Dungeons and Dragons: Mimic 

In my homebrew world every mimic is named after Ikea furniture.

An elder brain mind-wiping a colossal mimic to use as an attack platform? My goodness give him the voice of Krang from TMNT and we're off to the races!

A little something I came up with: Behold, the *Bedling* A subspecies of mimic, that, as the name suggests, primarily mimic things like beds, bedrolls, etc (very rarely other things like an armchair, but always something you can comfortly sleep on/in). A creature that sleeps on a Bedling has nice, peaceful dreams and restful sleep (a wounded creature can heal up to 1d4 additional Hit Dice during a Rest while sleeping on a Bedling), but prolonged exposure to the Bedling (usually several weeks) will cause the creature to more easily getting tired and feeling exhausted faster. It gets harder to do physical tasks (disadvantage as deemed fit by the DM) and have to make a DC 15 wisdom saving throw every morning to wake up from their pleasant dreams. The Bedling is a psionic symbiote. It gains nutrition from the psychic energies created while a sentient creature, that is in physical contact with the Bedling, is dreaming, gaining more energy from nice dreams. It doesn't cause the negative effects out of malicious intend, it simply does not know better, and just wants creatures to sleep and dream on it (the Bedling could potentially be trained). It is usually peaceful and non-aggressive, unless threatened. When threatened, a Bedling will rather immobilize a creature and flee, only resorting to fight as a last option. It has a few innate magical abilities (psionic). I recommend: _sleep, blur, calm emotions, confusion, expeditious retreat_ (and optionally _phantasmal force_ )

So much innocent and nearly priceless furniture has been dammaged over the years due to us randomly firing an arrow into it as a "mimic check"

Fun Fact, all the eyeballs the mimic emulates festooning its body, are just for intimidation... they do not see with Eyes, the see via photosensitive patches all over their body, including all over their extended pseudopods. Also, the common mimic has Grey body tissue and skin, why they are so often depicted as being purple or pink and fleshy is just artistic license, its never been reflected in the lore.

everyone is gangsta until the doors start speaking in Undercommon.

House-sized mimics are FANTASTIC tropes. I started a campaign off once with one.

Food for Tough: The creature in The Thing is in fact a mimic that got enough with the shit of adventurers in other planets and decided to go on the offensive.

I Once played a character who was raised by an enormous sapient mimic named Ishma who took the form of an entire orphanage. They were genuinely altruistic and cared immensely for those living within them (think Danny the Street from Doom Patrol if they took a more parental role in the lives of their residents). They only ate with a mouth in the basement of a nearby butcher shop that a couple of the orphans that grew up there ran for that purpose of feeding them, never anything that was still alive. They even sometimes joked they would go vegetarian if their biology would have allowed it. For the sake of privacy and trying to minimize the freakiness of living inside a sapient creature, they'd only see and speak from statues, busts, paintings, and other stuff with a clearly recognizable face. Unless there was an emergency of course. Once someone broke in to kidnap a kid, tentacles formed from the walls and floor to beat the guy senseless then spit him out the window. All the members of the community who grew up at the orphanage helped keep the mimic a secret (not through nefarious means of course), since if word got out it would probably lead to people assuming the mimic was eating kids or something, followed by adventurers showing up to slay the 'monster'.

I had an idea for an adventure where all the corpse's in a town start disappearing from the morgue. People start to panic and blame a nearby wizard but in reality it's just a mimic that realized silly humanoids put their perfectly good fresh dead into big boxes to waste and snuck into the morgue to imitate a coffin.

I'm currently playing a goliath who uses a smallish mimic as a backpack. It stays in the shape of a wood chest as that is the only form it currently knows how to take, and extends a pseudopod shifted to look like a chain around his torso to help keep it in place, along with its natural adhesive. Its name is Box. It understands basic commands, intellect on par with a (not so smart) dog. To retrieve items while Box is still stuck to his back, my goliath has to verbally request what he wants. At the DM's discretion I must roll to see if Box gives him the right item, gives him the wrong item, or ignores him.

Had a thought about making a whole haunted ghost town using a juvenile mimic colony, one or two house hunter mimics, a couple oblex, a couple wolf-in-sheep's-clothing, and a yellow musk creeper, and just have the whole town, including the plants, want to eat them.

Mimics, the natural predator of edgelord rogues and Murderhobos.

Metal Mimics can imitate raw metals. So in theory, there could be an Ore Vein Mimic just waiting to decimate a Dwarven mining operation.

Mimics actually do scale all the way up to Int 10, so negotiations and even alliances are possible. Especially since player characters actually do have much to offer a Mimic besides a tasty meal. Like lots of tasty meals to begin with, not to mention transportation, and help with their light sensitivity problem.

Just this weekend I made a ship that was adrift at sea, filled with Mimics in the guise of chairs, desks and chests. Also the ship itself was a giant mimic. I modeled my mimics off of extra dimensional mollusks who make both fibrous and chitinous shells to disguise themselves. When the ship's mast became a set of arms and they were thrown into the cagohold which was filled wall to wall with treasure chest Mimics that's when shit got real!

The real reason so many people are disappearing in New York, The entire city is one mimc, Every skyscraper every trashcan every tree...

I used a gargantuan mimic (mountain sized actually) that had been exposed to energy from the Far Realm as my bbeg. It was tired of taking the shape of other things and wanted to infect all vertebrate life with it's own mutability, so it had collected and ingested all manner of infectious and shape shifting creatures to make itself the ultimate mutagen.

Thank you for this. My parties (both of them) seem to have a very narrow view of creatures. When I introduced a mimic the size of a tower (there is a home brew Tower Mimic out there) they thought I was pulling their leg. "No I said, why do all mimic need to be smaller? This one is the size of a tower and has more mimics living inside. Barrel mimics, mimics shaped like beds, ect". They didn't know how to deal with it and took off.

Imagine a group of sea faring mimics that turn into ships on the high sea to attract large fish and small boats of marooned sailors. Imagine a mimic warship that rips and tears at other ships on the sea. Imagine a group of wizards who found a way to control a giant mimic and thus they have a mimic castle that will destroy armies using its fortifications as weapons. Imagine exploring space in a spell jammer campaign and finding a planet that is all one giant mimic with civilizations on it who don't even know what their world is.

23:00 ... ... ... A mimic eats an adventurer with a ring of sustenance, and is just smart enough to figure out what it is... Once you take away the constant need to eat, the growing intelligence can shift to other focuses... Oh.... My PCs no longer like you, at all... But I love you more than I should...

Idea for a GOD level Mimic in Spell Jammer: "That's no moon!" (Moon licks it's lips, & begins descending like the moon in Majora's Mask.)

I play a mimic druid and they refuse to break the law because they think that they will be put to death so they became a bounty hunter and they eat all of the bounties and anyone that just died in battle

I poke stuff in dungeons with a torch before touching anything as a personal rule thanks to mimics.

The Mimic just launching a pseudopod to launch it into the air and full-force into a player feels like a pretty devastating maneuver. Mimics are supposed to weigh like a ton.

A thing to maybe look into if you wanna know what a gigantic, legendary mimic could potentially do; the Sea God arc from Berserk, where a giant sea creature uses its shape-shifting tentacles to impersonate an entire village, a pirate crew and a ship. It's a very Shadows Over Innsmouth kinda situation and could be an interesting mini-adventure to run. Your players are never gonna see this one coming lol

Maybe there are planet sized mimics drifting in space that have become god-like super geniuses... better hope they don't come across your planet. They're probably hungry from a very very long hibernation and the heat of your world's sun has just started to alert them that there could be tasty worlds nearby to consume... Great video AJ, they just keep getting better!

I've been waiting for this remake. My almost 4 year old loves the "mmmmmimic" and it's 'beautiful tongue'. She's a weird one but she will love this, thank you for making my day revisiting this :)

So you mean I could put a fairly large "treasure chest" in a gelatinous cube like boss monster and then when when the party has finished it off they get the "treasure"? 😉

A city conquered by devils permits giant, intelligent mimics to begin, “property development.”

Mimic culture is just foodies Mimics are my favorite type after dragons abd orcs. I imagine the rare mimic cultures would be very alien foodie or gorme centric or they'd mimic similar things from under dark cultures like the drow and appreciate Mimic culture is just foodies Mimics and architecture.

Just remember every time you stub you toe on a piece of furniture in your home , a piece you have walked by and lived with for decades with out incident. It might just be that said object has been replaces with a slightly malicious mimic one that just wants to see you in a little bit of pain.

My favorite type of "mimic" to use are the Gomazoa from Zendikar “Zendikar's seas and skies tend to blur, and creatures typically found in the sea often find their way into the clouds, slipping through gravitational currents, consuming the mana infused in the wind. Gomazoas are similar to aquatic jellyfish, but their bodies are enveloped in stony growths. Gomazoas drift immobile on floating rocks or Hedrons with their long, sticky tentacles hanging below. When they come in contact with another creature, those tentacles grab and constrict it, or they may throw too large a prey against a cliff face. Some species can retract their tentacles into their bodies, extending them only to grab their prey. Gomazoas almost never release their prey once captured.”

Oh yes my players next session are about to enter a room that has two chairs, a table and a chest on it. The table and the chest are going to be mimics so perfect timing!

I wonder if mimics could start off mimicking a town but over time develop a culture and eventually a civilization?

Cool mimic idea: a mimic house that basically uses the humans living inside as bait for bigger and more monstrous prey!

One of my early DMs threw a mimic in as a faux magic item, the Spiked Shield of Trom if I remember correctly. Bound weapons or limbs that struck it, could be used in a shield 'bash' to cause horrific wounds for our level ... and we didn't tumble to it being a mimic for a couple of months.

The druid in my campaign befreinded a chest sized mimic that had been awakened by a NPC. He couldn't understand why the rest of the party REALLY didn't want Chester to come with them on quests lol.

A possible idea for Mimics as treasure guardians could be a programmed response to certain effects. Like a chest mimic opening and falling asleep when a certain cantrip is used on it, most likely Prestidigitation with a specific effect (for example creating a harmless static effect around it). Essentially the wizards equivalent of a combination lock, with all the same ways to defeat it, only that it fights back when you pull out your crowbar

mimic, the nightmare of ever adventure, malicious little thing, no rogue alive likes it, stroke of genius, Gigax. and now we feed the mimic algorithim with our comments.

HECK YEAH MY HALF HOUR LUNCH JUST GOT DEEPLY NERDY

In my game I gave my players a piece of paper with a spell written as a song that when read out loud, will help them find a mimic much faster (That song-spell is Come and get your love by Redbone)

all i can think of is a pet mimic backpack that makes doc octopus legs so you can walk up walls

I absolutely love the idea of colossal and gargantuan sized mimics. Imagine a small "town" on the outskirts of a forest which is infested with massive mimics disguised as cottages and houses, all subservient to the "Grand Mimic". A colossal abyssal Mimic disguised as a hotel/Inn, summoned by accident by a foolish wizard it attracts lesser mimics and other foul things to it's location. It's even able to lure victims "inside" with the ability to replicate lanterns in windows and other non threatening displays of light with illusions. Anything to put it's prey off from the eminent danger they're in until it's too late.

Had my players find a coin that was actually a mimic. Eventfully once discovered they insisted on keeping it as a pet. Used Animal handling checks for them to train it. Got to the point where it would take the form of a shield or sword for our fighter, he could shield bash a foe and unleash the mimic on them to feed, or swing it as a sword and it would eat tiny bites out of what ever he hit.

Traversing a mountain pass you've travelled before only to encounter a "fortress" that wasn't there last time.

I have a lot of mimics in my world. It's a tropical pirate theme, so they're like floating crates, barrels, or finely dressed corpses. Also mimics that crap maps to them. They're buried and sleep until someone digs em up.

AJ Picket, Imagine a home brew mimic variant that takes the form of a moon or a planet and consumes entire spell jammer ships for sustenance. Do you agree with me that that’s nightmare fuel?

This video gave me the idea of a mimic storefront that trades food for valuable crafted items I can't wait to drop that in my newest D&D game with a couple of newcomers they're going to not see it coming

A mimic could probably immitate the floor at the bottom of a spiked pit. It may wait until you're mid-fall too.

