement that would take you from one square to another on a gridded map) and bodily movement (i.e. swinging a sword, or in this case standing up from being prone.)

Note that the latter category is inclusive of the former - if you cannot so much as move your pinky finger, you cannot move across the battlefield¹.

On one hand, if being stunned only prevents positional movement, this is equivalent to saying your speed is 0, and you cannot stand up from being prone without expending movement.

On the other hand, if being stunned prevents you from taking any kind of bodily movement at all, you definitely cannot stand up.

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¹The DM could make a ruling that enumerates movement beyond these two categories, allowing for (1) positional movement which spends your movement speed, (2) bodily movement which spends your movement speed, and (3) bodily movement which does not spend your movement speed. I do not believe this level of complexity is appropriate to the ethos of 5th Edition, but your mileage may vary.

Answer 3

No

Unless the DM does not want to follow the rules.

Standing up from prone IS considered a Movement (it is part of the Movement and position rule on PHB p190)

Multipart answer:

Part1 : Rules stats on (PHB p191) that if your speed is 0 you cannot stand up. (emphasis mine). Taat one is easy and I don't think it is the basis of that question.

Being Prone Combatants often find themselves lying on the ground, either because they are knocked down or because they throw themselves down. In the game, they are prone, a condition described in appendix A. You can drop prone without using any of your speed. Standing up takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feetof movement to stand up. You can’t stand up if you don’t have enough movement left or if your speed is 0.

Part 2 :Bascially the big philosophical question here

Is speed = 0 the same thing as Cannot move

It is not.

SPEED = 0 : does not prevents you to MOVE (using your movement for the turn) so if in any way you can boost your speed to some numbers above 0 (magically or otherwise) you will still be allowed to move.
This is likely why in the Grappled condition it is stated that you also cannot benefit to bonuses to your speed (so someone grappled will not be able to boost its speed above 0 in any ways i can readily think of) But if other effects do not stipulates you cannot boost your speed, then you can and if you do you will be able to move.

CANNOT MOVE : on the other hand is about the Move portion of your turn. It baiscally indicates that no matter how much speed you have... you just cannot Spend it during your move and you cannot use your move this turn. So no matter how much speed you have is unimportant, if you cannot move, you cannot use it, therefore you cannot stand prone.

This discussion is likely related to the similar question and can shed light on the matter. Can a creature who is exhausted benefit from bonuses to speed?