I have a bard that wants to flavor her character by having a tame mimic that can change into any instrument that she wants to play. In return she feeds it small creatures. I am trying trying to decide if I should allow something like that to happen or not. Or how I would rule it to work or be possible.
If you want to give it to her, then make it a magical homebrew item something like the following:
Mimicrophone Wondrous item, uncommon
What appears at first to be an ordinary instrument is in fact a lesser variant of a Mimic. You may expend an action to transform this item into any kind of musical instrument that can be held in two hands. Regardless of the instrument's type, it has a weight of 5lbs and cannot incorporate precious stones, precious metals, or any features that would make it appear to have a higher monetary value than the standard instrument.
The Mimicrophone must eat a tiny creature once every day, or it begins misbehaving. If the Mimicrophone has not been fed within 24 hours, on a roll of 1 for a performance check the mimic bites the performer instead, inflicting 1d4+1 piercing damage and refuses to play any more music.
I'd do it this way because this shouldn't be a major item, nor should it have any useful properties outside of changing shape (e.g. it should not be usable in combat).
Yeah, I would just run it as a magical item. Create an item with the specific properties you want and try to avoid things that would be a significant power boost for example, extra attacks, being able to absorb hits and alike. you could basically just make a weaker version of the all-purpose tool
Now you could also design it as a monster but that potentially risks it dieing. You would want to maybe use the juvenile mimic, it is cr 0 so its not going to be super powerful but being a creature does give it it's own action and movement which gives it allot. If that's too power you can limit it you can say the mimic isn't skilled enough at music to help play and won't follow most commands or relay information. Alternatively you may also choose to buff it if it becomes a long standing thing that the bard puts allot effort into by making the mimic a side kick. Though I'd likely do that instead of giving them magic items.
Leomund's Misplaced Manor contains a mechanic for taming a small mimic that is currently hiding in a pile of equipment. You might borrow that mechanic for the taming of the wee beastie, and run them like a pet. I can agree that making this creature too useful in the game world might mean that you would have to re-balance around it. That said, you could always run the creature with the Beastmaster Companion or Sidekick rules, but that might make for more complications than some would be comfortable with.
I'd run this one by the rule of cool. Especially if it's something the player will fall back on, and actually use on a fairly frequent basis.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Leomund's Misplaced Manor contains a mechanic for taming a small mimic that is currently hiding in a pile of equipment. You might borrow that mechanic for the taming of the wee beastie, and run them like a pet. I can agree that making this creature too useful in the game world might mean that you would have to re-balance around it.
That's the thing about pets. You kind of need the player to buy in that it's "flavor" and not "mechanical advantage I'm trying to sneak into the game". A mimic lute that can change into bag pipes as long it can eat a mouse or two every day is kinda cool. But the first time they say "can I get my fiddle to go get the keys off the guard?" everything changes.
There will always be problems with non-standard solutions. Much like non-standard uses for spells, or Improvising an Action. The DM and the player agree to what is acceptable at their game and then proceed. It isn't necessarily everyone's particular idea of fun, or agreeable to every table. That's the purpose of rulings by the DM.
Also, I'm not too sure the fiddle-in-question has proficiency in stealth or sleight of hand. They know how to be a fiddle, drum or flute, not a lockpick or a longbow. But, you might rule differently.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
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I have a bard that wants to flavor her character by having a tame mimic that can change into any instrument that she wants to play. In return she feeds it small creatures. I am trying trying to decide if I should allow something like that to happen or not. Or how I would rule it to work or be possible.
If you want to give it to her, then make it a magical homebrew item something like the following:
I'd do it this way because this shouldn't be a major item, nor should it have any useful properties outside of changing shape (e.g. it should not be usable in combat).
Yeah, I would just run it as a magical item. Create an item with the specific properties you want and try to avoid things that would be a significant power boost for example, extra attacks, being able to absorb hits and alike. you could basically just make a weaker version of the all-purpose tool
Now you could also design it as a monster but that potentially risks it dieing. You would want to maybe use the juvenile mimic, it is cr 0 so its not going to be super powerful but being a creature does give it it's own action and movement which gives it allot. If that's too power you can limit it you can say the mimic isn't skilled enough at music to help play and won't follow most commands or relay information. Alternatively you may also choose to buff it if it becomes a long standing thing that the bard puts allot effort into by making the mimic a side kick. Though I'd likely do that instead of giving them magic items.
Leomund's Misplaced Manor contains a mechanic for taming a small mimic that is currently hiding in a pile of equipment. You might borrow that mechanic for the taming of the wee beastie, and run them like a pet. I can agree that making this creature too useful in the game world might mean that you would have to re-balance around it. That said, you could always run the creature with the Beastmaster Companion or Sidekick rules, but that might make for more complications than some would be comfortable with.
I'd run this one by the rule of cool. Especially if it's something the player will fall back on, and actually use on a fairly frequent basis.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
That's the thing about pets. You kind of need the player to buy in that it's "flavor" and not "mechanical advantage I'm trying to sneak into the game". A mimic lute that can change into bag pipes as long it can eat a mouse or two every day is kinda cool. But the first time they say "can I get my fiddle to go get the keys off the guard?" everything changes.
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There will always be problems with non-standard solutions. Much like non-standard uses for spells, or Improvising an Action. The DM and the player agree to what is acceptable at their game and then proceed. It isn't necessarily everyone's particular idea of fun, or agreeable to every table. That's the purpose of rulings by the DM.
Also, I'm not too sure the fiddle-in-question has proficiency in stealth or sleight of hand. They know how to be a fiddle, drum or flute, not a lockpick or a longbow. But, you might rule differently.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad