I remember reading about a player who made their character's backstory revolve around a mimic. The mimic was one of the sentient ones that had elected to live a peaceful life. It had taken the appearance of an orphanage and housed homeless children. The mimic would speak to the children through paintings to make it seem less scary, and any adventurers or guards that came to take the children or kill the mimic would be led to the basement to be digested. I don't remember the exact details but it was one of the more interesting concepts behind a mimic I'd seen.
Thats a flippin fantastic idea. But when it comes to mimics, skill check fails. I've no idea how they can use their size. Ie- how big can they grow? Can they change their mass? Eg- one round being a saddle, the next being a wagon. A mimic actually being a haunted house, is pure class.
Generally speaking mimics can't become an object that takes up more than about a square foot of space. What you're describing is called a House Hunter (not kidding) which are basically mimics that can grow to be as big as a house, ship, or even a small cave network. Not that the distinction is super important considering they function exactly the same just one is bigger but I always like to bring attention to older obscure monsters and terminology.
I remember a story about someone getting a "cursed sword" as early game loot that turned out to actually be a mimic that fed on the monsters that the party slayed.
@Yuni-is-Schrodingers-Fox That's just a very large mimic. They can be larger than medium sized. They can be smaller too. They might get cutsie names like House Hunter but that's just a colossal mimic doing what mimics do. Pretending to be an object to lure people into its mouth.
@@remyb6854 nope it was it's own monster back in the day with its own stat block. Standard Mimics couldn't be any larger than medium, anything larger was called a House Hunter instead. Functionally identical but I think the distinction was warranted since you'd approach fighting them completely differently, they'd use different tactics, etc. It was a neat bit of old terminology that I wanted to share around.
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
Which was still lazy design back then. I play many OSRs, I still award XP for loot. My players skip fights often. Figuring out how to do it is a huge part of this style of the game and can be more fun than fight itself. Mimics are like traps that aren't signaled. Lazy on DM's part. Fun traps are signaled and the fun part comes from figuring out a way to disable it.
@@Suavek69 Lazy design sure, but still good design. If the point of the dungeon crawl is to earn the loot by fighting (think like the modern Borderlands video games), then making it so that players skipping the intended fights still have to contend with some sort of combat challenge to get their loot is a necessary design (as otherwise the point of the game is lost).
@@DBArtsCreators I can't speak for real old school, classic style of play. But in OSR (old-school revival) style of games there are no intended fights. Fighting heads on is a last resort, when your plans go tits up. You try to avoid fighting because fights are deadly and your goal is to survive. Even if your odds of winning are 70% it's still likely someone will die. So you try to interact with your environment, not with the rules directly. Set up a trap, distract the baddies, or be quick. Mimics punish players who try creative solutions, which is antithetical to how most modern OSR DMs run the game. The game wasn't that focused on fighting until like 3e because it wasn't really a "heroic fantasy" back then. Comparing it to borderlands, a high action FPS where each and every character is overpowered in it's unique way, just because there's loot, is missing the point entirely.
Did do that to my players: The wizard fell In hook Line and sinker. 3 chests and a book about mimics. The book being a mimic.. and The pedestal it was on just for kicks 😂
I now want to see a chest weasel that possessed a Pringles can and made it so that it only has one Pringle left at the bottom but that Pringle is unreachable and that’s how it gets frustration. The prize for feeding it is just being able to eat the Pringle.
I wanted to say "Have a weasel posses a torch and extinguish it every time they walk a few steps away from the fire source the adventurers use to ignite it." However, a voice crossed time and space and said "I have darkvision"
Ok, I originally wanted to point out the "You can't discern colour in darkness, only shades of gray" part and recommend something like using different coloured notes on the walls and such.... But I realized that it could still be worked around if someone brought their own Lamp, another Torch or had a magical light source like the light cantrip (even Artificer's flavour feature "Magical Tinkering" would be an alternative). ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ HOWEVER, what if a SPECIFIC light source is needed to read otherwise "invisible" markings (similar to real life Ultraviolet light and invisible ink) and have THAT SPECIFIC TORCH be the only way to transport that light with them!
We've had four mini-mimics infiltrate our barb's coin pouch. They ate 20 or so gold before we found them. Two got killed, one managed to flee and one was intimidated by our barb into becoming her pet, so now the party has a pet mimic :D
My players have a baby mimic as well 😂 I’m loving how absolutely chaotic my current group is, 3 Rogues a Druid from the fey realm and a Gnoblin (half gnome half goblin) Barbarian…0 moral compass 0 regrets 😂😂😂
@@mibbles2371 same as any animal companion I'd wager only this one hides as one or the other object our barb has on her. We feed it periodically, she trains it by doing animal handling checks.
If I had a nickel for every time I heard about a pet coin mimic I'd have two nickels. Idk if that's a reasonable amount or not. Anyways my cleric has one too. High five.
I think mimics are good as they are with proper buildup, if you are in a dungeon that is constantly hinting that objects keep moving and things are not as they seem the punishment would make sense.
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
Mimic security is always a good idea for the people they are allied with. Who knows better what was stolen than the chest the thieves stole the item out of?
Something thats always bothered me is how people see 'completely indistinguishable from a normal object' and think 'cannot be detected before chomping time.' You can still hint at it by their not being a layer of dust on it like everything else in the room, or a strange absence of mice despite mouseholes being in the walls.
@@seasnaill2589 Or.... Remember how anything that touches it in object form sticks to it with no checks to avoid being grappled? Yeah.... Pretty sure a couple copper coins or a stick could be used to find a mimic.... I'd say if the couple copper coins you tossed at a door or chest just stick to the chest then it's probably a mimic.... Heck if you want to be really funny just have a live chicken you toss at anything you think might be a mimic... if it eats the chicken it's defiantly a mimic and it might now be more open to negotiation if its an intelligent mimic....
I just stopped making mimics look like chests. Bookshelves guarding hidden rooms, trapdoors that put themselves on top of stairs, or other roadblocks that are clearly more of a roadblock than a punishment for players. Also, I really only use them in dungeons related to magic users so players do t have to worry about them all the time
Yeah, this. If you want to use a mimic but you're worried that mimics as chests will deter players from opening chests, just make the mimic something else. They can be literally any inanimate thing, they don't have to be disguised as anything loot-related. That said, I'm also not convinced that ONE chest mimic would ruin a group of players forever. In fact, they're such a staple that it would probably be fun... ONCE. The problem here is only a problem if the DM uses them repeatedly and maliciously, which can also be said of just about any monster, trap or other obstacle the DM might throw at the party. Context matters.
Yep, my favorite is a room where the boxes/chests are all rotted out. There are weapon racks on opposite sides and in each there is a near pristine weapon. They party can detect magic or something to realize 1 is an actual magic wep reward, and the other is a mimic disguised as the weapon stand and weapon itself. Or if i am going to make it a chest, i make the most blatantly obvious trap i can (especially since my table are all newbies). We're talking 30 foot circumference round room, its on a raised platform and has a bloody spotlight on it by itself. Everyone knows not to touch it, but... can they fight the loot drive? its like in tomb of annihilation where i just stopped healing our rogue every time they went for every obvious chest and inevitably suffered for it even after a 20 min "dude, this place is meant to kill you by design, why would there be anything good about that flagrantly obvious box!?".
As a pathfinder storyteller I have templates, and a grand plan: Giant Advanced Mimic... wagon, a very useful caravan type wagon. My player never figured it out the whole time he had that thing, even though passengers where going missing inside of it. As the guy was a necromancer, and the passengers where his undead, this wasn't instantly noticeable. Maybe he never liked counting, or he sort of didn't care when he realized he was losing zombies, but either way.... that mimic decided it was better just being dragged along behind some very scared horses, getting regularly meals. Deltree, you where a marvelous Roleplayer.
This is a good fix for the problem. Another good fix is toning down the mimics perfect camouflage. Boil it down and a mimic is just a trapped chest. If there's ways to identify and circumvent traps, they're cool and fun but if they aren't... they are the worst. The same can be true for mimics.
You could even do a double fake out with a chest mimic - when an adventurer tries to open it, it spits out treasure a previously eaten adventurer was carrying. It’s had its fill, and doesn’t want any trouble.
I ran the chest weasle in my game today. The group loved it! Instead of reaching 10 moments of frustration, the group ended up discovering it was a chest weasle and persuaded it to let them into the chest if they took the weasle back to town with them. There were far more people for it to annoy in town. The wizard was the one most annoyed by the weasle, so the weasle possessed the wizards staff which interfered with his ability to cast spells. They sold the staff to a merchant... who ended up going out of business not long after 😬
What about a druid who communicates with monsters and raises a baby mimic so that they'll be their shapeshifting weapon/items? The druid can use a sword now with a disguised mimic. Or it can turn into a tent, rope, or many other items the character needs on an adventure, saving a ton of gold on supplies. And then play a changeling just to max out the shape-changing motif.
Sounds like a really fun idea for an NPC. A travelling merchant who seems to know you and your party to a scarily good degree, but they sell great loot so it's water under the bridge. Turns out, the merchant and their carriage has been spying on you this whole time, in different forms. Eventually they use this information against the party, exploiting their weaknesses and creating division amongst the players by revealing secrets.
@@Jenna_TaliaThat sounds like an idea I heard a while back: when the magic item salesman is a boss and uses every item you’ve ever sold them or haven’t bought from them against you. Love the concept, will definitely steal.
I love the Potionomics characterization of Mimics. They make great familiars for witches and wizards who want to keep their stuff safe, but have to be trained not to eat the things put inside them. One of the main shopkeepers has a storage chest named Boxer, and you even get your own mimic named Vendi (a vending machine, adorable) who helps you sell potions you don't care to haggle on.
I love that too. It's also really reminicent of Terry Pratchett's "the Luggage", which I'm surprised wasn't mentioned here at all. I've always seen that as one of the first mimics, especially because it has all the elements that most people associate with mimics. Or, at least, all the elements of the Luggage has been used in mimics since.
I remember a side quest my party ran through involving a giant mimic. So there was a magic shop in town with an eccentric wizard running it. Well after arriving in town a number of people went missing. Turns out this happens every couple months, but the city watch never do anything about it because they've "got better things to do than chase cats stuck in trees." So anyway long story short it turns out the wizard was the favorite target of the local thieves guild, and every couple months they'd send a member or two in to try to steal from the shop. What they didn't know was the shop itself was actually a mimic and any time somebody would try to steal something the 'shop' would seemingly come to life and drag the victim into the basement, never to be seen or heard from again. They thought the wizard was just that powerful and if they could get a particular item or scroll they could sell it for massive profit, and since nobody ever returned they'd just keep trying whenever they got low on funds to bribe the guards. Turned into a pretty fun who done it investigation, especially when the party rogue tried to steal a magic gem and got dragged away. We spent the better part of an hour negotiating with a house to keep him from being eaten lol
I'm really fond of the Icespire Peak subquest where the party has to find a "shapechanger" that's eating a bunch of gnomes, because in that case the player is fully expecting a mimic and by the time they find it, it's more relief than frustration.
