First time DMing and I've only played dnd a handful of times but I watch critical role religiously. I'm going to DM my first campaign for a new party and one of my new players wants to play as a mimic. We have a lot of details about background and how they're going to fit into the story (we actually made them the bag of holding lol) but what I still need to figure out is combat. How do I let this mimic fight and what class would be best? I was thinking maybe a rogue but would love to hear other opinions and ideas. I'm okay with them playing as a mimic as I want to give everyone the freedom to play as they want just want to make sure I can still make it run smoothly.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I'd initially say no, but, if someone really wants to play Odo, here's how I'd do it (I don't know if this is doable on DnD Beyond, you may want to take this up with the hombrew forum.
First read, the Mimic, you're just adapting this stuff to character creation. Questions like "how does a mimic fight?" are answered there.
Encourage the player to use there +1 +2 to the physical stats, and assign their higher rolls to those stats, and dump stat their mental stats. This would be more reflective of a mimic as it appears in the Monster manual.
Give it a natural AC of 12 (more on this later).
Give it a speed of 15. This is not good.
Give it acid resistance, not immunity. Maybe it's adventurer level intelligence means its of great age and some of its resilience is starting to fray.
No to the prone immunity, it can be knocked over, or rolled in a way where it would need to "right itself" in a way equivalent to getting up, with the vulnerabilities that entails.
Give it dark vision.
Shapechanger: it can be whatever it wants within the parameters of the monster description. That is it can become inanimate objects. It has to break or otherwise disrupt it's form (sprouting pseudopods or bearing its teeth) to physically interact with anything. It does not have wild shape and it is not a changeling (D&D changeling, it's an Odo style changeling prior to his learning higher transformative abilities from his people).
I'd bundle it's adhesive trait into grappling (more on that).
Give it the grappler feat.
Treat the pseudopod in combat like a great club, and it's teeth like a rapier You're going to most likely have this character be a martial or rogue given the privileging of the physical, so they'll wind up proficient in both of those. That's good, because a mimic doesn't have the means to use any other sort of weapon. Pseudopods aren't hands. It's going to be extremely limited in equipment and magic items other party members can use, like ranged weapons. Consequently, I might grant them the 1d8 acid damage in addition to to the rapier bite, since that's likely to be all they ever get in terms of attack options. Speaking of, it's AC will likely be 12 + DEX. It can't wear equipment when posing as an object, and armor isn't 'amorphous' the mimic's natural state. If you're generous maybe you could allow very small objects like a ring of protection to be incorporated into the look of its object form.
It is not a bag of holding. Arguably it can be carried around as the party's storage unit, but would/should suffer encumbrance. But if it needs to become something smaller or otherwise not a vessel, what's the party going to do with all their stuff it was carrying.
Make sure your player is well aware of these trade offs they'll have to contend with for the gimmick of being a mimic. I'd say the movement speed alone will likely make this character a pain to the rest of the part, and likely a short lived pain.
Rogue as a class might make sense but remember RAW it's only going to get sneak attack damage with its rapier skinned as teeth, as they're the only finesse option it has.
If it’s your first time DMing for a party of new players, I’d really recommend sticking to more traditional character options from the PHB to give them a better sense of the game without rushing straight into crazy builds pulling from like 8 different sourcebooks and using tonnes of unbalanced homebrew, but the best build I can think of, sticking as close to the official rules as possible without homebrew, would be a Plasmoid that takes a class that gives it illusion spells like a bard, sorcerer or wizard. The Plasmoid race gives pretty much all the ooze qualities of a mimics true form, and although spellcasters don’t get Polymorph and Disguise Self until high levels you could flavour it as the mimic learning how to transform over time, starting without any capabilities and then becoming pretty much the real deal by the end. If the player wants to transform right from the beginning however, the best thing I can think of is a reflavoured Changeling. It’s nowhere near perfect but gets the general gist. Lastly, you could just allow them to do homebrew, test and balance it by running a couple sessions or one shots and then play it in the actual campaign once it’s ready, but I’d discourage that myself
this DM isn't asking for whether or not, they're asking how to make their decision to have a player mimic work. an easy answer to limit the chaos would be same as the best answer to last week's mimic player question: have the player pick a normal subclass and then just reflavor all it's stuff as mimic stuff. so, rogue. yeah. but just remember that a mimic isn't a humanoid, can't comprehend being a humanoid, and wouldn't know how to pose as one. like, not even down to knowing where a functional mouth or eyes should go despite seeing examples. even a mimic pretending to be a statue still only has 15ft of movement and barely enough INT to be bribed. this really shouldn't be "i grow wings and now i fly" levels of shape changeroo shenanigans. but i'm a random post on the internet, not the police. so...
