You implant a mental mine within your
psyche that detonates against anyone attempting to manipulate your thoughts. You can use a single action, which has the concentrate trait, to suppress the effects of the mine for 1 round to allow someone to safely use a mental effect on you. You can Dismiss the spell.
The first creature that uses a mental effect against you triggers the animus mine, causing the spell to end. The animus mine deals 4d8 mental damage to
the triggering creature, which must attempt a Will save.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes half damage.
Failure The creature takes full damage and
is stunned 1.
Critical Failure The creature takes double damage and is stunned 1. You are unaffected by the triggering mental effect.
Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 2d8.
Lie, Demoralize, Coerce, Make and Impression, Feint, Request, and maybe a couple of other things are skill uses with the mental trait. Are they "mental effects" that would trigger your head blowing up if you lie to, yell at, or flirt with someone?
Anything you do in the game has an effect. Many of these outcomes are easy to adjudicate during the game. If you tell the GM that you draw your sword, no check is needed, and the result is that your character is now holding a sword. Other times, the specific effect requires more detailed rules governing how your choice is resolved. Many spells, magic items, and feats create specific effects, and your character will be subject to effects caused by monsters, hazards, the environment, and other characters.
While a check might determine the overall impact or strength of an effect, a check is not always part of creating an effect. Casting a fly spell on yourself creates an effect that allows you to soar through the air, but casting the spell does not require a check. Conversely, using the Intimidate skill to Demoralize a foe does require a check, and your result on that check determines the effect’s outcome.
Alas, that seems to settle it, use of Intimidate skill to demoralize (which has the mental trait) does result in an effect, so it seems like it would be a "mental effect" for purposes of Animus Mine, as would Lie, Feint, and all the rest.
I can't think this was intended, but I'm not sure how to get out of the box or what language change would fix it.
The simple addition of the word "magical" before mental effect would fix most of the issue. This is obviously intended to stop someone from using spells like Command or Enthrall on you, I dont think that "mundane" mental effects should count.