D&D 5E Toll the Chest

[Maxperson]

It seems the mimic didn't turn out to be much of a challenge in part because your DM didn't make use of its ability to hide in plain sight. Clearly the party had not noticed the threat the mimic presented to them, and yet your DM not only didn't give the mimic the benefit of having surprised the entire party but also allowed the cleric to attack the mimic out of combat. No wonder it only got in one attack!

The problem was placing the chest in the middle of the room like that. What you do is place a chest on a table in the middle of the room and make the mimic the table. Why no, your spell didn't have any effect on the chest.

 

[CleverNickName]

Sir Bazil Kwestgifer: "Why are there scorch marks on this chest that I asked you to retrieve intact?"

"You have a keen eye, Sir Kwestgifer. Alas, we are no wiser than you...it was like that when we found it. Our mage said it was consistent with a firebolt cantrip...quite recent, in fact. I suspect we were being followed. Did you perhaps mention this quest to anyone? A trusted colleague, perhaps?"

 

[cbwjm]

I'd allow it. I'd also start the combat round at that point (once the spell has been cast and the mimic reveals itself), so everyone rolls initiative and the cleric is the top of the round, and that's their Action.

 

[Hriston]

The problem was placing the chest in the middle of the room like that. What you do is place a chest on a table in the middle of the room and make the mimic the table. Why no, your spell didn't have any effect on the chest.

I know you're kidding, but I really don't have a problem with the mimic's setup. The whole room is within its move, so as long as someone actually enters the room and fails to notice it's a mimic, like exactly what's described in the OP, then the mimic gets a surprise attack. Now, why the party entered the room at all without the cleric trying to cast his spell from a safer distance is, I think, a question worth asking.

 

[iserith]

It seems the mimic didn't turn out to be much of a challenge in part because your DM didn't make use of its ability to hide in plain sight. Clearly the party had not noticed the threat the mimic presented to them, and yet your DM not only didn't give the mimic the benefit of having surprised the entire party but also allowed the cleric to attack the mimic out of combat. No wonder it only got in one attack!

I'm not sure I would ruled automatic surprise that way. I think a Dexterity (Stealth) check is in order to determine who is surprised here.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm not sure I would ruled automatic surprise that way. I think a Dexterity (Stealth) check is in order to determine who is surprised here.

Whereas I would have gone with suspicion. I don't know how the rest of the party acted, but at the very least the Cleric was suspicious of the chest and I would have not allowed him to be surprised. If the rest of the party was suspicious as they moved in, no surprise there, either. If on the other hand they just waltzed in and the Cleric told me what he wanted to do, they would be surprised and the Cleric would act normally.

 

[Hriston]

I'm not sure I would ruled automatic surprise that way. I think a Dexterity (Stealth) check is in order to determine who is surprised here.

Since no one in the party noticed the chest was actually a mimic, I assume the DM rolled a Stealth check that beat the passive scores of everyone who was paying attention to possible hidden threats. Is that not how this works?

 

[iserith]

Whereas I would have gone with suspicion. I don't know how the rest of the party acted, but at the very least the Cleric was suspicious of the chest and I would have not allowed him to be surprised. If the rest of the party was suspicious as they moved in, no surprise there, either. If on the other hand they just waltzed in and the Cleric told me what he wanted to do, they would be surprised and the Cleric would act normally.

We basically stood at the doorway. The cleric was on point, then decided to cast the toll the dead spell. Nobody else really took any actions until their turn came up in the subsequent combat. I couldn't remember if weapons stick to mimics, so I attacked it twice with a sling.

Since no one in the party noticed the chest was actually a mimic, I assume the DM rolled a Stealth check that beat the passive scores of everyone who was paying attention to possible hidden threats. Is that not how this works?

To my knowledge, the DM did not roll a Stealth check and did not otherwise determine that anyone was surprised.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

You can always change the indistinguishable trait for your game. Make mimics and animated objects a normal whatever until they come to life. It's a work around but should not be needed.

Another idea is to change the chest being a mimic to the door the PCs are opening, or a table in the room, or a rug or something if they have been trained to suspect something. Of course, this leads them to be more paranoid of other objects.

I was going to suggest this but then thought, “Do I really need/want my players more paranoid of every door they come across?”

 

[iserith]

A challenge with a mimic I put in a dungeon once:

The corridor drops 10 feet before rising again and continuing west. Steps lead into and out of it. At the base of the steps is a sarcophagus, smashed to rubble. An alcove carved into the northeast wall houses a large stone sarcophagus marked by strange script. A rusted metal pipe juts out of the wall near the ceiling about 25 feet from the recessed floor. An acrid smell hangs in the air.

The sarcophagus in the alcove is the mimic and it is immune to acid. It also sits on a pressure plate that, when activated by the mimic shifting its weight, causes a spray of concentrated green slime to come shooting out of that pipe, raining down on anyone in the alcove or near the shattered sarcophagus in the recessed area of the floor. Clues something is not quite right: The shattered sarcophagus is somewhat out of character for this area of the dungeon and the strange script on the mimic is gibberish - it was trying to mimic Deep Speech it saw on the other sarcophagus but doesn't get it quite right.