i stand by my suggestions in the previous mimic player thread... even if those are more about having a friend that's a mimic. if the goal is being a murderous shape changer, druid-but-for-objects leaps to mind. i couldn't make a druid subclass click for me, but maybe circle of spores? if the goal is gulping down evidence, then simple answer is a bag of devouring who likes to *burp* after a good corpse. due to some far realms parasite, the thing's mouth is in the character's hand or between their abs or something. also, it should make witty quips, why not. give them a changeling race but once a day they can affect a zimwi swallow attack because reasons. or if the goal is only a little extra dimensional weirdness, perhaps they're entirely normal but with a haunting bagman background and a bag of holding that seems to loose and gain random items and trinkets. maybe it's a portal to the donjon sphere, the abandoned but still automated space jail, and they're not entirely convinced they've escaped. there's an adventure for later when characters realize they can go into the bag and arrive at a place. or, yeah, just a rogue with a hat of disguise and a penchant for looking like a chair, why not.
After reading your question through again it seems that as a group you’ve already decided how they will be a mimic race-wise if you’ve allowed them to be a bag of holding (definitely not a functional one though as mimics cannot be functioning magic items and if they can be a bag of holding, they can literally become any powerful magic item they want), but you’re not sure on class and combat, and tbh if the player is literally just playing the mimic stat block, they’re probably powerful enough without a class already, so I really, really highly recommend he plays the mimic using one of the three Sidekick classes from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything instead of a regular class. They are classes purpose built for monsters and NPCs using their stat block and allow them to improve with the party, but are slightly weaker than regular classes which is probably not a bad thing since just being a mimic at level 1 is pretty strong compared to other classes. That way the mimic can improve with the rest of the party and is still a mimic with no reflavouring or homebrew needed whatsoever
TL:DR: Have them use the Mimic stat block with one of the three Sidekick classes
Thank you everyone so far for your tips! There's a lot of good ones here. I will still be letting the mimic into the party and we're going to make it work. I know bag of holdings don't work this way usually but I'm going to bend the mimic rules a bit so that the bag functions as normal and we're going to make it work. I liked a lot of the class suggestions and the attacks/abilities to give the mimic so they can do something in combat. If it becomes too difficult maybe we'll just make the parties first quest to find the hag that cursed him (he went with a Beauty and the Beast style backstory but instead of being changed into the Beast he got turned into a bag lol) My first campaign sure won't be a simple one 😅
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Seems like you've got it fairly figured out already tbh, if you're all happy with the idea and are having fun I can't see any problems there even if it doesn't fit the usual rules :)
First question to player. Have you read "Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests?" If yes, say no.
It was a very good and justified answer. If you want extra information on how to do it. To balance the powers and limitations of a Mimic to make it compatible with the rest of the D&D 5e game, you could set restrictions such as a certain number of transformations per day or a rest period after transforming. The Mimic’s most distinctive feature is its ability to transform into objects. Design this ability to provide variety without being too powerful. Include abilities like adhesion (sticking to surfaces or trapping opponents) and deceptive appearance (maintaining a misleading exterior). Also, accept the limitations of the Mimic character. These could be sensitivities to certain types of magic or restrictions on the complexity of objects it can mimic. Check if the other players and the Dungeon Master (DM) are open to this idea. It’s important to reach an agreement that enriches everyone’s gaming experience. Additionally, you will need to create this race as a homebrew. My advice is to open a source on mimics and rewrite this race from scratch.
