The Problem with Mimics in D&D 

WHEN THE CHEST 😳😳😳 IS SUS????? 🤣😂😂👌🔥🔥💯💯

It’s also from a generation where loot = xp where it was normal to avoid the monsters and just grab the treasure chest.

Common misconception... mimics *USED* to take the form of treasure chests. Now they take the form of books about mimics.

I wanted to say "Have a weasel posses a torch and extinguish it every time they walk a few steps away from the fire source the adventurers use to ignite it." However, a voice crossed time and space and said "I have darkvision"

I now want to see a chest weasel that possessed a Pringles can and made it so that it only has one Pringle left at the bottom but that Pringle is unreachable and that’s how it gets frustration. The prize for feeding it is just being able to eat the Pringle.

I remember reading about a player who made their character's backstory revolve around a mimic. The mimic was one of the sentient ones that had elected to live a peaceful life. It had taken the appearance of an orphanage and housed homeless children. The mimic would speak to the children through paintings to make it seem less scary, and any adventurers or guards that came to take the children or kill the mimic would be led to the basement to be digested. I don't remember the exact details but it was one of the more interesting concepts behind a mimic I'd seen.

We've had four mini-mimics infiltrate our barb's coin pouch. They ate 20 or so gold before we found them. Two got killed, one managed to flee and one was intimidated by our barb into becoming her pet, so now the party has a pet mimic :D

You could even do a double fake out with a chest mimic - when an adventurer tries to open it, it spits out treasure a previously eaten adventurer was carrying. It’s had its fill, and doesn’t want any trouble.

I ran the chest weasle in my game today. The group loved it! Instead of reaching 10 moments of frustration, the group ended up discovering it was a chest weasle and persuaded it to let them into the chest if they took the weasle back to town with them. There were far more people for it to annoy in town. The wizard was the one most annoyed by the weasle, so the weasle possessed the wizards staff which interfered with his ability to cast spells. They sold the staff to a merchant... who ended up going out of business not long after 😬

I've always liked the idea of the traditional chest mimics only being one stage in their lifecycle. Baby mimics are as small as a coin and often disquise themselves as such, sneaking out to parasitize on people who pick it up. As they grow they will morph into whatever object suits their size from a mug that eats rats to a carpet that eats cats. Eventually they might grow to be large enough to become an entire house. Or maybe players run across a mysterious abandoned ship floating on the waters only to find out that the ship itself is a massive mimic filled to the brim with dozens or hundreds of younger mimics and the ship is sailing to the largest port city to spread a new wave of mimic infestation.

I think mimics are good as they are with proper buildup, if you are in a dungeon that is constantly hinting that objects keep moving and things are not as they seem the punishment would make sense.

I always love the idea of mimics just being a shapeshifting ambush predator who just wants to eat everyone and again. Like a magic crocodile

I'm really fond of the Icespire Peak subquest where the party has to find a "shapechanger" that's eating a bunch of gnomes, because in that case the player is fully expecting a mimic and by the time they find it, it's more relief than frustration.

What about a druid who communicates with monsters and raises a baby mimic so that they'll be their shapeshifting weapon/items? The druid can use a sword now with a disguised mimic. Or it can turn into a tent, rope, or many other items the character needs on an adventure, saving a ton of gold on supplies. And then play a changeling just to max out the shape-changing motif.

I just stopped making mimics look like chests. Bookshelves guarding hidden rooms, trapdoors that put themselves on top of stairs, or other roadblocks that are clearly more of a roadblock than a punishment for players. Also, I really only use them in dungeons related to magic users so players do t have to worry about them all the time

What happens if a Chest Weasel accidentally tries to possess a chest Mimic? Does it work, do they fight, do either of them run away, does the weasel explode from trying to possess something that is not an object, would the weasel just instinctively know that it was a mimic and not possess it? What about the weasel possessing a Sentient Object?

A mimic similar to Chester in Don't Starve would be a great concept in DnD. You find a key shaped like a bone, and suddenly, you're accompanied by an adorable dog-like mimic that follows you around and carries your stuff. We could tweak it so that it tries to eat anyone not carrying the bone with them unless given a treat once a day to satiate it, and it helps fight by your side and carry all non-food items without being encumbered. You can feed it monster parts as a treat, promoting more fighting and less talking your way out of things all the time since a hungry Chester will become an even more difficult fight than the ones you skipped...