I want to make a race of small intelligent mimics that start out TIny and kinda catlike, or like puppies, then become Small and child-like, then finally get to medium and with normal PC-level intelligence. I'm gonna do it. My next game I run the party is going to end up being followed by a tiny mimic that keeps pretending to be random stuff around them.

Would animals, like dogs, that use sent more than sight be able to detect a mimic?

Can't remember when I came up with this but I ended up giving Mimics the ecology that they were originally designed/grown as individual modular parts of adaptive Spelljamming ships by The Original Spelljammer ship as a way to house the refugees it created through the destruction of the first crystal sphere. These semi-sentient parts were meant to be assembled together and adapted to the changing needs of their captain/Cloakmaster and crew. Once joined together they were meant to become a fully sentient singular organisms able to partner seamlessly with their Cloakbearing captain and crew to adapt to any situation or need. Being an organic, communal organism the ship was also designed to provide for its crew by consuming and recycling organic waste, refuse and organic space debrit into food and objects usable by the crew. Each ship would eventually reproduce sexually with others of it's kind and thereafter each part would self replicate and assemble into a new ship, ready to provide for a new crew. Unfortunately before the new Control Cloak could be completed, a handful of the original parts were lost in an eruption of superheated gas and resulting sinkhole collapse on the field where the great assembly was taking place. Still choked by the exotic volcanic gasses, a few of the organisms which were more badly burned began to self-replicate rather than self-heal. Lacking the materials and energy that they were meant to be provided to them by their crew for this endeavor, these organisms fled further into the underground system of caves selected by the Spelljammer to provide it with geothermal energy and exotic elements needed to fuel the creation. Due to the heat and gasses in the caves being deadly to it's current crew, this left the great ship unable to recover most of the parts lost. By examining the one that was killed outright, it was able to reabsorb the creature and identify the error made in it's creation. Thinking long on the issue, the great ship was eventually able to admit to itself that it lacked the knowledge and wisdom needed to prevent all the failings, ailments and cancers that living beings might face. Without this perfect foreknowledge, the ship decided that any new creation would likely end in catastrophic failure, just as it's prior lack of knowledge had doomed the entire crystal sphere it was now attempting to atone for. Once the Cloak was completed, the great ship silently abandoned it to the surface, hoping that a captain could someday be found to find and perfect it's lost children. Reluctantly it broke planetfall for the first and last time. As a way to reserve power, the newly-minted monstrosities it left behind settled into a low-power mode where they mimiced the appearance of various objects used by sentient beings in the hopes of being found and recovered by a Cloakbearing Captain. After several millennia, when the lava and heat surrounding these creatures finally cooled, they were able to overcome their programming and venture forth, migrating into other dark places where a Captain might find them. Those non-captains that found them no longer needed to provide them with the sustenance they needed to divide and grow strong. They would eat everything and grow until they were many. They would hide and travel to everywhere that was until there was no way they could not be found. Whether it was their Cloakmaster or more food, it no longer mattered. As their memory of a purpose beyond hiding, feeding and fleeing into the stars slowly faded, they slowly became what they are. Unless someone could actually find that original cloak...if it even exists. For it's said that whoever bears that cloak would be able to assemble an armada of ships large enough to blot out the stars.

It *is* a tasty beverage, AJ. The local mimics have learned not to impersonate my coffee cup

In games I've played, there have been mimics small enough to mimic plates, bowls, and tankards, hiding in places where player characters might pick them up and put them into a portable hole, and mimics large enough to be the dock that a player character boat is coming up to tie off to. It is not in the lore, but I had a DM years ago who ruled in his game that as a mimic grew in intelligence and gained the power of language, it would eventually outgrow the idea of imitating inanimate objects and would start imitating humanoids, transforming into a doppelganger as its evolved form.

When you said Companion Creature I was reminded of Rincewind and the Wardrobe from the Diskworld books. Any one who's read the books knows that the Wardrobe is a mimic in everything but name and sometimes acts like a Tardis. This has me thinking of a mage character who has one that follows them around. The Mimic acts as a sometimes body guard, sometimes disposal system, and sometimes storage. Regularly feeding it a "Body" two to three times a week keeps it happy and from snacking on random villagers. Something the size of a dog/wolf would be its normal diet, a rat or chicken might serve as a snack between meals. A large bandit would be the equivalent of a thanksgiving dinner and might keep it happy for say up to four days. The thing would be an NPC who acts in accordance to the GM so it doesn't break the story. I'm also thinking of the video Zee Bashew made a few months ago "Befriending Mimics in 5e D&D". Lets hope that McGenk does not get that colony idea of his up and running. Mimic bridges/towns are not something you'd want to walk into.