I made a small example to give you an idea.
**Mimic Race **
**Ability Score Increase**: Your choice of two different ability scores increase by 1.
**Age**: Mimics mature quickly and can live up to 500 years.
**Alignment**: Mimics tend to be neutral, given their nature of survival and adaptation.
**Size**: Mimics are Medium size.
**Speed**: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
**Mimicry**: You can use your action to polymorph into an object you have seen before. You revert to your true form if you die or fall unconscious. You can revert to your true form using a bonus action on your turn. You automatically revert if you haven't maintained concentration (as if concentrating on a spell) for 1 minute. You can mimic an object up to three times per day.
**Adhesive**: You can choose to have advantage on ability checks made to grapple a creature or to avoid being grappled.
**False Appearance**: While you remain motionless, you are indistinguishable from an ordinary object.
**Object Sensitivity**: You have disadvantage on saving throws against spells that affect objects but not creatures.
**Languages**: You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.
First question to player. Have you read "Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests?" If yes, say no.
It was a very good and justified answer. If you want extra information on how to do it. To balance the powers and limitations of a Mimic to make it compatible with the rest of the D&D 5e game, you could set restrictions such as a certain number of transformations per day or a rest period after transforming. The Mimic’s most distinctive feature is its ability to transform into objects. Design this ability to provide variety without being too powerful. Include abilities like adhesion (sticking to surfaces or trapping opponents) and deceptive appearance (maintaining a misleading exterior). Also, accept the limitations of the Mimic character. These could be sensitivities to certain types of magic or restrictions on the complexity of objects it can mimic. Check if the other players and the Dungeon Master (DM) are open to this idea. It’s important to reach an agreement that enriches everyone’s gaming experience. Additionally, you will need to create this race as a homebrew. My advice is to open a source on mimics and rewrite this race from scratch.
I made a small example to give you an idea.
**Mimic Race **
**Ability Score Increase**: Your choice of two different ability scores increase by 1.
**Age**: Mimics mature quickly and can live up to 500 years.
**Alignment**: Mimics tend to be neutral, given their nature of survival and adaptation.
**Size**: Mimics are Medium size.
**Speed**: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
**Mimicry**: You can use your action to polymorph into an object you have seen before. You revert to your true form if you die or fall unconscious. You can revert to your true form using a bonus action on your turn. You automatically revert if you haven't maintained concentration (as if concentrating on a spell) for 1 minute. You can mimic an object up to three times per day.
**Adhesive**: You can choose to have advantage on ability checks made to grapple a creature or to avoid being grappled.
**False Appearance**: While you remain motionless, you are indistinguishable from an ordinary object.
**Object Sensitivity**: You have disadvantage on saving throws against spells that affect objects but not creatures.
**Languages**: You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.
It's a very long explanation, isn't it? they can't do that anyway, It's not a playable.
First time DMing and I've only played dnd a handful of times but I watch critical role religiously. I'm going to DM my first campaign for a new party and one of my new players wants to play as a mimic. We have a lot of details about background and how they're going to fit into the story (we actually made them the bag of holding lol) but what I still need to figure out is combat. How do I let this mimic fight and what class would be best? I was thinking maybe a rogue but would love to hear other opinions and ideas. I'm okay with them playing as a mimic as I want to give everyone the freedom to play as they want just want to make sure I can still make it run smoothly.
My idea: Say no.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I'd initially say no, but, if someone really wants to play Odo, here's how I'd do it (I don't know if this is doable on DnD Beyond, you may want to take this up with the hombrew forum.
First read, the Mimic, you're just adapting this stuff to character creation. Questions like "how does a mimic fight?" are answered there.
Encourage the player to use there +1 +2 to the physical stats, and assign their higher rolls to those stats, and dump stat their mental stats. This would be more reflective of a mimic as it appears in the Monster manual.
Give it a natural AC of 12 (more on this later).
