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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8688012" data-attributes="member: 2629">If your PCs suspect it is a mimic and are going to do something to test their theory, worrying about the fine details of how they test it is a waste of time and a bad idea.  The jig is up.  When the player announces the intent to cast Toll the Dead, I'd roll the save and say, "As you cast the spell the chest sprouts a gigantic psuedopod and starrts to wobble towards you.  It rolls an X on the save."If you tell them they can't cast the spell unless they know it is a creature, then they'll just test it another way.  If you tell them that it either isn't a creature, or it made the save, they'll test it another way.  Once they suspect, most of the time the PCs will just test it out one way or another. This is why I make sure that I put mimics in places that people are too busy to suspect.  For example: In the Forge of Fury module there is a bridge.  I places a wooden platform on the Roll20 map on each side of the bridge.  PCs stepped on the platforms to get on and off the bridge - except the one on the far side was a mimic.  The PCs were so occupied by the other creatures in the room that they never suspected the platofrm might be a mimic, trap or anything else.  It turned the fight into something interesting, especially as it dragged the caught barbarian down into the pit so that if the barbarian broke free, they'd drop into what was beneath the bridge.  Other great mimics have been a door in an open door (so that it can go after the last PC in the group to go through the door), a rope hanging from a ceiling that PCs might use to swing across a ravine, and a personal favorite - the mimic was the plug that was a clay plug that was holding back water that would otherwise flood into a room.  The PCs saw it crack and ran to secure it ... resulting in the mimic sticking to the wall next to the hole, flooding back the PCs and taking on one PC that it was holding in the way of the blasting water.  The Mimic was no threat to that 7th level party, but it did create chaos as it announced their presence to the bad guys in the lair and separated them briefly.   Historically, given the AC, speed and other features of the mimic, if they suspect something is a mimic - and it is - I'll ask them their tactics and often bypass the combat entirely if they're just going to obliterate it before it can approach.</blockquote>

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