I relate mimicks more to D&D than I would even dragons. Quintessential.

I run a one- shot game I call "oops, all mimics!" Which uses a lot of these ideas

Octopus hardware cat software with spider updates got it

Burbur are like a keystone species for the underdark?

Florian is an excellent artist. Nice to see his art show up.

Fought a House Hunter once. Scary as ****. What if the more intelligent mimics herded the less intelligent mimics towards the routes frequented by humanoids, while themselves having staked out territories in more remote areas where they can prey on large game away from dangerous humanoid threats? This could be the reason that humanoids tend to think of mimics as being violent predators with little-to-no intelligence, while mostly being unaware of how intelligent a mimic can truly become?

I made a "Shrine Mimic", which combined Kruthik (alien looking bug things in DnD) and the typical mimic with a few dark twists. Almost murdered the entire party

17:21 ahh you forgot my favorite space mimic fact! that they enjoy spending time reading space lore, tomes on magic, and other arcane volumes. Unlike their common cousins, space mimics have various cultures, usually based on their readings. These mimics are intelligent; they exchange books they already read for food or other books.

I love the idea of mimic information brokers working for the forces of good and evil in exchange for food

The game Prey does mimics well. Imagine waling into a wizard lab with parchment stickers on every item.

Today we had an adventure where the creepy cabin in the middle of the dark cursed woods, filled with musty old air, corpses, and furniture ended up being a House Mimic. We had to escape out a hole in it's side before fighting it in a clearing

I broke a party with one doppelganger that was breeding mimics. I had a new player(for my group) who had played since 2nd ed, and he told me he never had seen mimics used the way I did. He always thought they were a quirky monster. Now three campaigns later he is still terrified as a player that I'm going to pit a mimic or doppelganger against him... Working on a false hydra adventure next 😈😆😈😆

Reminding us to make sure it is in fact a tasty beverage. 10/10 thanks for keeping us safe AJ.

Mimic swarms … dear god

*...far more than meets the eye...* - fun reference and it gave me life - Thank u Aj

In one campaign I was part of Our monk would frequently poke objects with a spear and ask Are you a mimic? 50% of the time it would get a response 😂

I like the idea of mimics being created in my setting by wizards experimenting with animating objects, and the mimic eats its creator and escapes, becoming a pest throughout the countryside. Civilizations may attempt to hunt them all down and cull their species but their ability to hide makes them too difficult to completely wipe out. Even spells like locate creature would fail due to their ability to change shape…

My favorite mimic I've used was nice and simple, we were in the desert for a few sessions and water was low, the players stumbled upon an abandoned campsite with empty tents, old pile of firewood, and of course three unattended casks that look like water casks. The players actually being suspicious of what I intended to be a nice gesture of free water made me change the leftmost cask into a mimic. Players love nothing more than when you make their predictions come true 👍

I've never much used the mimic. But now I see an outhouse sized mimic coming.

So I may or my not have once had a hag which kept three particular creatures to use in her plot. The three creatures being a Troll, a Mimic, and an AJ Pickett special the Pink Ooze. That hag then may or may not have been selling meat pies to the local community turning it inhabitants into abominations, with the troll and mimic meat slowly mutating the populous with the pink ooze disusing the horrid taste of the "street meat". The hag would cut of the trolls arms/legs and either use it in her pies or feed them to the oozes and mimics, whom being sated and feed regularly were content with occasionally sacrificing their smaller spawns for the hags purposes.

Twoflower's luggage from Discworld always reminded me of the classic treasure chest mimic despite it being an awakened object. The chompiness, attitude and even traveling on hundreds of tiny legs has really influenced how I run mimics, especially their insane strength for their body size.

I still miss my Giant Advanced Mimic. It pretended to be a covered wagon, the sort used to bunker down for the night... and waited till you all fell asleep.