I like filling wizard lairs with animated objects: mimics (commonly doors), armor, weapons, smothering rugs, etc... while using those creatures nowhere else. It gives these environments a strong vibe, while that paranoia doesn't carry over to the rest of the campaign.
I had a bunch of mirror mimics (in a hall of mirrors) who attacked the party actively then they were fighting a wizard in that same hall. A perception check of 15 would point out a mimic because the reflection in the mimics were slightly slower than the ones in the real mirrors because the mimics are not actually reflecting the images but hurriedly shapechanging to match.
I personally like the idea of mimics being more than just chests and actually gaining attributes based on where they chose to call home.. like a mimic gaining undead traits from mimicing a tombstone in a graveyard or gaining magic traits from crystals in a cave.
I recently DM'd your Feywild One-Shot to my players and the chest weasel part was BY FAR the most fun in the entire session. My players eventually gave up and started MAKING SANDWITCHES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DUNGEON because Renata was hungry. The moment the weasel puffed out was priceless. Their faces lmao.
“The Ecology of” series of articles in Dragon Magazine was such a great source of world building. They took the weird monsters and tried to think how they would logically fit in the world. Miss them so much.
I've always liked the idea of the traditional chest mimics only being one stage in their lifecycle. Baby mimics are as small as a coin and often disquise themselves as such, sneaking out to parasitize on people who pick it up. As they grow they will morph into whatever object suits their size from a mug that eats rats to a carpet that eats cats. Eventually they might grow to be large enough to become an entire house. Or maybe players run across a mysterious abandoned ship floating on the waters only to find out that the ship itself is a massive mimic filled to the brim with dozens or hundreds of younger mimics and the ship is sailing to the largest port city to spread a new wave of mimic infestation.
@@iggytheincubus Thanks! If I ever DM I definitely will. Another idea I had is inspired by Delicious In Dungeon where a player finds a sword that turns out to be a mimic and if you befriend it it can help give you an advantage in combat rolls as the blade bends and twists to find chinks in armor or deflect incoming blows
The chest is intangible. Next to the chest is a lever. If someone pulls the lever they become intangible and the chest becomes corporeal. The person who pulled the lever still can't touch the chest. Their friend opens the chest. Inside is another chest. Inside that chest is a lever. Hyjinx insue.
Wait, if the friend pulls the lever does it then become player tangible friend intangible and chest intangible again? And now the puzzle becomes both players need to be corporeal so that they can even carry the loot the weasel gave them?
I once gave a player a curse which punished him for skipping fights to loot. The curse turned any chest or door he touched into a mimic if his allies were in combat.
Out of curiosity, what is the range of the curse/what does it consider allies in combat? Just because i think it would be hilarious if the party was separated over a long distance (either voluntarily or forced by magic), and his half would end up fighting mimics constantly because the other half would end up in combat at that time. (It would let them know when the others were fighting because they could be chilling and suddenly the door to their hotel room attacks them) Obviously that isn't the intent, just a funny possible natural conclusion of the curse as written.
I've always enjoyed letting mimics have 'eggs' that look like gold coins. And sometimes a mimic just lets adventurers take the 'coins' so that the eggs can be spread.
Loved the video and the creature! ❤ Also, just as a reminder: there’s much more fun in making mimics turn into non-chest objects. I’ve prepared two combat encounters featuring mimics in my home campaign and it was awesome. The first mimic was a door that worked for the local thieves guild to guard their hideout in exchange for food. The second one featured dozens of tiny mimics that would pretend to be a wizard's mugs collection, and whenever someone else entered the wizard’s bedroom, they would jump from the shelves onto the trespassers.
I love mimics, but they really do traumatise players. I only put them in places where a villain or other character would hire them or where they may naturally end up setting up an ambush given their ecology. My players know that the open world is generally free of mimics but evil Lairs aren’t
I definitely had big city sewers infested with mimics which messed up my players when they thought they were crossing single plank bridges. Which then tried to eat them
@@ClericOfPholtus, Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
@@alchemicpink2392 The estate owned by the Minister of Necromantic Affairs probably has their secrets and valuables well guarded. Perhaps players should think critically before sticking their mits into things without a plan. Or at least the part of me that values internal consistency over ease of gameplay thinks so.
Knowing my party, the moment there’s a chest weasel it’s either “we leave the chest Alone” or “stab the chest” Edit: after reading the doc I now know that my party will only resort to stabbing it
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
Gonna add a little bit of a gambling mechanic to the Chest Weasel: give the party a mildly cursed magic item that has an annoying (and often hilarious) but workable curse and see what their reaction is. However, if they wanted to double down the Weasel could offer them a more powerful magic item with a more inconvenient curse, so on and so forth. The curse is directly tied to the Weasel and will fade once it’s properly fed. The party won’t know the curse fades until that happens. For example: we can have the Sword of Irritable Bowel Syndrome which makes the PC holding it want to use the bathroom three or four times a day at random intervals. Or how about the Gary’s Sword which makes all slain enemies rag doll uncontrollably glitching into terrain and flailing about so looting them requires a strength check or grapple roll. Things of that nature
Got an idea for the cursed item. Ring of the great wizard "Hee'ho Smeltit". Requires attunement. Casts a half damage cloudkill (or less, idk magic stuff) centered on caster, with damage reduced further. Disadvantage on charisma based checks for the next 24 hours, or what have you. Basically makes you rip absolute ass, and you might have poo'd a little.
What about a lootbox weasel? The weasel entrances you to come near and coaxes you into opening its chest with fabulous riches, only for it continually reveal underwhelming and useless items.
What happens if a Chest Weasel accidentally tries to possess a chest Mimic? Does it work, do they fight, do either of them run away, does the weasel explode from trying to possess something that is not an object, would the weasel just instinctively know that it was a mimic and not possess it? What about the weasel possessing a Sentient Object?
i like to think that the weasel can sense a "life-force" from sentient objects, mimics, and other possessed items. even if they cannot be distinguished. it allows weasels to be a continual asset to the party, while also cleanly answering these questions.
I am planning on having a tavern in my next campaign that is basically a mimic hive. I remember reading somewhere that mimics feed on the residual magic from magic items (which is why they like to eat adventurers that have them). This tavern will basically be a breeding ground for mimics. They don't attack the patrons since they are usually adventurers that constantly bring them residual magic. Almost everything in the tavern is a mimic. The tables, the plates, the mugs, maybe even the tavern itself. The entire town knows that the main rule in the tavern is NO FIGHTING. If something were to get broken... it would be bad...
🤔Even without something breaking, I could imagine some mimics having different personalities like dogs. Maybe some of them just jump in to join the fight, and play rough! (i.e. Try to nom everyone. I've got nibble marks this week, again.😆)
A mimic similar to Chester in Don't Starve would be a great concept in DnD. You find a key shaped like a bone, and suddenly, you're accompanied by an adorable dog-like mimic that follows you around and carries your stuff. We could tweak it so that it tries to eat anyone not carrying the bone with them unless given a treat once a day to satiate it, and it helps fight by your side and carry all non-food items without being encumbered. You can feed it monster parts as a treat, promoting more fighting and less talking your way out of things all the time since a hungry Chester will become an even more difficult fight than the ones you skipped...
I imagine there would be additional limitations on the types of items which could be safely stored within this friendly mimic. It wouldn't be a good way to store your provisions, for instance. And there might be some other things which might not be edible to an adventurer, but which their mimic may attempt to digest.
@binarybolias7803 perhaps non organic materials only? Like forged metal and treated leather (and the weapons and armor they make) are OK, but the rations, potions, and reagents might get digested.
I really like taking the approach of Shovel Knight to Mimics, where the mimics are smart and they go into dungeons to get the treasure and magic items before the party, so that when the party finds the chest and get stuck to it, instead of a dangerous creature ready to eat you, its a very insistent salesman. giving mimics a bit of bagofholding-ness flavor and some background helping mages and thieves to smuggle things from place to place can give mimics a very nice role as a charming shopkeeper NPC, they can even go "you can find me in the city if you go here and here", and use their object mimicry to become a little hidden black market. had to rewrite my comment because my bad internet sent it to limbo
Currently working on a mimic that I can’t wait for my party to encounter. Basically since the game is a seafaring one the mimic would be a pristine ship just floating out in the ocean. When party investigates it, it will just seem like one unless if they have high rolls. However if they ever walk down into the ship, that is where the teeth shut close and the digestive acid begins to rise. Party will also realize that every other thing on the ship such as barrels, chairs, etc. was a mimic and they stumbled into a mimic hive.
The idea of a mimic is also a situation where you can't think about what you want to give people so you need something to slow them down. I absolutely love this concept.
So a couple things I want to say: 1. I adore the concept of the Chest Weasel, I think that could be a very cute encounter. 2. Fizban introduces the Hoard Mimic, a giant mimic that is capable of language, and is even intelligent enough to negotiate with people. Dragons often bargain with them to act as false hoards to bait out adventurers--- a mutually beneficial relationship. I know that Fizban's isn't part of the SRD, though, so I understand why you didn't mention it. 3. I feel like a lot of people forget that Mimics... don't have to exclusively be chests. They can be any inanimate object, from a candelabra to a staircase to a book to a door. As such, they could be used in an ambush-type scenario where suddenly the walls start to move and attack the party. Or they could be disguised as a door and surprise the party! (I used that in my campaign lol). Point is, chest mimics might be the most iconic, but we can get much weirder than a --famous Jigglypuff player-- hungry box.
Heck with mimics being intelligent they would make an excellent addition to any bandit ambush.... (Pretend to be a log blocking the road and then when the adventurers attempt to move it they get stuck and that's when the bandits reveal themselves to shake down the adventurers..... Turns out the bandits have been bribing the mimic with food to assist them.)
Sweet, I was looking forward for you to finally talk about those weasel mimics. Personally I like mimics, but I like it more when they turn to things besides chests. Like yeah I understand why, but if they are so good at shapeshifiting I think its a little limited that they only turn to just one thing. And the idea of an intelligent talking mimic sound so fun.
I've always wanted a mimic as a pet for one of my characters. Like a friendly mimic that just wants to be your friend, turning into a ladder or a rope when you need to climb, a chair when you need a place to sit, a backpack to store your goods, or even a weapon when you're disarmed. It always tries to be helpful, but then gets upset and disappointed when it's ultimately more of an inconvenience than a help, since it just ends up unintentionally adhering to / grappling everyone that tries to use it.
