Okay, so I advanced a mimic to 18 HD (Huge, CR7) and sicced it on a party of 10th-11th level characters. It could take 10 and get a 31 on its disguise, so surprise was no problem.
A question came up: The mimic's "adhesive" ability states that it automatically grapples anyone it hits with its slam attack. This particular mimic ended up with three iterative attacks (as a Cleric of 18th level), and a very high Strength, to the point that it ended up attacking at +20/+15/+10. And 140-someodd hit points.
Here's the problem: If it slams three people successfully in the first round of combat, are they all considered grappled? Can it continue to attack while someone is held? It doesn't seem to be "grappling" in the traditional sense, because they can't get away until it's dead or they remove the adhesive.
This could have turned into a ludicrous TPK, so I ruled on the fly that the thing couldn't grapple more than two people at once (one for each 5' square it occupied), since grappling generally means the victim is pulled into your square.
Now, it also says the bugger gets a free slam at everybody it has in its grip every turn. Can it still do a full attack besides? I said yes, it can, since no one could think of a compelling reason it shouldn't be able to (it doesn't have to hold on to people stuck to it). However, I ruled that it did give up its Dex bonus to AC when victims were stuck to it.
Basically, it pounded the rogue to within an inch of her life, but she sneak attacked the crap out of it once she actually managed to get her dagger out. The paladin just soaked up the hits, as the free attack didn't even hit him all the time due to his AC. The mage throwing spells at it and the cleric smacking it with a mace did the rest, but that thing for sure took up more than 20% of the party's resources (hit point and spell-wise, anyway) at a CR three below the party's EL.
Comments? Clarifications on the rules we dealt with? I'd appreciate it, because I liked that mimic, mainly because everyone groaned and said "a MIMIC?!?" (we don't often hit the classic "evolutionarily adapted to graph paper" monsters).
A question came up: The mimic's "adhesive" ability states that it automatically grapples anyone it hits with its slam attack. This particular mimic ended up with three iterative attacks (as a Cleric of 18th level), and a very high Strength, to the point that it ended up attacking at +20/+15/+10. And 140-someodd hit points.
Here's the problem: If it slams three people successfully in the first round of combat, are they all considered grappled? Can it continue to attack while someone is held? It doesn't seem to be "grappling" in the traditional sense, because they can't get away until it's dead or they remove the adhesive.
This could have turned into a ludicrous TPK, so I ruled on the fly that the thing couldn't grapple more than two people at once (one for each 5' square it occupied), since grappling generally means the victim is pulled into your square.
Now, it also says the bugger gets a free slam at everybody it has in its grip every turn. Can it still do a full attack besides? I said yes, it can, since no one could think of a compelling reason it shouldn't be able to (it doesn't have to hold on to people stuck to it). However, I ruled that it did give up its Dex bonus to AC when victims were stuck to it.
Basically, it pounded the rogue to within an inch of her life, but she sneak attacked the crap out of it once she actually managed to get her dagger out. The paladin just soaked up the hits, as the free attack didn't even hit him all the time due to his AC. The mage throwing spells at it and the cleric smacking it with a mace did the rest, but that thing for sure took up more than 20% of the party's resources (hit point and spell-wise, anyway) at a CR three below the party's EL.
Comments? Clarifications on the rules we dealt with? I'd appreciate it, because I liked that mimic, mainly because everyone groaned and said "a MIMIC?!?" (we don't often hit the classic "evolutionarily adapted to graph paper" monsters).
