- The target may not know it's magic, depending on the pain. If it's Mentalism, the target's brain just becomes aware of the pain. Hypnosis, in real life is AMAZING!!!! (I have lots of stories about hypnosis that I've seen and done to people. It's just Mentalism in the 21st Century). The target just gets a sharp pain or it feels like a heart attack. Having heart attack pains wouldn't normally make someone think "Magic spell!" Hell, I'm 43, been doing Martial Arts for 35+ years and I get phantom pains all the time. Maybe my ex-wife is casting Mentalism spells on me, that witch!
All due respect to you wife (please don't hex me!
), I think that the
Shock spells (even "A") are a far cry from phantom chest pains. So, the target should know
something has happened to them. What they know depends upon their experiences. (Meaning, you as GM have do make a judgment call here as to the possibility of them having a chance at knowing what happened.) Here is how I would handle it in a couple of different situations (please note that my responses are geared towards Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying/Standard System, alter the skills mentioned appropriately for the edition yo are using):
1.
In a Dungeon (or another equally unusual place of danger): the target knows they got hit by something, a successful lore check (
Spell Lore seems the most likely culprit here, defaulting to
Lore*Magical category if they don't have the actual skill) might tell them the spell, or at least the type of spell (mentalism, mind attack, etc...). BTW: I would have them make this check in just about any situation, only if the caster is letting them know what is going on will I just tell them. Now, if the caster is out in the open, the target would probably be able to spot them. A hidden caster, on the other hand, is going to be a problem. If he is just hidden among a bunch of enemies the group of PCs are facing in a fight, then I would give the target PC a
Combat Perception check with whatever modifiers I deemed fitting to the situation, but at the very least a -20 to -30. A success could mean he sees one of the enemy, not physically attacking, hanging back and just staring daggers at him, and for some reason he just knows. If they are just in some random room and the mentalist is hidden in some way (other than invisibility, others have covered that) then I think it becomes much harder because the victim could just believe they triggered a trap of some kind, and a smart mentalist would probably have a plan like that in mind. (Whenever one of the PCs gets to a certain spot he casts the
Shock spell on them. Nefarious, no?) Now, it is up to some serious physical or magical searching; a
Detect Mentalism spell would allow them to find the mentalist pretty quickly, though the mentalist does have a chance at realizing what is going on and an attempt at avoiding the spell. (More lore checks, followed by
Observation checks and then
Stalking/Hiding checks, it could get a bit drawn out, but if done right the dramatic tension could be like a destroyer/u-boat dance of death (dang it, I am forgetting that movie!).
2.
In Town: Here the target needs to spot the one person paying them a bit more attention, so
Observation and such skills - with the appropriate modifiers - are needed. Say the PCs are sitting around a tavern having a cold one after their latest adventure. Suddenly, the fighter gets
Shocked! Unless he thinks of it, and is successful at hiding it, his friends are very likely to notice that he just got hurt because he would react to the pain. To spot the mentalist a few tables over, would require an
Observation check with a modifier depending upon how busy/crowded the tavern is, where it being nearly empty except for the PCs and the employees could actually mean a bonus to the roll! Now, if the mentalist is very sneaky, say they developed skills in casting with even more subtlety than a regular mentalist (which is quite subtle already), then these skills could make it even harder to spot them; to the point that using magic detection spells/items/skills (
Power Perception) are absolutely necessary.
Basically you need to keep some things in mind: Mentalism is the most subtle style of magic-use, the situation at hand (in a dark dungeon vs in town vs standing opposite each other, etc...), and the mentalist's own way of trying to stay hidden will all affect how and how hard it is to figure out what is going on.
I know this is a lot of text to throw at you, please feel free to ask questions if you want any part of this better explained. Great Gaming!