I have to say in the last few days where I started hyperfixating on DM videos as I plan a campaign, I stumbled across your channel. I am blown away by the quality of your videos, how informative they are and insightful and how clear your guidance is to help DMs plan and come up with ideas. And the fact that you also offer full stat sheets for your examples FOR FREE, is incredible. Hats off to you pointy hat, your work is amazing 👌🏻
Hey Pointy Hat! I remember you mentioned the chest weasel in your the other video about creating the feywild campaign. I used the chest weasel idea and ran with it. I used it as a familiar for an NPC that was delivering a letter to one of the players. It was a hit, their character found it so frustrating and annoying, opening so many different chests and even getting another player to help them, but immediately forgave it once they saw how cute it was. Meanwhile, everyone was giggling in the background. Thank you so much for this, I personally might include this creature in other campaigns cause I love it so much.😂
Wow, I can’t believe you posted this now of all times. I just started working on a Mimic themed homebrew book for D&D this week. It’s going to have 6 mimic themed subclasses, a mimic playable race, tons of mimic statblocks based off different disguises, and a lot more. I was really nervous throughout this video, worried that your concept was going to be similar to something I working on, but luckily that didn’t happen. Looks like I *weaseled* out of that one
A moment of silence for house mimics, sword mimics, chair mimics, table mimics, pot mimics, cake mimics, torch mimics, boat mimics, carriage mimics, shirt mimics, pants mimics, harp mimics, the banjo mimic, and the ever disregarded mimic maker. They'll get enough infamy eventually.
You know what’s funny? A mimic shield… because why would you willingly turn yourself into something that will be attacked and thus you’ll get hurt. Therefore I want a mimic shield, the utter confusion when I go to block something and suddenly their weapon is stolen or better yet they get surprise attacked is worth more than me getting a big ouchie.
@@draketurtle4169 Honestly, I go with the idea that different mimics have different diets. Chest mimics, sword mimics, and the like are carnivorous. Boat mimics prefer fish and aquatic life. A shield mimic enjoys metal and wood, hence why they take the shape they do. They're smart enough to know shields get hit by metal or wooden weapons a lot, thus it's easy food in exchange for letting some adventurer carry them around. Plus, could see a shield mimic having LOADS more health than a standard mimic of that size, probably closer to house, boat, or carriage mimics in terms of HP
Its a really cute idea, I like it as an alternative and separate thing apart from mimics. Honestly I would use both in a game to mix it up and show not everything is a mimic but they are still out there and they have a chance of finding one... or a Chest Weasel that could just fool around with them.
Mimics can be done well, but the dungeon master has to use them responsibly or else they can ruin a game singlehandedly. Chest weasels are amazing though, I love those little fluff noodles. "It's annoying" is MUCH better than "don't trust anything" ❤
I'd say, make it more obvious that mimics are present. (Or could be present. ) This would put players alert in the moment rather than paranoid all the time. (E.x. The players reach the end of the dungeon and find the treasure they were looking for. 3 copies of said treasure. Only 1 of them could be real. )
The ultimate irony of watching this video for me is that in my current campaign, I have a magic item shop that's run BY a high intelligence mimic! Combined with the fact most of book purchases have for expanding his product list, the addition of the Chest Weasel is icing on the mimic shaped cake for new ideas of a side event I'm thinking of putting my players through. Top notch as always Pointy Hat!
Oh my god I want one, I'm imagining a chaotic good arcane trickster with one who just goes around stealing every other sock, or all of someone's spoons so his weasel can feed on their anger.
I love the chest weasel idea. I've used mimics for horror - a keg gets delivered to a tavern, and soon people start disappearing. It doesn't 'teach' my players against any particular behavior, but it does make them understand that people aren't the only hazardous things they can encounter in the city.
Mimics are great! In Pathfinder there's a third party book called 'Legendary Shifters' by Legendary Games, and that class is extremely fun, but it also has a a Mimic class archetype, that allows YOU! THE PLAYER! To turn into a Mimic! I played this class in a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and it was super fun! The mixture of stealthy object disguising and EXTREME MONSTROUS VIOLENCE was super fun and cool. ANGRY BOX NOISES INTENSIFY! There was a lot of fun with it, some really interesting class abilities, and it just lead to some really fun shenanigans. At the end of the campaign he retired and became a Tavern. ...Yes, I know what I said.
Fun fact: my longest lasting and most favorite pathfinder character to play was a mimic sorcerer who through magical expiramentation figured out how to turn into a human rather than an object. But they found that the process was irreversible except in very short time spans (i.e the duration of an alter or disguise self spell.) And once this character was just starting to get used to being a human and even enjoying it discovered something horrific turns out all mimics were originally humans who lived in an El Dorodo-esque empire of gold who were punished for their greed by an ancient god to reincarnate as a mimic for all time. And that fate was unavoidable. So their ultimate goal was to find a way to break the curse which, they did but died before they could administer it to other mimics. Ever since that campaign it's always been difficult for me to seperate that GMs custom lore for mimics and official material.
Where in the tavern did your mouth end up? I assume you still had to eat and hope it wasnt your patrons... I want to make a living tavern now, hahah it could be friendly to the party or there could be people going missing from there and the patty have to find out why.
I've got an encounter made where a mimic has made a deal with someone. They wear it as armor and are stated as a grappler. So each turn they try to make sure they have someone to chomp and beat up together. Friendship is beautiful
Can't believe I spent like all day watching pretty much every video you've made. The amount of inspiration I've gotten watching your videos is unreal. Doing Gods' work 🙌
An interesting mimic encounter: You find a room filled with chests and a book on how to identify mimics, the description slowly describes the book itself but before you would typically realize it transforms into a mimic. It still surprises you and has the mimic as a trap, but it gives the player the ability to realize it is a trap, and it basically tells you that there is a mimic in the room. (I saw the general idea of this on a video on another video).
I once played a semi-intelligent, friendly mimic that pretended to be a direwolf taxidermy. The story was that it was captured as a baby and raised by an eccentric collector and was rescued by the party hoarder house style. 10/10 one of my favorite memories
Absolutely do not look it up. I had it spoiled for me, and it really killed my motivation to finish the game. It's such a good story too, and the twist can make replaying it worthwhile...unless someone spoils it for you
Chest Mimics CAN be good as part of a dungeon gimmick. The Beast Castle, from the Beauty and the Beast, is a good example. ANYTHING can be alive, ANYTHING can be an enemy... or, given the proper motivation, an ally...
Technically they were cursed. I think Mrs Potts and the gang were always mimics. Who gets cursed and immediately adapts to pouring scalding water through their head like it's nothing. Nothing human.
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
@theroundmeal8384 when you put it like that those types of mimics almost fulfil the role of a genie. A shape-shifting dangerous creature/being that appears out of an everyday object that could give you treasure or crush you in an instant. Not the Robin Williams Genie but the OG 101 Arabian Nights one that had to be tricked into serving Alladin after almost killing him.
So I've been working on a large module that is based entirely on mimics, and I've had to really dig to come up with a good amount of Lore that technically doesn't exist to make it interesting. Stuff like this is always nice to see because it let's me see another way to use them without really using them, and then saving the actual thing for something far worse, but much more fun in its own way. Once again, fantastic work Mr. Hat!
Just wanted to let you know, ran the Chest Weasel in a one-shot, and it was GOLD! You did a great job with it, and (after the fact) my players LOVED it! Thank you, Mr Hat, 10/10!
My favourite use of a mimic, was not to use a mimic. I had a suspicious chest at the end of a hall, as the players approached, one found a note written in secret druidic, it only said one word "Mimic" What followed was the players trying to communicate with the chest, trying to bribe it with food, then eventually preparing an all out attack which destroyed the chest. Inside was a note, that was a picture of a squirrel showing it's rear end. The whole thing was a prank. And there never was a mimic. (And no I didn't pull the "and the door next to the chest was the mimic" card cause that's lame.)
I did something similar in my game. It was a gauntlet of challenges from a bored mage that wanted to have fun watching people solve his puzzles and challenges. They walk into a room with only a chest, sign says "the key is inside the chest", simple roll to unlock the chest and find the key to the door. The next room is exactly the same but now an extra sign just says: "Mimic". They spend some time trying to poke the chest thinking it's a mimic, they poke the sign thinking it's a mimic... nothing happens. They figure it's probably just a joke, unlock the chest and grab the key, which proceeds to bite the player's hand and doesn't let go until the Ranger executes it with a gunshot. The real key was inside the chest under the pillow which the mimic was placed on (I had made sure to always casually mention this nice looking pillow and how ornate the chest was even in the first room so it felt like just a random description and wouldn't draw that much attention, but also allow them to figure it out, and they did soon after dealing with the mimic)
Ok. Hear me out: Chest Weasels are just one type. Faerrets are the general term, and each type feeds on different emotions. Basically, a cuter variant of the Hags twist.
@@techpriestemily Like Bag Badgers that feed on surprise/distress by hissing and snapping at adventurers trying to take out their valuables, or Trinket Minks that love the taste of avarice and disguise themselves as jewel-crusted goblets and solid-gold tableware.
@@perhapsyes2493They could be pronounced that way, and basically just be sort of the Faewild's version of rats and the like. Why make it out to be a bug when it can be a feature?
I used the chest weasel after seeing your feywild vid some time ago. My players absolutely loved it. One thing that surprised me is that the dimmest player who struggles the most with puzzles actually was the one to solve it. Long story short, he sweared like a sailor, gave into his frustrations and thus solved the puzzle. The look on his face after explaining what just happened was priceless. Funnily enough, by pure happenstance, I used the chest weasel in a tower filled with mimics. It was an adventure I made to show off mimics and to make people see that a mimic is so much more then just a punishment. I guess I subconsciously realised the chest weasel was just the perfect mimic.
I like when chest mimics are basically guard dogs of important treasure. Golden Sun and Dark Souls actually played it well by rewarding the player with nice loot most of the time.
I love the idea of a chest weasel popping out of a chest in a dungeon, offers an array of magical items for sale, then constantly haggles with the adventurers before settling at the original price.
Was recommended this video as I've recently been diving into D&D, and have to say the chest weasel seems like an interesting take on the mimic. If I ever get around to building my own campaign I would love to add those little guys around for a flavorful twist.
This is awesome! I've been thinking of making a "Magic Item Shop" in my campaign that only sells useless items (i.e the bagpipes of invisibility) and a chest weasel would make such a great Shop owner! And every time the group enters the store, they'll have to interact with whatever object the weasel is possessing to get their attention. This is perfect!
The one time I used a mimic in my campaign it wasn't a chest. It was an elevator. The party went into this spooky abandonded mansion to dismantle a network of vampire traffickers. They stepped into the elevator...and then the elevator opened its mouth. The surprise and twist worked, while the only negative consequences long term is that they always take the stairs now.
I had a similar idea for a wizard's tower. Upon entering, it would ask for a password. A non answer or attempt to force it to move would lead to it taking the party halfway up and then attempting to eat them. If they knew the password, though, they could bypass the stairs, which were also trapped.
For everyone like me who wants a twist on dragons, we will unite in all videos from this one on, because our greedy lizards deserve it too!!! DAY 3 ASKING FOR DRAGONS ON THE CHANNEL
The only knock I have against a potential dragon video is that dragons are so widespread that coming up with a new idea for them that hasn't already been used somewhere is very difficult
@@An_Entire_Limethinking maybe literally the beast of revelations(a drakon) Some kind of horrible demon dragons who wants to hoard worship, especially stealing worship from the gods. They brand their worshippers who acts as their servants and followers(not specifically the mark of the beast, just a brand or mark of some kind, probably unique to each individual demon dragon), making it far harder to confront the dragon behind their many layers of bodyguards and cults and general government infiltration. Confronting one, they tempt you to become a follower with infernal deals and magics(such as offering a holy fruit they stole that grants a permanent intelligence increase, or can make an extra planar entity mortal). Fighting it meanwhile is a challenge due to the worshippers and multiple heads like a hydra, each head having to be slain so that it doesn’t regenerate and start anew.
