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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 8690339" data-attributes="member: 6787503">That's, like, the opposite of a natural language definition of any of those words or phrases. I mean, where'd you get that? Glosses of likely range from probable to possible or plausible. I think it's at least plausible for a troll to cause damage or danger, don't you?I laid out my procedure in some detail up-thread. This is not it.However you want to think about it is fine with me. It doesn't change how I would run the troll scenario, but noticing something that appears for all purposes to be an ordinary chest wouldn't count just because any and every chest could possibly be a threat. That way leads to madness. Everything's a potential threat.Okay, just thought I'd help you out, but I can see you're married to your bizarre definition of the word likely. I couldn't care less, personally.Indeed, why have rules at all? Just tell the story you've already made up about the cleric who was on guard against the mimic.That's not "an action to try to use their senses or awareness of the environment to detect the presence of a creature." It's casting a spell that starts combat. Once the cleric's turn in combat comes up, they can cast the spell. Clearly, I was talking about an action that would have made the party aware of the mimic before combat started.Okay, but do you disagree with what I actually said? The cleric likely has the highest Wisdom of the party. Maybe they're proficient in Perception. The player made those choices in part so the PC would be good at detecting when creatures are present. The phrase While the mimic remains motionless leaves room for uncertainty as to whether the cleric can distinguish the mimic from an ordinary chest, so by deciding it's certain that it remains motionless and can't be distinguished, you're saying that choice doesn't matter in this one situation.Look at page 280 of the DMG. False Appearance has no effect on the mimic's CR.Both of these claims are false. I've already shown how the mimic's CR is unaffected by it having False Appearance, so no part of its CR could be removed by calling for an ability check. Also, calling for a Stealth check respect's the cleric player's agency in giving their character a high Wisdom score. Furthermore, surprise is far from impossible in this scenario because no one in the party, not even the cleric, has actually spotted the mimic for what it is.Please quote me the lore that says the mimic is perfectly silent and still because it's certainly not in its stat-block.Right. This is what you're trying to sneak in with your "potential threat" houserule. It's complete rubbish. Everything's a potential threat. Therefore, no one is ever surprised. The rules care about actual threats.It doesn't matter if the cleric knows it's a mimic. What matters is if they're aware of the actual threat in the room 15 feet away from them. As was described in the OP, the cleric lacked that particular bit of knowledge and was testing a mere hunch to see if it was indeed correct.</blockquote>

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