I have read a few posts which berate the value of a Monk's stunning blow. I used to think that it was a bit useless as well, until recently when I have played solo and duo games with a Monk. In these cases I have found that the Monk's stunning blow, combined with his superior speed, is brilliant for neutralising enemy spellcasters. The Monk runs towards the spellcaster, stuns him (usually succeeds as spellcasters seem to fail their Fortitude saves more often than not), and then kills him quickly (especially if you also have Power Attack). With the spellcaster out of the way the Monk can then take his time finishing off the melee enemies, safe behind his Dex and Wis enhanced AC.

Does anyone else use Stunning Attack?

Sounds nice, but probably doesn't work in HoF, because enemies have very high saves and even if they don't save, the rest of the enemies will swarm on your monk and hit him, because they have such high attack bonuses.

Good point. It would never work in Heart of Fury mode. But I don't think I would bother taking my current melee heavy characters into HoF.

I read somewhere that you automaticly sneak-attack stunned enemies. If this is true, adding a lv of rogue might be useful.

I read that you just got +2 to your attack for stunned enemies. Although my experience has been that you seem to always hit them (a bit like smashing up a keg). Part of the problem with games like this is that things don't seem to always work exactly as the manual says (/me stares at the Improved Initiative feat).

Melee characters in HOF are perfectly viable.. as long as you do 'some' magic with them.

(Hint: Read JUPP and enlighten yourself.)

I don't know about you, but I will choose my Chromatic Orb (reflex save) over Stunning Blow any day, I can cast multiple of them from a safe distance, while you have to close up to the chosen enemy first.

The only downside of Chromatic Orb is that some enemies are immune to it, but the upside far outweight it IMO.

Right...but unfortunately, my Monk doesn't know how to cast Chromatic Orb.