Thank you for your videos, really! They are always great to watch and always good inspiration. I had my players face off some fairy shenannigans inspired by your ideas lately and according to them it was both frustrating and fun. For example, one chest sucked up all of one player's items when he opened it and then split into 20 other chests. I rolled 1d20 every chest he opened, 2-6 would give his items back and 1 all of them... everything else had things happen to him like coloring his beard rainbow, shaving, low dmg versions of spells that wouldn't kill him, punching gloves shooting out of them, etc... The thing was, he started to mistrust the whole system and went over to sneak up on the chests and trying to hurl them into a nearby river so he wouldn't have to deal with them... Greatings from Germany!! P.S. Yes, low numbers are good in The Dark Eye.
I am so happy you expanded on the Chest Weasel! I loved running that encounter in the Fey Wild one shot you made and wanted to incorporate it into my larger games.
My party and i went to an inn that was essentially a giant mimic. Everything in there, was a mimic. From the floorboards to the curtains. My character took it upon herself to take and look after a mug of ale. When the campaign was done, the mimic mug had become something like a non combatant familiar. Next time we rolled up characters in the same universe, i rolled up the same mimic, all grown up, in a suit of armour. It was an artificer/beast barb. I loved that thing.
I gotta say I'm always impressed by the sheer creativity you show in creating new creatures! Now for my own not nearly as creative twist on the old classic. First, the simplest trick. Make those mimics detectable! What makes those Souls games work is that there's numerous subtle signs that give away that you're dealing with a mimic. The lesson becomes less "treasure will betray you" and more "pay attention to details and don't trust things on first appearance", which is a lesson I do want players to take away! Like a Facedancer's trap, there must always be a means of escape! Anyway, now onto my twist: baby mimics. Unlike the fully developed and formed mimics, these ones are easily scared. They won't attack you, instead they will suddenly get up on their pseudopods and go running in fear and crying out in a unique mimic cry for help. This opens up all kinds of things. First of all, adventures aren't punished for looting so much as finding they just have to do more to earn this treasure than they thought, but secondly, there's a chance the mimic's "parents" will show up, and by "show up" I mean reveal themselves as a wall or a door or something as the players give chase, so there's a chance for combat that's telegraphed a mile away. But third, and this one I'm kinda in love with, baby mimics can be adorable, and perhaps especially creative players who love animals can tame the mimic and make it a loyal pet. A pet that is ENTIRELY content to stay completely still and out of the way as some casual item in the adventurer's pack, so as not to distract the adventurers, but can be pulled out as needed for players to set their OWN traps. Raise it up and put that ancient relic some lich is hunting you down to take inside, to lure it in and ambush it right back.
Lol, he makes fun of you in the video. I understand though, just because I want to torture my players doesn't mean I don't love them and am primarily motivated by their fun.
@@DLWebb6245 I had a player go absolutely crazy because a fey ally would only answer their question in riddles. It is one of the most commonly shared stories from that campaign.
just give the mimic a real reason to live. let's say, a mimic was created to guard something for its creator? follow the creator, guard the protected goods... essentially, turn the mimic into the luggage ;-) should be funnier than having all the party members use bags of holding. they might be connected to bags of holding and bags of devouring. a bag of devouring deposits items in the mimic. could be fun.
You make good points about specifically chest mimics and I LOVE the chest weasel as a replacement. However, you can avoid almost all of the problems you mentioned by making your mimics disguise as anything but chests and still have that fun surprise aspect.
Started a campaign recently in a piratey setting and decided to incorporate mimics because pirate chests are thematic and all. But then I started working them into the story as a central point in the island cluster the party is living in. Like the fact that they have a living, growing population of mimics native to these islands, other races have begun to either hunt or work in tandem with mimics to get things done, and some towns have just kind of gotten used to them. I think it will be an interesting thing to work with, and I really like your concept of the Chest Weasel, might have to work in some tricky mimics to my story. Thanks for the great ideas and content!
Mimics are yet another example of D&D making sure to punish you if you don't complete their mandatory checklist of "thinks you HAVE to have in your party". You better have that guy in charge of checking for traps OR ELSE....
Why is that bad exactly? Punishing poor planning is pretty normal, especially when the party can easily check for a mimic in many different ways. Lots of players enjoy TTRPGs for the challenges, not just to play a comfy and warm game where you can do anything you want with no repercussions.
@@Limrick1029 It's not planning nor challenging wtf are you talking about. The game punishes you for not cramming onto your party the mandatory checklist it demands of you rather than rewarding you for having a diversified group. Having a game that is a series of "DO YOU HAVE THAT X REQUIREMENT? IF NOT GET SLAPPED" isn't challenging not intelligent, it's just garbage railroady design.
@@Pers0n97 Except mimics are arguably pretty easy to check for.... Throw a copper coin at what you suspect to be a mimic. If it sticks, it's a mimic. Mimics are sticky in object form that's how they catch prey. At least that's one way I'd allow for players to check for mimics.... (And pretty sure everyone has something disposable they can yeet to check for mimics regardless of class.)
honestly i've adapted mimics to my own use (mostly making them interesting things like train cars and making them detectable if you look really hard so it's not pure frustration), but the chest weasel is SUCH a good idea and i definitely want to use that now
Gotta say that video came at a perfect moment. Me and my players were preparing to play the Feywild one-shot and, me knowing them, in the Chest Weasel encounter they would probably swing an axe at the treasure chest at the second trolling move I would make. And create a stat block by myself is not one of my strengths. I may need to translate the stat block to my language, but I already did this to the whole adventure so it won't be a big deal. Anyway, great video Antonio! Keep up the good work!
I love the idea of the Chest Weasel, it's the kind of Fey Chaos I adore. It's annoying but in the end not harmful. Thanks for such an amazing creature!
When I first saw the Chest Weasel during your Feywild episode, I fell in love with the idea! Thanks for making the Stat block for this, im definitely gonna use this little bugger! Keep up the great work!😸👍
I actually had a mimic take the form of a dungeon door once back in D&D 3.5. It's fun when someone tries listening to hear if there is anything on the other side. And I still smile at the thought of that dwarf barbarian who attacked every desk he happened upon with his battle axe after that one encounter. The pre-adventure "meeting in M's office" became a lot more entertaining after that.
This is such a cute idea!!! I'm making my first campaign (for a group of friends that mostly never played) and i will certainly use this! It just seems so fun I will have to work a little on the details but it'll certainly be worth it
Fun magic Item. Mimic greatsword. ‘Just a normal great sword with glass eye on the cross guard’. 2d6 slashing with a dc 15 animal handling check you can entice the mimic to lash out its tongue (the blade) to pulling and grapple a human sized enemy. Failing the handling check will make it just become a whip for a turn and a nat 1 makes it grapple you. The check becomes easier after casting speak with animals, friends, or find familiar will lower the dc to 10 and make for interesting RP.
I'll have you know that the DM of one group I'm playing with recently used a chest weasel. I did not know about them, as I only saw your video now. It was a super fun encounter and my character ended up empathising with the chest weasel deeply. I thought it may bring you joy to know your inspiration went out into the world and returns to you having fulfilled its intention. Once for certain, but surely many times over :) In completely unrelated proceedings, I shall not watch your feywild video before the end of this campaign 🫣
That my friend is a fantastic concept! I love all of the ideas you come up with. If only my DM wasn't a self proclaimed Sadist. Other wise I would have recommended this idea to him.
Hey I just found your channel a few days ago and I'm impressed by the quality of all of your work ! Every video is polished and interesting, it's motivated me to start DMing again ! So thanks for your work and keep it up
WHEN THE CHEST 😳😳😳 IS SUS????? 🤣😂😂👌🔥🔥💯💯
Sussy Chest
i can't save the document? the previous ones i could
I’m going to say that multiple times to my players 😂
SUS
As part of the -18 portion of your audience, please stop you are embarrassing us the milenials are the ones who made this
I remember reading about a player who made their character's backstory revolve around a mimic. The mimic was one of the sentient ones that had elected to live a peaceful life. It had taken the appearance of an orphanage and housed homeless children. The mimic would speak to the children through paintings to make it seem less scary, and any adventurers or guards that came to take the children or kill the mimic would be led to the basement to be digested. I don't remember the exact details but it was one of the more interesting concepts behind a mimic I'd seen.
Thats a flippin fantastic idea. But when it comes to mimics, skill check fails. I've no idea how they can use their size. Ie- how big can they grow? Can they change their mass? Eg- one round being a saddle, the next being a wagon.
A mimic actually being a haunted house, is pure class.
Generally speaking mimics can't become an object that takes up more than about a square foot of space. What you're describing is called a House Hunter (not kidding) which are basically mimics that can grow to be as big as a house, ship, or even a small cave network. Not that the distinction is super important considering they function exactly the same just one is bigger but I always like to bring attention to older obscure monsters and terminology.
I remember a story about someone getting a "cursed sword" as early game loot that turned out to actually be a mimic that fed on the monsters that the party slayed.
@Yuni-is-Schrodingers-Fox That's just a very large mimic. They can be larger than medium sized. They can be smaller too. They might get cutsie names like House Hunter but that's just a colossal mimic doing what mimics do. Pretending to be an object to lure people into its mouth.
@@remyb6854 nope it was it's own monster back in the day with its own stat block. Standard Mimics couldn't be any larger than medium, anything larger was called a House Hunter instead. Functionally identical but I think the distinction was warranted since you'd approach fighting them completely differently, they'd use different tactics, etc. It was a neat bit of old terminology that I wanted to share around.
It’s also from a generation where loot = xp where it was normal to avoid the monsters and just grab the treasure chest.
Yep. In the context of eld, mimics actively punished player behavior that wasn’t very conducive for dungeon crawling thanks to xp rules.
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
Which was still lazy design back then. I play many OSRs, I still award XP for loot. My players skip fights often. Figuring out how to do it is a huge part of this style of the game and can be more fun than fight itself. Mimics are like traps that aren't signaled. Lazy on DM's part. Fun traps are signaled and the fun part comes from figuring out a way to disable it.
@@Suavek69
Lazy design sure, but still good design. If the point of the dungeon crawl is to earn the loot by fighting (think like the modern Borderlands video games), then making it so that players skipping the intended fights still have to contend with some sort of combat challenge to get their loot is a necessary design (as otherwise the point of the game is lost).