Give it a speed of 15. This is not good.
Give it acid resistance, not immunity. Maybe it's adventurer level intelligence means its of great age and some of its resilience is starting to fray.
No to the prone immunity, it can be knocked over, or rolled in a way where it would need to "right itself" in a way equivalent to getting up, with the vulnerabilities that entails.
Give it dark vision.
Shapechanger: it can be whatever it wants within the parameters of the monster description. That is it can become inanimate objects. It has to break or otherwise disrupt it's form (sprouting pseudopods or bearing its teeth) to physically interact with anything. It does not have wild shape and it is not a changeling (D&D changeling, it's an Odo style changeling prior to his learning higher transformative abilities from his people).
I'd bundle it's adhesive trait into grappling (more on that).
Give it the grappler feat.
Treat the pseudopod in combat like a great club, and it's teeth like a rapier You're going to most likely have this character be a martial or rogue given the privileging of the physical, so they'll wind up proficient in both of those. That's good, because a mimic doesn't have the means to use any other sort of weapon. Pseudopods aren't hands. It's going to be extremely limited in equipment and magic items other party members can use, like ranged weapons. Consequently, I might grant them the 1d8 acid damage in addition to to the rapier bite, since that's likely to be all they ever get in terms of attack options. Speaking of, it's AC will likely be 12 + DEX. It can't wear equipment when posing as an object, and armor isn't 'amorphous' the mimic's natural state. If you're generous maybe you could allow very small objects like a ring of protection to be incorporated into the look of its object form.
It is not a bag of holding. Arguably it can be carried around as the party's storage unit, but would/should suffer encumbrance. But if it needs to become something smaller or otherwise not a vessel, what's the party going to do with all their stuff it was carrying.
Make sure your player is well aware of these trade offs they'll have to contend with for the gimmick of being a mimic. I'd say the movement speed alone will likely make this character a pain to the rest of the part, and likely a short lived pain.
Rogue as a class might make sense but remember RAW it's only going to get sneak attack damage with its rapier skinned as teeth, as they're the only finesse option it has.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
If it’s your first time DMing for a party of new players, I’d really recommend sticking to more traditional character options from the PHB to give them a better sense of the game without rushing straight into crazy builds pulling from like 8 different sourcebooks and using tonnes of unbalanced homebrew, but the best build I can think of, sticking as close to the official rules as possible without homebrew, would be a Plasmoid that takes a class that gives it illusion spells like a bard, sorcerer or wizard. The Plasmoid race gives pretty much all the ooze qualities of a mimics true form, and although spellcasters don’t get Polymorph and Disguise Self until high levels you could flavour it as the mimic learning how to transform over time, starting without any capabilities and then becoming pretty much the real deal by the end. If the player wants to transform right from the beginning however, the best thing I can think of is a reflavoured Changeling. It’s nowhere near perfect but gets the general gist. Lastly, you could just allow them to do homebrew, test and balance it by running a couple sessions or one shots and then play it in the actual campaign once it’s ready, but I’d discourage that myself
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Maybe this will work?
this DM isn't asking for whether or not, they're asking how to make their decision to have a player mimic work. an easy answer to limit the chaos would be same as the best answer to last week's mimic player question: have the player pick a normal subclass and then just reflavor all it's stuff as mimic stuff. so, rogue. yeah. but just remember that a mimic isn't a humanoid, can't comprehend being a humanoid, and wouldn't know how to pose as one. like, not even down to knowing where a functional mouth or eyes should go despite seeing examples. even a mimic pretending to be a statue still only has 15ft of movement and barely enough INT to be bribed. this really shouldn't be "i grow wings and now i fly" levels of shape changeroo shenanigans. but i'm a random post on the internet, not the police. so...