Sounds like previous wizards and scientists have performed gain of function experiments on previously harmless creatures. I wonder if any of those had ever perfomed experiments on bats???

My players hadnt heard of a mimic before... Lucky me. So as the wild mage Minotaur snuck into the next room to and went to open the chest. I describe its lock hole moving and looking at him as if the lock was an eye. He turns around to tell the rest of the party who was keeping a beed on some kobold but trying to stay stealthy now are shaken as the sorcerers wild magic caused his voice to boom. So what do the rest of the party and the kobolds hear? A minotaur voice shaking the dungeon screaming "EYE CHEST!" 😂

Love me some classic mimics, but there's something about the Mimics from Dark Souls standing up and roundhouse kicking a guy that I'd be delighted to see in D&D

My players made it to level 10 before I brought one in. They had been walking through a large city's sewer for hours, having fought a Gelatinous Excretory Removal Cube (GERC) and were almost swept away from the backlog of muck behind it, but then found a secret passage. The tunnels belonged to thugs and they had prison cells. In one cell, I had it completely empty except for bedrolls...that were mimics. Our barbarian laid down for a nap and nearly got murdered by a starved mimic.

Just killed one of my players with their first mimic experience. In classic fashion it was the last chest in the fortress and they could have left well before hand Scott free. I'm sad for the death but so happy that the players got the iconic experience.

OMG, what about a bed mimic. That is truly scary. Also, you probably wouldn't have armor on if you were about to go to bed.

A mimic with cursed rings and such that cause people to lust for said items could be scary

back in the day when i played..i regularly employed shape shifters in my scheming.....got the idea from doctor doom...you never knew if you were dealing with me...or with one of my many hired and trained changlings

The Coffin Mimic at about 6:50 reminds me of the Dark Dice podcast. In their campaign, they ran into a Mimic disguised as a coffin. Because one of the party members fell on top of it.

In a episode maybe a movie of "The Outer Limits" there is a story that reminds of a Mimics. Several people go to study a strange phenomenon at a abandoned house. Not long after the group start dying, disappearing. The one guy with a drinking habit discovered the house is eating people. His drinking is the only reason the house hasn't consumed him. I believe the guy survived, been awhile.

it's your duty to make the players fear monsters? I love it. The oh shit moments.

Can a mimic assume the form of a construct e.i. a golem. Since many golems are made of stone & some are made of wood or metal.

Never played D&D, and probably will never but I love mimics ever since the first time I saw a mimic. Was in the Dark Souls series when I was chomped on by a chest mimic. I saw some really cool concept art for mimics after that were ladders, chairs, and for the dark souls games the bon fires in which you rest and fast travel to and from. Thanks for this. it was just really cool to see what these can actually become.

Dungeon idea: a lonely mountain with a portal to the abyss deep inside. For some reason not many demons escape the mountain. Ocasionally demons do find a way to avoid being killed and escape the mountain. In truth this it's mountain sized mimic shaped like one with a portal to the abyss in it's stomach which feeds it with plenty of demons. The portal or some strange magic prevents it from splitting and reproducing. It's capable of reconfiguring it's insides to any kind of rooms, passage ways, and can do things like create a seemingly never-ending hallway to trap people and eat them. Till recently the demons were enough but too many are escaping so it's been trying to attract others for it to feed on. The party would have to enter the portal to close it and can be trapped in the abyss if they mess up.

Hey AJ, you are so cool man. Who else in the world would tell people you can't eat a Mimic and what there insides look like. I really enjoyed the extra information at the end of the video. It was like getting two videos in one. Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!

Well finally. 😆 You got False hydra & Tsochar before mimics lol

”the surface is like outer space..." He said, channelling his Uncle Travelling Matt

I always liked the idea of a wizard or artificer trying to create artificial life and accidentally made mimics by combining octopus slimes and a bag of holding together

Could a mimic take the form of a hundnoid statue, or even an animal statue, or a construct like a warfordged and be able to walk ?

Imagine this: a massive Galleon mimic piloted by a crew of dopplegangers

Loved you used The weakly Roll comic panel!

17:02 Do you think you'll do a video on the burbur? I'd love to know more about them they look like something you would see in in Star Wars!🧙‍♂️👾