@@DBArtsCreators I can't speak for real old school, classic style of play. But in OSR (old-school revival) style of games there are no intended fights. Fighting heads on is a last resort, when your plans go tits up. You try to avoid fighting because fights are deadly and your goal is to survive. Even if your odds of winning are 70% it's still likely someone will die. So you try to interact with your environment, not with the rules directly. Set up a trap, distract the baddies, or be quick. Mimics punish players who try creative solutions, which is antithetical to how most modern OSR DMs run the game. The game wasn't that focused on fighting until like 3e because it wasn't really a "heroic fantasy" back then. Comparing it to borderlands, a high action FPS where each and every character is overpowered in it's unique way, just because there's loot, is missing the point entirely.
Common misconception... mimics *USED* to take the form of treasure chests.
Now they take the form of books about mimics.
A more deadly form would be a door. Less suspicious, and players are likely to try the handle before thinking it’s a mimic.
@@cylver3593the Door mimic is my favorite use. I turned one into a riddle game as well lol
(Dragon Quest VII intensifies)
@@skyjr13 Wait, wasn't that an optional encounter in Chrono Cross?
Did do that to my players: The wizard fell In hook Line and sinker. 3 chests and a book about mimics. The book being a mimic.. and The pedestal it was on just for kicks 😂
I now want to see a chest weasel that possessed a Pringles can and made it so that it only has one Pringle left at the bottom but that Pringle is unreachable and that’s how it gets frustration. The prize for feeding it is just being able to eat the Pringle.
Yes
I wanted to say "Have a weasel posses a torch and extinguish it every time they walk a few steps away from the fire source the adventurers use to ignite it."
However, a voice crossed time and space and said "I have darkvision"
Ok, I originally wanted to point out the "You can't discern colour in darkness, only shades of gray" part and recommend something like using different coloured notes on the walls and such....
But I realized that it could still be worked around if someone brought their own Lamp, another Torch or had a magical light source like the light cantrip (even Artificer's flavour feature "Magical Tinkering" would be an alternative).
÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷
HOWEVER, what if a SPECIFIC light source is needed to read otherwise "invisible" markings (similar to real life Ultraviolet light and invisible ink) and have THAT SPECIFIC TORCH be the only way to transport that light with them!
@@dandroid7but my investigation was a nat 20 critical success, how come it dont open automatically?
the chest weasel just goes "oh come on!" and leaves the tourch
Have their vision still fail to return. The chest weasel instead made the torch produce magical darkness.
@@MercuryA2000 the warlock replies, "devil's sight"
We've had four mini-mimics infiltrate our barb's coin pouch. They ate 20 or so gold before we found them. Two got killed, one managed to flee and one was intimidated by our barb into becoming her pet, so now the party has a pet mimic :D
My players have a baby mimic as well 😂 I’m loving how absolutely chaotic my current group is, 3 Rogues a Druid from the fey realm and a Gnoblin (half gnome half goblin) Barbarian…0 moral compass 0 regrets 😂😂😂
How does having a pet mimic work? I'm curious to see whether my pc could have one
@@mibbles2371 same as any animal companion I'd wager only this one hides as one or the other object our barb has on her. We feed it periodically, she trains it by doing animal handling checks.
If I had a nickel for every time I heard about a pet coin mimic I'd have two nickels. Idk if that's a reasonable amount or not. Anyways my cleric has one too. High five.
@@brianformica2599… you’d think you’d have two nickels, but the keyword is “object”; those are mimics.
I think mimics are good as they are with proper buildup, if you are in a dungeon that is constantly hinting that objects keep moving and things are not as they seem the punishment would make sense.
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
Mimic security is always a good idea for the people they are allied with.
Who knows better what was stolen than the chest the thieves stole the item out of?
Something thats always bothered me is how people see 'completely indistinguishable from a normal object' and think 'cannot be detected before chomping time.' You can still hint at it by their not being a layer of dust on it like everything else in the room, or a strange absence of mice despite mouseholes being in the walls.
@@seasnaill2589 Or.... Remember how anything that touches it in object form sticks to it with no checks to avoid being grappled? Yeah.... Pretty sure a couple copper coins or a stick could be used to find a mimic.... I'd say if the couple copper coins you tossed at a door or chest just stick to the chest then it's probably a mimic....
Heck if you want to be really funny just have a live chicken you toss at anything you think might be a mimic... if it eats the chicken it's defiantly a mimic and it might now be more open to negotiation if its an intelligent mimic....
Having a bit of buildup is a good way of doing it. It changes the question from IF there's a Mimic, to WHERE.
I just stopped making mimics look like chests. Bookshelves guarding hidden rooms, trapdoors that put themselves on top of stairs, or other roadblocks that are clearly more of a roadblock than a punishment for players. Also, I really only use them in dungeons related to magic users so players do t have to worry about them all the time
Yeah, this. If you want to use a mimic but you're worried that mimics as chests will deter players from opening chests, just make the mimic something else. They can be literally any inanimate thing, they don't have to be disguised as anything loot-related. That said, I'm also not convinced that ONE chest mimic would ruin a group of players forever. In fact, they're such a staple that it would probably be fun... ONCE. The problem here is only a problem if the DM uses them repeatedly and maliciously, which can also be said of just about any monster, trap or other obstacle the DM might throw at the party. Context matters.
Yep, my favorite is a room where the boxes/chests are all rotted out. There are weapon racks on opposite sides and in each there is a near pristine weapon. They party can detect magic or something to realize 1 is an actual magic wep reward, and the other is a mimic disguised as the weapon stand and weapon itself. Or if i am going to make it a chest, i make the most blatantly obvious trap i can (especially since my table are all newbies). We're talking 30 foot circumference round room, its on a raised platform and has a bloody spotlight on it by itself. Everyone knows not to touch it, but... can they fight the loot drive? its like in tomb of annihilation where i just stopped healing our rogue every time they went for every obvious chest and inevitably suffered for it even after a 20 min "dude, this place is meant to kill you by design, why would there be anything good about that flagrantly obvious box!?".
As a pathfinder storyteller I have templates, and a grand plan:
Giant Advanced Mimic... wagon, a very useful caravan type wagon.
My player never figured it out the whole time he had that thing, even though passengers where going missing inside of it. As the guy was a necromancer, and the passengers where his undead, this wasn't instantly noticeable. Maybe he never liked counting, or he sort of didn't care when he realized he was losing zombies, but either way.... that mimic decided it was better just being dragged along behind some very scared horses, getting regularly meals.
Deltree, you where a marvelous Roleplayer.
This is a good fix for the problem. Another good fix is toning down the mimics perfect camouflage. Boil it down and a mimic is just a trapped chest. If there's ways to identify and circumvent traps, they're cool and fun but if they aren't... they are the worst. The same can be true for mimics.
You could even do a double fake out with a chest mimic - when an adventurer tries to open it, it spits out treasure a previously eaten adventurer was carrying. It’s had its fill, and doesn’t want any trouble.
- "A treasure spitting chest, cool, I'll try again."
- "I guess I'll have dessert today..."
I ran the chest weasle in my game today. The group loved it! Instead of reaching 10 moments of frustration, the group ended up discovering it was a chest weasle and persuaded it to let them into the chest if they took the weasle back to town with them. There were far more people for it to annoy in town. The wizard was the one most annoyed by the weasle, so the weasle possessed the wizards staff which interfered with his ability to cast spells. They sold the staff to a merchant... who ended up going out of business not long after 😬
That poor guy.
Incredible.
What about a druid who communicates with monsters and raises a baby mimic so that they'll be their shapeshifting weapon/items? The druid can use a sword now with a disguised mimic. Or it can turn into a tent, rope, or many other items the character needs on an adventure, saving a ton of gold on supplies. And then play a changeling just to max out the shape-changing motif.
I love the idea of a druid being able to use a "metal" sword because it's not metal, it's mimic.
Sounds like a really fun idea for an NPC. A travelling merchant who seems to know you and your party to a scarily good degree, but they sell great loot so it's water under the bridge.
Turns out, the merchant and their carriage has been spying on you this whole time, in different forms. Eventually they use this information against the party, exploiting their weaknesses and creating division amongst the players by revealing secrets.
@@Jenna_TaliaThat sounds like an idea I heard a while back: when the magic item salesman is a boss and uses every item you’ve ever sold them or haven’t bought from them against you. Love the concept, will definitely steal.
There is a blood hunter mimic subclass in DND beyond homebrew. It's actually really good
A boy and his blob
I love the Potionomics characterization of Mimics. They make great familiars for witches and wizards who want to keep their stuff safe, but have to be trained not to eat the things put inside them. One of the main shopkeepers has a storage chest named Boxer, and you even get your own mimic named Vendi (a vending machine, adorable) who helps you sell potions you don't care to haggle on.
So I was already interested in it before, reading this and the game is now in my library and I didn't even have to do anything it just.. appeared.
I love that too. It's also really reminicent of Terry Pratchett's "the Luggage", which I'm surprised wasn't mentioned here at all. I've always seen that as one of the first mimics, especially because it has all the elements that most people associate with mimics. Or, at least, all the elements of the Luggage has been used in mimics since.
I remember a side quest my party ran through involving a giant mimic. So there was a magic shop in town with an eccentric wizard running it. Well after arriving in town a number of people went missing. Turns out this happens every couple months, but the city watch never do anything about it because they've "got better things to do than chase cats stuck in trees."
So anyway long story short it turns out the wizard was the favorite target of the local thieves guild, and every couple months they'd send a member or two in to try to steal from the shop. What they didn't know was the shop itself was actually a mimic and any time somebody would try to steal something the 'shop' would seemingly come to life and drag the victim into the basement, never to be seen or heard from again. They thought the wizard was just that powerful and if they could get a particular item or scroll they could sell it for massive profit, and since nobody ever returned they'd just keep trying whenever they got low on funds to bribe the guards.
Turned into a pretty fun who done it investigation, especially when the party rogue tried to steal a magic gem and got dragged away. We spent the better part of an hour negotiating with a house to keep him from being eaten lol
I'm really fond of the Icespire Peak subquest where the party has to find a "shapechanger" that's eating a bunch of gnomes, because in that case the player is fully expecting a mimic and by the time they find it, it's more relief than frustration.
I always love the idea of mimics just being a shapeshifting ambush predator who just wants to eat everyone and again. Like a magic crocodile
I like filling wizard lairs with animated objects: mimics (commonly doors), armor, weapons, smothering rugs, etc... while using those creatures nowhere else. It gives these environments a strong vibe, while that paranoia doesn't carry over to the rest of the campaign.
prescicely! i had recently had that thought.
Pretty much any trickery themed dungeon should do the trick.
I had a bunch of mirror mimics (in a hall of mirrors) who attacked the party actively then they were fighting a wizard in that same hall. A perception check of 15 would point out a mimic because the reflection in the mimics were slightly slower than the ones in the real mirrors because the mimics are not actually reflecting the images but hurriedly shapechanging to match.
That's a real cool idea
I personally like the idea of mimics being more than just chests and actually gaining attributes based on where they chose to call home.. like a mimic gaining undead traits from mimicing a tombstone in a graveyard or gaining magic traits from crystals in a cave.
I recently DM'd your Feywild One-Shot to my players and the chest weasel part was BY FAR the most fun in the entire session. My players eventually gave up and started MAKING SANDWITCHES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DUNGEON because Renata was hungry. The moment the weasel puffed out was priceless. Their faces lmao.