i stand by my suggestions in the previous mimic player thread... even if those are more about having a friend that's a mimic. if the goal is being a murderous shape changer, druid-but-for-objects leaps to mind. i couldn't make a druid subclass click for me, but maybe circle of spores? if the goal is gulping down evidence, then simple answer is a bag of devouring who likes to *burp* after a good corpse. due to some far realms parasite, the thing's mouth is in the character's hand or between their abs or something. also, it should make witty quips, why not. give them a changeling race but once a day they can affect a zimwi swallow attack because reasons. or if the goal is only a little extra dimensional weirdness, perhaps they're entirely normal but with a haunting bagman background and a bag of holding that seems to loose and gain random items and trinkets. maybe it's a portal to the donjon sphere, the abandoned but still automated space jail, and they're not entirely convinced they've escaped. there's an adventure for later when characters realize they can go into the bag and arrive at a place. or, yeah, just a rogue with a hat of disguise and a penchant for looking like a chair, why not.
unhappy at the way in which we lost individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
tell them you don't like features disappeared quietly in the night: provide feedback!
After reading your question through again it seems that as a group you’ve already decided how they will be a mimic race-wise if you’ve allowed them to be a bag of holding (definitely not a functional one though as mimics cannot be functioning magic items and if they can be a bag of holding, they can literally become any powerful magic item they want), but you’re not sure on class and combat, and tbh if the player is literally just playing the mimic stat block, they’re probably powerful enough without a class already, so I really, really highly recommend he plays the mimic using one of the three Sidekick classes from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything instead of a regular class. They are classes purpose built for monsters and NPCs using their stat block and allow them to improve with the party, but are slightly weaker than regular classes which is probably not a bad thing since just being a mimic at level 1 is pretty strong compared to other classes. That way the mimic can improve with the rest of the party and is still a mimic with no reflavouring or homebrew needed whatsoever
TL:DR: Have them use the Mimic stat block with one of the three Sidekick classes
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
Thank you everyone so far for your tips! There's a lot of good ones here. I will still be letting the mimic into the party and we're going to make it work. I know bag of holdings don't work this way usually but I'm going to bend the mimic rules a bit so that the bag functions as normal and we're going to make it work. I liked a lot of the class suggestions and the attacks/abilities to give the mimic so they can do something in combat. If it becomes too difficult maybe we'll just make the parties first quest to find the hag that cursed him (he went with a Beauty and the Beast style backstory but instead of being changed into the Beast he got turned into a bag lol) My first campaign sure won't be a simple one 😅
Seems easier to play a Plasmoid. https://www.dndbeyond.com/races/1121698-plasmoid
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Seems like you've got it fairly figured out already tbh, if you're all happy with the idea and are having fun I can't see any problems there even if it doesn't fit the usual rules :)
Xaul Lackluster: Half-Orc Fathomless Warlock: Warlock Dragon Heist
Borvnir Chelvnich: Black Dragonborn Barbarian: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle
Pushover Gerilwitz: Tiefling Wizard: Acquisitions Incorporated
Callow Sunken-Eyes: Goliath Arctic Druid: We Are Modron
DMing The 100 Dungeons of the Blood Archivist , The Hunt for the Balowang and Surviving Tempest City!
Killer Queen has already extended this signature, though not by much!
First question to player. Have you read "Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests?" If yes, say no.
It was a very good and justified answer.
If you want extra information on how to do it.
To balance the powers and limitations of a Mimic to make it compatible with the rest of the D&D 5e game, you could set restrictions such as a certain number of transformations per day or a rest period after transforming. The Mimic’s most distinctive feature is its ability to transform into objects. Design this ability to provide variety without being too powerful. Include abilities like adhesion (sticking to surfaces or trapping opponents) and deceptive appearance (maintaining a misleading exterior). Also, accept the limitations of the Mimic character. These could be sensitivities to certain types of magic or restrictions on the complexity of objects it can mimic. Check if the other players and the Dungeon Master (DM) are open to this idea. It’s important to reach an agreement that enriches everyone’s gaming experience. Additionally, you will need to create this race as a homebrew. My advice is to open a source on mimics and rewrite this race from scratch.
I made a small example to give you an idea.
It's a very long explanation, isn't it? they can't do that anyway, It's not a playable.
If a simple answer is needed, yes, it is not playable.