ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I apologize if this is intended behavior, but my understanding of blocking is that it's only supposed to last 1 turn (2 with a particularly prodigy).

Well, here's a rare ant that's blocking for *3* turns: https://imgur.com/a/we353hk

despite not having any talents at all that should be extending block time:

https://imgur.com/a/o0G8dx4

Three turns seems like a long time for a (potentially large) flat damage reduction + counterstrike. Now, on this rare it's not so bad because he doesn't have any ranged attacks, so you can just back up until the block expires, and then hit him before you put it up again (presumably, haven't tried yet). But I have had certain...other...endgame enemies with multi-turn blocks where waiting it out isn't really an option.

Block by default lasts 2 turns OR until your next turn after blocking any damage.

The 3 duration is most likely due to game/player turn shenanigans.

So the duration is based on "How many keypresses the player has to make before block goes down?" and not on some sort of universal notion of "a turn is six seconds?" Ok, that makes sense.

Because of the way the game works, most effects are applied with one turn more duration than advertised. This is because the effect needs to last X turns, plus the duration of the current turn.
And while the game actually runs on a 10 hidden turns per perceived game turn scale, it tends not to display any duration as having a fractional turns remaining value.
This is usually going on entirely without consequence for the player, but if there are large speed bonuses in effect anywhere, then you start seeing a few things that don't appear to add up.