“The Ecology of” series of articles in Dragon Magazine was such a great source of world building. They took the weird monsters and tried to think how they would logically fit in the world. Miss them so much.
Where did they go?
I've always liked the idea of the traditional chest mimics only being one stage in their lifecycle. Baby mimics are as small as a coin and often disquise themselves as such, sneaking out to parasitize on people who pick it up. As they grow they will morph into whatever object suits their size from a mug that eats rats to a carpet that eats cats. Eventually they might grow to be large enough to become an entire house. Or maybe players run across a mysterious abandoned ship floating on the waters only to find out that the ship itself is a massive mimic filled to the brim with dozens or hundreds of younger mimics and the ship is sailing to the largest port city to spread a new wave of mimic infestation.
That last idea there
first of all, you're evil.
Second of all, that's brilliant. You could, and should, do an entire campaign around that
That's kinda what i did in my campaign except it was train that my players actually managed to befriend
Drakkenheim Liberio arc reference?
@@423RedWolf I don't think I've seen that but I've probably come across it before or a reference to it and just don't remember
@@iggytheincubus Thanks! If I ever DM I definitely will. Another idea I had is inspired by Delicious In Dungeon where a player finds a sword that turns out to be a mimic and if you befriend it it can help give you an advantage in combat rolls as the blade bends and twists to find chinks in armor or deflect incoming blows
The chest is intangible. Next to the chest is a lever. If someone pulls the lever they become intangible and the chest becomes corporeal. The person who pulled the lever still can't touch the chest. Their friend opens the chest. Inside is another chest. Inside that chest is a lever. Hyjinx insue.
Love it 😂
Wait, if the friend pulls the lever does it then become player tangible friend intangible and chest intangible again? And now the puzzle becomes both players need to be corporeal so that they can even carry the loot the weasel gave them?
I once gave a player a curse which punished him for skipping fights to loot. The curse turned any chest or door he touched into a mimic if his allies were in combat.
Out of curiosity, what is the range of the curse/what does it consider allies in combat?
Just because i think it would be hilarious if the party was separated over a long distance (either voluntarily or forced by magic), and his half would end up fighting mimics constantly because the other half would end up in combat at that time. (It would let them know when the others were fighting because they could be chilling and suddenly the door to their hotel room attacks them)
Obviously that isn't the intent, just a funny possible natural conclusion of the curse as written.
That moment when your player turns everything into mimics to help fight against the BBEG.
I've always enjoyed letting mimics have 'eggs' that look like gold coins. And sometimes a mimic just lets adventurers take the 'coins' so that the eggs can be spread.
That is both evil and genius
New phobia unlocked
Loved the video and the creature! ❤
Also, just as a reminder: there’s much more fun in making mimics turn into non-chest objects.
I’ve prepared two combat encounters featuring mimics in my home campaign and it was awesome.
The first mimic was a door that worked for the local thieves guild to guard their hideout in exchange for food.
The second one featured dozens of tiny mimics that would pretend to be a wizard's mugs collection, and whenever someone else entered the wizard’s bedroom, they would jump from the shelves onto the trespassers.
lmao, the size of my mug collection would possibly cause a tpk in lower levels
I love mimics, but they really do traumatise players. I only put them in places where a villain or other character would hire them or where they may naturally end up setting up an ambush given their ecology. My players know that the open world is generally free of mimics but evil Lairs aren’t
I definitely had big city sewers infested with mimics which messed up my players when they thought they were crossing single plank bridges.
Which then tried to eat them
I fully agree with this take, using mimics as weapons to me is more fair and fun
@@ClericOfPholtus, Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
Same. Wizard Towers: High chance of mimics. Old abandoned cave with a container half buried? Basically no chance of mimics.
@@alchemicpink2392 The estate owned by the Minister of Necromantic Affairs probably has their secrets and valuables well guarded. Perhaps players should think critically before sticking their mits into things without a plan. Or at least the part of me that values internal consistency over ease of gameplay thinks so.
Knowing my party, the moment there’s a chest weasel it’s either “we leave the chest Alone” or “stab the chest”
Edit: after reading the doc I now know that my party will only resort to stabbing it
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
@@TheKnightlyScarlingstop copy-pasting the same comment everywhere!
Gonna add a little bit of a gambling mechanic to the Chest Weasel: give the party a mildly cursed magic item that has an annoying (and often hilarious) but workable curse and see what their reaction is. However, if they wanted to double down the Weasel could offer them a more powerful magic item with a more inconvenient curse, so on and so forth. The curse is directly tied to the Weasel and will fade once it’s properly fed. The party won’t know the curse fades until that happens. For example: we can have the Sword of Irritable Bowel Syndrome which makes the PC holding it want to use the bathroom three or four times a day at random intervals. Or how about the Gary’s Sword which makes all slain enemies rag doll uncontrollably glitching into terrain and flailing about so looting them requires a strength check or grapple roll. Things of that nature
Got an idea for the cursed item.
Ring of the great wizard "Hee'ho Smeltit".
Requires attunement.
Casts a half damage cloudkill (or less, idk magic stuff) centered on caster, with damage reduced further.
Disadvantage on charisma based checks for the next 24 hours, or what have you.
Basically makes you rip absolute ass, and you might have poo'd a little.
@@hippo5231runesmith? Is that you?
@@funnymonkey3961 no, lmao.
What about a lootbox weasel? The weasel entrances you to come near and coaxes you into opening its chest with fabulous riches, only for it continually reveal underwhelming and useless items.
@@FelixHelixihare *this-* this is genius
What happens if a Chest Weasel accidentally tries to possess a chest Mimic?
Does it work, do they fight, do either of them run away, does the weasel explode from trying to possess something that is not an object, would the weasel just instinctively know that it was a mimic and not possess it? What about the weasel possessing a Sentient Object?
So many odd questions. So many possibilities.
they become friends lol
ah yes, *s y m b i o s i s*
They become buddies
i like to think that the weasel can sense a "life-force" from sentient objects, mimics, and other possessed items. even if they cannot be distinguished. it allows weasels to be a continual asset to the party, while also cleanly answering these questions.
Yea!✨✨ The return of the adorable chest weasel. I think this is my favorite of all your creations.
I am planning on having a tavern in my next campaign that is basically a mimic hive. I remember reading somewhere that mimics feed on the residual magic from magic items (which is why they like to eat adventurers that have them). This tavern will basically be a breeding ground for mimics. They don't attack the patrons since they are usually adventurers that constantly bring them residual magic. Almost everything in the tavern is a mimic. The tables, the plates, the mugs, maybe even the tavern itself. The entire town knows that the main rule in the tavern is NO FIGHTING. If something were to get broken... it would be bad...
🤔Even without something breaking, I could imagine some mimics having different personalities like dogs. Maybe some of them just jump in to join the fight, and play rough! (i.e. Try to nom everyone. I've got nibble marks this week, again.😆)
I would kindly like to request to borrow this idea.
Feel free!
Ooo, I like this idea!
That’s awesome 🎉
A mimic similar to Chester in Don't Starve would be a great concept in DnD. You find a key shaped like a bone, and suddenly, you're accompanied by an adorable dog-like mimic that follows you around and carries your stuff. We could tweak it so that it tries to eat anyone not carrying the bone with them unless given a treat once a day to satiate it, and it helps fight by your side and carry all non-food items without being encumbered. You can feed it monster parts as a treat, promoting more fighting and less talking your way out of things all the time since a hungry Chester will become an even more difficult fight than the ones you skipped...
I imagine there would be additional limitations on the types of items which could be safely stored within this friendly mimic.
It wouldn't be a good way to store your provisions, for instance. And there might be some other things which might not be edible to an adventurer, but which their mimic may attempt to digest.
@binarybolias7803 perhaps non organic materials only? Like forged metal and treated leather (and the weapons and armor they make) are OK, but the rations, potions, and reagents might get digested.
I really like taking the approach of Shovel Knight to Mimics, where the mimics are smart and they go into dungeons to get the treasure and magic items before the party, so that when the party finds the chest and get stuck to it, instead of a dangerous creature ready to eat you, its a very insistent salesman. giving mimics a bit of bagofholding-ness flavor and some background helping mages and thieves to smuggle things from place to place can give mimics a very nice role as a charming shopkeeper NPC, they can even go "you can find me in the city if you go here and here", and use their object mimicry to become a little hidden black market.
had to rewrite my comment because my bad internet sent it to limbo
Currently working on a mimic that I can’t wait for my party to encounter. Basically since the game is a seafaring one the mimic would be a pristine ship just floating out in the ocean. When party investigates it, it will just seem like one unless if they have high rolls. However if they ever walk down into the ship, that is where the teeth shut close and the digestive acid begins to rise. Party will also realize that every other thing on the ship such as barrels, chairs, etc. was a mimic and they stumbled into a mimic hive.
Make it a small overgrown island with a cave. In this cave is a chest. Wait for the players to say " I don't think the chest I a mimic"
The idea of a mimic is also a situation where you can't think about what you want to give people so you need something to slow them down. I absolutely love this concept.
OMG A MIMIC VIDEO I WANTED THIS SO BAD
So a couple things I want to say:
1. I adore the concept of the Chest Weasel, I think that could be a very cute encounter.
2. Fizban introduces the Hoard Mimic, a giant mimic that is capable of language, and is even intelligent enough to negotiate with people. Dragons often bargain with them to act as false hoards to bait out adventurers--- a mutually beneficial relationship. I know that Fizban's isn't part of the SRD, though, so I understand why you didn't mention it.
3. I feel like a lot of people forget that Mimics... don't have to exclusively be chests. They can be any inanimate object, from a candelabra to a staircase to a book to a door. As such, they could be used in an ambush-type scenario where suddenly the walls start to move and attack the party. Or they could be disguised as a door and surprise the party! (I used that in my campaign lol). Point is, chest mimics might be the most iconic, but we can get much weirder than a --famous Jigglypuff player-- hungry box.
Heck with mimics being intelligent they would make an excellent addition to any bandit ambush.... (Pretend to be a log blocking the road and then when the adventurers attempt to move it they get stuck and that's when the bandits reveal themselves to shake down the adventurers..... Turns out the bandits have been bribing the mimic with food to assist them.)
Sweet, I was looking forward for you to finally talk about those weasel mimics.
Personally I like mimics, but I like it more when they turn to things besides chests. Like yeah I understand why, but if they are so good at shapeshifiting I think its a little limited that they only turn to just one thing. And the idea of an intelligent talking mimic sound so fun.
I've always wanted a mimic as a pet for one of my characters. Like a friendly mimic that just wants to be your friend, turning into a ladder or a rope when you need to climb, a chair when you need a place to sit, a backpack to store your goods, or even a weapon when you're disarmed. It always tries to be helpful, but then gets upset and disappointed when it's ultimately more of an inconvenience than a help, since it just ends up unintentionally adhering to / grappling everyone that tries to use it.
