Subtle mental attacks which fail

[Tom McCarthy]

Is there an order of precedence for effect level versus perceptibility of mental attacks ?

A 10D6 mind control power is used against an EGO 10 character with no mental defence, aiming for an EGO+10 affect with an additional +20 so the target won't notice the attack (so the attacker hopes to roll a total of 40).

a) If the roll is 20, is the mind control in effect or not, and is it noticed ?

b) If the roll is 30; is the mind control in effect or not, and is it noticed ?

I can see a case for the target being unaware or aware in both cases above, and being affected or not in both cases. I could let dramatic sensibilities rule, but was curious what the official line might be.

[Steve Long]

The official, easy-to-use, line is: you set the effect you want, overall. If you fail to meet that level of effect, the entire power fails.

When I get around to re-working The Ultimate Mentalist, there'll be a discussion of options so that you can do things like get the control without the "not detected," and so on. And as you say, the GM can always allow this anyway.