I have to say in the last few days where I started hyperfixating on DM videos as I plan a campaign, I stumbled across your channel. I am blown away by the quality of your videos, how informative they are and insightful and how clear your guidance is to help DMs plan and come up with ideas. And the fact that you also offer full stat sheets for your examples FOR FREE, is incredible. Hats off to you pointy hat, your work is amazing 👌🏻
Hey Pointy Hat! I remember you mentioned the chest weasel in your the other video about creating the feywild campaign. I used the chest weasel idea and ran with it. I used it as a familiar for an NPC that was delivering a letter to one of the players. It was a hit, their character found it so frustrating and annoying, opening so many different chests and even getting another player to help them, but immediately forgave it once they saw how cute it was. Meanwhile, everyone was giggling in the background. Thank you so much for this, I personally might include this creature in other campaigns cause I love it so much.😂
Wow, I can’t believe you posted this now of all times. I just started working on a Mimic themed homebrew book for D&D this week. It’s going to have 6 mimic themed subclasses, a mimic playable race, tons of mimic statblocks based off different disguises, and a lot more.
I was really nervous throughout this video, worried that your concept was going to be similar to something I working on, but luckily that didn’t happen. Looks like I *weaseled* out of that one
now i have to know about it!
Please keep us posted on your homebrew! 😎
A moment of silence for house mimics, sword mimics, chair mimics, table mimics, pot mimics, cake mimics, torch mimics, boat mimics, carriage mimics, shirt mimics, pants mimics, harp mimics, the banjo mimic, and the ever disregarded mimic maker. They'll get enough infamy eventually.
Mimic mimics (it's just a chest that looks kinda mimicy)
Wall Mimics
Health potion mimic
You know what’s funny? A mimic shield… because why would you willingly turn yourself into something that will be attacked and thus you’ll get hurt.
Therefore I want a mimic shield, the utter confusion when I go to block something and suddenly their weapon is stolen or better yet they get surprise attacked is worth more than me getting a big ouchie.
@@draketurtle4169 Honestly, I go with the idea that different mimics have different diets. Chest mimics, sword mimics, and the like are carnivorous. Boat mimics prefer fish and aquatic life. A shield mimic enjoys metal and wood, hence why they take the shape they do. They're smart enough to know shields get hit by metal or wooden weapons a lot, thus it's easy food in exchange for letting some adventurer carry them around.
Plus, could see a shield mimic having LOADS more health than a standard mimic of that size, probably closer to house, boat, or carriage mimics in terms of HP
Thanks for including clips of Dark Cloud 2!!!! Freaking love that game!
Its a really cute idea, I like it as an alternative and separate thing apart from mimics. Honestly I would use both in a game to mix it up and show not everything is a mimic but they are still out there and they have a chance of finding one... or a Chest Weasel that could just fool around with them.
Mimics can be done well, but the dungeon master has to use them responsibly or else they can ruin a game singlehandedly.
Chest weasels are amazing though, I love those little fluff noodles. "It's annoying" is MUCH better than "don't trust anything" ❤
I'd say, make it more obvious that mimics are present. (Or could be present. ) This would put players alert in the moment rather than paranoid all the time. (E.x. The players reach the end of the dungeon and find the treasure they were looking for. 3 copies of said treasure. Only 1 of them could be real. )
The ultimate irony of watching this video for me is that in my current campaign, I have a magic item shop that's run BY a high intelligence mimic! Combined with the fact most of book purchases have for expanding his product list, the addition of the Chest Weasel is icing on the mimic shaped cake for new ideas of a side event I'm thinking of putting my players through. Top notch as always Pointy Hat!
Oh my god I want one, I'm imagining a chaotic good arcane trickster with one who just goes around stealing every other sock, or all of someone's spoons so his weasel can feed on their anger.
That final chest weasel illustration is so magical, I'm in love
I love the chest weasel idea.
I've used mimics for horror - a keg gets delivered to a tavern, and soon people start disappearing. It doesn't 'teach' my players against any particular behavior, but it does make them understand that people aren't the only hazardous things they can encounter in the city.
Mimics are great! In Pathfinder there's a third party book called 'Legendary Shifters' by Legendary Games, and that class is extremely fun, but it also has a a Mimic class archetype, that allows YOU! THE PLAYER! To turn into a Mimic! I played this class in a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and it was super fun! The mixture of stealthy object disguising and EXTREME MONSTROUS VIOLENCE was super fun and cool. ANGRY BOX NOISES INTENSIFY! There was a lot of fun with it, some really interesting class abilities, and it just lead to some really fun shenanigans.
At the end of the campaign he retired and became a Tavern.
...Yes, I know what I said.
Fun fact: my longest lasting and most favorite pathfinder character to play was a mimic sorcerer who through magical expiramentation figured out how to turn into a human rather than an object. But they found that the process was irreversible except in very short time spans (i.e the duration of an alter or disguise self spell.) And once this character was just starting to get used to being a human and even enjoying it discovered something horrific turns out all mimics were originally humans who lived in an El Dorodo-esque empire of gold who were punished for their greed by an ancient god to reincarnate as a mimic for all time. And that fate was unavoidable. So their ultimate goal was to find a way to break the curse which, they did but died before they could administer it to other mimics. Ever since that campaign it's always been difficult for me to seperate that GMs custom lore for mimics and official material.
Where in the tavern did your mouth end up? I assume you still had to eat and hope it wasnt your patrons...
I want to make a living tavern now, hahah it could be friendly to the party or there could be people going missing from there and the patty have to find out why.
I've got an encounter made where a mimic has made a deal with someone. They wear it as armor and are stated as a grappler. So each turn they try to make sure they have someone to chomp and beat up together. Friendship is beautiful
Can't believe I spent like all day watching pretty much every video you've made. The amount of inspiration I've gotten watching your videos is unreal. Doing Gods' work 🙌
An interesting mimic encounter: You find a room filled with chests and a book on how to identify mimics, the description slowly describes the book itself but before you would typically realize it transforms into a mimic. It still surprises you and has the mimic as a trap, but it gives the player the ability to realize it is a trap, and it basically tells you that there is a mimic in the room. (I saw the general idea of this on a video on another video).
I once played a semi-intelligent, friendly mimic that pretended to be a direwolf taxidermy. The story was that it was captured as a baby and raised by an eccentric collector and was rescued by the party hoarder house style. 10/10 one of my favorite memories
I’ve been replaying Prey the last few days, so this is exactly what I was thinking about! I can’t wait to see what the twist is…
Absolutely do not look it up. I had it spoiled for me, and it really killed my motivation to finish the game. It's such a good story too, and the twist can make replaying it worthwhile...unless someone spoils it for you
Chest Mimics CAN be good as part of a dungeon gimmick. The Beast Castle, from the Beauty and the Beast, is a good example. ANYTHING can be alive, ANYTHING can be an enemy... or, given the proper motivation, an ally...
Technically they were cursed. I think Mrs Potts and the gang were always mimics. Who gets cursed and immediately adapts to pouring scalding water through their head like it's nothing. Nothing human.
Most mimics (90%)used to be intelligent (10 INT) in early editions of Dungeons and Dragons, and could be bargained with or bribed with meat. Think of door/wall/etc, and the true neutral mimics could speak common. Just like the owlbear, nobody knows who tf originally created the mimics, the process it took, or what the reasoning behind the creation was, but you could always speculate.
@theroundmeal8384 when you put it like that those types of mimics almost fulfil the role of a genie. A shape-shifting dangerous creature/being that appears out of an everyday object that could give you treasure or crush you in an instant. Not the Robin Williams Genie but the OG 101 Arabian Nights one that had to be tricked into serving Alladin after almost killing him.
So I've been working on a large module that is based entirely on mimics, and I've had to really dig to come up with a good amount of Lore that technically doesn't exist to make it interesting. Stuff like this is always nice to see because it let's me see another way to use them without really using them, and then saving the actual thing for something far worse, but much more fun in its own way. Once again, fantastic work Mr. Hat!
Just wanted to let you know, ran the Chest Weasel in a one-shot, and it was GOLD! You did a great job with it, and (after the fact) my players LOVED it! Thank you, Mr Hat, 10/10!
Imagine making a campaign with a lot off chest weasels and when the players get used to them mimics!
My favourite use of a mimic, was not to use a mimic. I had a suspicious chest at the end of a hall, as the players approached, one found a note written in secret druidic, it only said one word "Mimic" What followed was the players trying to communicate with the chest, trying to bribe it with food, then eventually preparing an all out attack which destroyed the chest. Inside was a note, that was a picture of a squirrel showing it's rear end. The whole thing was a prank. And there never was a mimic. (And no I didn't pull the "and the door next to the chest was the mimic" card cause that's lame.)
A prank worthy of the fey
Dark Souls moment.
I did something similar in my game. It was a gauntlet of challenges from a bored mage that wanted to have fun watching people solve his puzzles and challenges.
They walk into a room with only a chest, sign says "the key is inside the chest", simple roll to unlock the chest and find the key to the door.
The next room is exactly the same but now an extra sign just says: "Mimic". They spend some time trying to poke the chest thinking it's a mimic, they poke the sign thinking it's a mimic... nothing happens. They figure it's probably just a joke, unlock the chest and grab the key, which proceeds to bite the player's hand and doesn't let go until the Ranger executes it with a gunshot. The real key was inside the chest under the pillow which the mimic was placed on (I had made sure to always casually mention this nice looking pillow and how ornate the chest was even in the first room so it felt like just a random description and wouldn't draw that much attention, but also allow them to figure it out, and they did soon after dealing with the mimic)
Hilarious
Missed opportunity to name Chest Weasels "Faerrets"
Ok. Hear me out: Chest Weasels are just one type. Faerrets are the general term, and each type feeds on different emotions. Basically, a cuter variant of the Hags twist.
@@redlunatic2224 I dig it. Chest weasels are faerrets that specifically feed on frustration.
When I tried pronouncing it sounds a bit too much like "Fae-Rats"
@@techpriestemily Like Bag Badgers that feed on surprise/distress by hissing and snapping at adventurers trying to take out their valuables, or Trinket Minks that love the taste of avarice and disguise themselves as jewel-crusted goblets and solid-gold tableware.
@@perhapsyes2493They could be pronounced that way, and basically just be sort of the Faewild's version of rats and the like.
Why make it out to be a bug when it can be a feature?
I used the chest weasel after seeing your feywild vid some time ago. My players absolutely loved it. One thing that surprised me is that the dimmest player who struggles the most with puzzles actually was the one to solve it. Long story short, he sweared like a sailor, gave into his frustrations and thus solved the puzzle. The look on his face after explaining what just happened was priceless. Funnily enough, by pure happenstance, I used the chest weasel in a tower filled with mimics. It was an adventure I made to show off mimics and to make people see that a mimic is so much more then just a punishment. I guess I subconsciously realised the chest weasel was just the perfect mimic.
At this point he just needs to make a book honestly I’d buy it 110%
I love mimics - eager to dive into this one :)
I like when chest mimics are basically guard dogs of important treasure. Golden Sun and Dark Souls actually played it well by rewarding the player with nice loot most of the time.
I love the idea of a chest weasel popping out of a chest in a dungeon, offers an array of magical items for sale, then constantly haggles with the adventurers before settling at the original price.
Was recommended this video as I've recently been diving into D&D, and have to say the chest weasel seems like an interesting take on the mimic. If I ever get around to building my own campaign I would love to add those little guys around for a flavorful twist.
This is awesome! I've been thinking of making a "Magic Item Shop" in my campaign that only sells useless items (i.e the bagpipes of invisibility) and a chest weasel would make such a great Shop owner! And every time the group enters the store, they'll have to interact with whatever object the weasel is possessing to get their attention. This is perfect!
I really miss House Mimics, which is a small house that is a mimic. So many fun applications, such as if one decided to start stalking the players.
The one time I used a mimic in my campaign it wasn't a chest. It was an elevator.
The party went into this spooky abandonded mansion to dismantle a network of vampire traffickers.
They stepped into the elevator...and then the elevator opened its mouth.
The surprise and twist worked, while the only negative consequences long term is that they always take the stairs now.
Quick question: Vampires who were traffickers? Or people trafficking in vampires?
I had a similar idea for a wizard's tower. Upon entering, it would ask for a password. A non answer or attempt to force it to move would lead to it taking the party halfway up and then attempting to eat them. If they knew the password, though, they could bypass the stairs, which were also trapped.
@@khayyin359 Vampires who were trafickers, words should have been swapped, my badd
For everyone like me who wants a twist on dragons, we will unite in all videos from this one on, because our greedy lizards deserve it too!!!
DAY 3 ASKING FOR DRAGONS ON THE CHANNEL
The only knock I have against a potential dragon video is that dragons are so widespread that coming up with a new idea for them that hasn't already been used somewhere is very difficult
Yknow a fun twist on dragons? Don't use them in the games, ever
@@An_Entire_Limethinking maybe literally the beast of revelations(a drakon)
Some kind of horrible demon dragons who wants to hoard worship, especially stealing worship from the gods. They brand their worshippers who acts as their servants and followers(not specifically the mark of the beast, just a brand or mark of some kind, probably unique to each individual demon dragon), making it far harder to confront the dragon behind their many layers of bodyguards and cults and general government infiltration.
Confronting one, they tempt you to become a follower with infernal deals and magics(such as offering a holy fruit they stole that grants a permanent intelligence increase, or can make an extra planar entity mortal). Fighting it meanwhile is a challenge due to the worshippers and multiple heads like a hydra, each head having to be slain so that it doesn’t regenerate and start anew.
Thank you for your videos, really! They are always great to watch and always good inspiration.
I had my players face off some fairy shenannigans inspired by your ideas lately and according to them it was both frustrating and fun. For example, one chest sucked up all of one player's items when he opened it and then split into 20 other chests. I rolled 1d20 every chest he opened, 2-6 would give his items back and 1 all of them... everything else had things happen to him like coloring his beard rainbow, shaving, low dmg versions of spells that wouldn't kill him, punching gloves shooting out of them, etc... The thing was, he started to mistrust the whole system and went over to sneak up on the chests and trying to hurl them into a nearby river so he wouldn't have to deal with them...
Greatings from Germany!!
P.S. Yes, low numbers are good in The Dark Eye.
I am so happy you expanded on the Chest Weasel! I loved running that encounter in the Fey Wild one shot you made and wanted to incorporate it into my larger games.
I like the idea that any seemingly intact treasure inside a Mimic, is itself a baby mimic in hibernation pretending to be gold, jewels etc.
I’ve only used a mimic as “where their items are stored while the PCs are in prison”. And it’s a fun way to challenge them
It would be cool to have an episode of dnd with a twist with some items.
My party and i went to an inn that was essentially a giant mimic. Everything in there, was a mimic. From the floorboards to the curtains. My character took it upon herself to take and look after a mug of ale. When the campaign was done, the mimic mug had become something like a non combatant familiar. Next time we rolled up characters in the same universe, i rolled up the same mimic, all grown up, in a suit of armour. It was an artificer/beast barb. I loved that thing.
I gotta say I'm always impressed by the sheer creativity you show in creating new creatures!
Now for my own not nearly as creative twist on the old classic. First, the simplest trick. Make those mimics detectable! What makes those Souls games work is that there's numerous subtle signs that give away that you're dealing with a mimic. The lesson becomes less "treasure will betray you" and more "pay attention to details and don't trust things on first appearance", which is a lesson I do want players to take away! Like a Facedancer's trap, there must always be a means of escape!
Anyway, now onto my twist: baby mimics. Unlike the fully developed and formed mimics, these ones are easily scared. They won't attack you, instead they will suddenly get up on their pseudopods and go running in fear and crying out in a unique mimic cry for help. This opens up all kinds of things. First of all, adventures aren't punished for looting so much as finding they just have to do more to earn this treasure than they thought, but secondly, there's a chance the mimic's "parents" will show up, and by "show up" I mean reveal themselves as a wall or a door or something as the players give chase, so there's a chance for combat that's telegraphed a mile away. But third, and this one I'm kinda in love with, baby mimics can be adorable, and perhaps especially creative players who love animals can tame the mimic and make it a loyal pet. A pet that is ENTIRELY content to stay completely still and out of the way as some casual item in the adventurer's pack, so as not to distract the adventurers, but can be pulled out as needed for players to set their OWN traps. Raise it up and put that ancient relic some lich is hunting you down to take inside, to lure it in and ambush it right back.
I have not played D&D but Pointy Hat is easily in my top 3 YT creator
Can't wait to see what you do with mimics! Now I've got something new to torture my players with! 😅
Lol, he makes fun of you in the video.
I understand though, just because I want to torture my players doesn't mean I don't love them and am primarily motivated by their fun.
@@thegreatandterrible4508Yeah, I get it though! My players like a challenge and a joke here and there!
@@DLWebb6245 I had a player go absolutely crazy because a fey ally would only answer their question in riddles. It is one of the most commonly shared stories from that campaign.
just give the mimic a real reason to live. let's say, a mimic was created to guard something for its creator? follow the creator, guard the protected goods... essentially, turn the mimic into the luggage ;-)
should be funnier than having all the party members use bags of holding. they might be connected to bags of holding and bags of devouring. a bag of devouring deposits items in the mimic. could be fun.
You make good points about specifically chest mimics and I LOVE the chest weasel as a replacement. However, you can avoid almost all of the problems you mentioned by making your mimics disguise as anything but chests and still have that fun surprise aspect.
Started a campaign recently in a piratey setting and decided to incorporate mimics because pirate chests are thematic and all. But then I started working them into the story as a central point in the island cluster the party is living in. Like the fact that they have a living, growing population of mimics native to these islands, other races have begun to either hunt or work in tandem with mimics to get things done, and some towns have just kind of gotten used to them. I think it will be an interesting thing to work with, and I really like your concept of the Chest Weasel, might have to work in some tricky mimics to my story. Thanks for the great ideas and content!
Mimics are yet another example of D&D making sure to punish you if you don't complete their mandatory checklist of "thinks you HAVE to have in your party".
You better have that guy in charge of checking for traps OR ELSE....
Which is an honest thing to do. One wouldn't go spelunking without a spelunker... if you do you'd probably die
Why is that bad exactly? Punishing poor planning is pretty normal, especially when the party can easily check for a mimic in many different ways. Lots of players enjoy TTRPGs for the challenges, not just to play a comfy and warm game where you can do anything you want with no repercussions.
@@Limrick1029 It's not planning nor challenging wtf are you talking about.
The game punishes you for not cramming onto your party the mandatory checklist it demands of you rather than rewarding you for having a diversified group.
Having a game that is a series of "DO YOU HAVE THAT X REQUIREMENT? IF NOT GET SLAPPED" isn't challenging not intelligent, it's just garbage railroady design.
@@Pers0n97 Except mimics are arguably pretty easy to check for.... Throw a copper coin at what you suspect to be a mimic. If it sticks, it's a mimic. Mimics are sticky in object form that's how they catch prey. At least that's one way I'd allow for players to check for mimics.... (And pretty sure everyone has something disposable they can yeet to check for mimics regardless of class.)
honestly i've adapted mimics to my own use (mostly making them interesting things like train cars and making them detectable if you look really hard so it's not pure frustration), but the chest weasel is SUCH a good idea and i definitely want to use that now
Gotta say that video came at a perfect moment. Me and my players were preparing to play the Feywild one-shot and, me knowing them, in the Chest Weasel encounter they would probably swing an axe at the treasure chest at the second trolling move I would make. And create a stat block by myself is not one of my strengths. I may need to translate the stat block to my language, but I already did this to the whole adventure so it won't be a big deal. Anyway, great video Antonio! Keep up the good work!
I love the idea of the Chest Weasel, it's the kind of Fey Chaos I adore. It's annoying but in the end not harmful. Thanks for such an amazing creature!
When I first saw the Chest Weasel during your Feywild episode, I fell in love with the idea! Thanks for making the Stat block for this, im definitely gonna use this little bugger! Keep up the great work!😸👍
I actually had a mimic take the form of a dungeon door once back in D&D 3.5. It's fun when someone tries listening to hear if there is anything on the other side.
And I still smile at the thought of that dwarf barbarian who attacked every desk he happened upon with his battle axe after that one encounter. The pre-adventure "meeting in M's office" became a lot more entertaining after that.
I put a chest weasel in my game yesterday and what a game
This is such a cute idea!!!
I'm making my first campaign (for a group of friends that mostly never played) and i will certainly use this!
It just seems so fun
I will have to work a little on the details but it'll certainly be worth it
Fun magic Item. Mimic greatsword. ‘Just a normal great sword with glass eye on the cross guard’. 2d6 slashing with a dc 15 animal handling check you can entice the mimic to lash out its tongue (the blade) to pulling and grapple a human sized enemy. Failing the handling check will make it just become a whip for a turn and a nat 1 makes it grapple you. The check becomes easier after casting speak with animals, friends, or find familiar will lower the dc to 10 and make for interesting RP.
I'll have you know that the DM of one group I'm playing with recently used a chest weasel. I did not know about them, as I only saw your video now. It was a super fun encounter and my character ended up empathising with the chest weasel deeply. I thought it may bring you joy to know your inspiration went out into the world and returns to you having fulfilled its intention. Once for certain, but surely many times over :)
In completely unrelated proceedings, I shall not watch your feywild video before the end of this campaign 🫣
I love this and I’m gonna use it in my current campaign, still love the concept of “the haunted house IS the mimic” or “the boat is the mimic” though
That my friend is a fantastic concept! I love all of the ideas you come up with. If only my DM wasn't a self proclaimed Sadist. Other wise I would have recommended this idea to him.
Hey I just found your channel a few days ago and I'm impressed by the quality of all of your work ! Every video is polished and interesting, it's motivated me to start DMing again ! So thanks for your work and keep it up
You make very professional videos! Very funny, very useful, and just plane old fun! Not many UA-camrs can make that claim just starting out.
Seeing your channel grow so fast is so awesome
Moth people and candle robots sound incredible btw