I love the Potionomics characterization of Mimics. They make great familiars for witches and wizards who want to keep their stuff safe, but have to be trained not to eat the things put inside them. One of the main shopkeepers has a storage chest named Boxer, and you even get your own mimic named Vendi (a vending machine, adorable) who helps you sell potions you don't care to haggle on.

I remember a side quest my party ran through involving a giant mimic. So there was a magic shop in town with an eccentric wizard running it. Well after arriving in town a number of people went missing. Turns out this happens every couple months, but the city watch never do anything about it because they've "got better things to do than chase cats stuck in trees." So anyway long story short it turns out the wizard was the favorite target of the local thieves guild, and every couple months they'd send a member or two in to try to steal from the shop. What they didn't know was the shop itself was actually a mimic and any time somebody would try to steal something the 'shop' would seemingly come to life and drag the victim into the basement, never to be seen or heard from again. They thought the wizard was just that powerful and if they could get a particular item or scroll they could sell it for massive profit, and since nobody ever returned they'd just keep trying whenever they got low on funds to bribe the guards. Turned into a pretty fun who done it investigation, especially when the party rogue tried to steal a magic gem and got dragged away. We spent the better part of an hour negotiating with a house to keep him from being eaten lol

I recently DM'd your Feywild One-Shot to my players and the chest weasel part was BY FAR the most fun in the entire session. My players eventually gave up and started MAKING SANDWITCHES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DUNGEON because Renata was hungry. The moment the weasel puffed out was priceless. Their faces lmao.

“The Ecology of” series of articles in Dragon Magazine was such a great source of world building. They took the weird monsters and tried to think how they would logically fit in the world. Miss them so much.

I like filling wizard lairs with animated objects: mimics (commonly doors), armor, weapons, smothering rugs, etc... while using those creatures nowhere else. It gives these environments a strong vibe, while that paranoia doesn't carry over to the rest of the campaign.

Knowing my party, the moment there’s a chest weasel it’s either “we leave the chest Alone” or “stab the chest” Edit: after reading the doc I now know that my party will only resort to stabbing it

I've always enjoyed letting mimics have 'eggs' that look like gold coins. And sometimes a mimic just lets adventurers take the 'coins' so that the eggs can be spread.

I've always wanted a mimic as a pet for one of my characters. Like a friendly mimic that just wants to be your friend, turning into a ladder or a rope when you need to climb, a chair when you need a place to sit, a backpack to store your goods, or even a weapon when you're disarmed. It always tries to be helpful, but then gets upset and disappointed when it's ultimately more of an inconvenience than a help, since it just ends up unintentionally adhering to / grappling everyone that tries to use it.

I had a bunch of mirror mimics (in a hall of mirrors) who attacked the party actively then they were fighting a wizard in that same hall. A perception check of 15 would point out a mimic because the reflection in the mimics were slightly slower than the ones in the real mirrors because the mimics are not actually reflecting the images but hurriedly shapechanging to match.

I personally like the idea of mimics being more than just chests and actually gaining attributes based on where they chose to call home.. like a mimic gaining undead traits from mimicing a tombstone in a graveyard or gaining magic traits from crystals in a cave.

Currently working on a mimic that I can’t wait for my party to encounter. Basically since the game is a seafaring one the mimic would be a pristine ship just floating out in the ocean. When party investigates it, it will just seem like one unless if they have high rolls. However if they ever walk down into the ship, that is where the teeth shut close and the digestive acid begins to rise. Party will also realize that every other thing on the ship such as barrels, chairs, etc. was a mimic and they stumbled into a mimic hive.

Loved the video and the creature! ❤ Also, just as a reminder: there’s much more fun in making mimics turn into non-chest objects. I’ve prepared two combat encounters featuring mimics in my home campaign and it was awesome. The first mimic was a door that worked for the local thieves guild to guard their hideout in exchange for food. The second one featured dozens of tiny mimics that would pretend to be a wizard's mugs collection, and whenever someone else entered the wizard’s bedroom, they would jump from the shelves onto the trespassers.

I once gave a player a curse which punished him for skipping fights to loot. The curse turned any chest or door he touched into a mimic if his allies were in combat.

I love mimics, but they really do traumatise players. I only put them in places where a villain or other character would hire them or where they may naturally end up setting up an ambush given their ecology. My players know that the open world is generally free of mimics but evil Lairs aren’t

Yea!✨✨ The return of the adorable chest weasel. I think this is my favorite of all your creations.

The idea of a mimic is also a situation where you can't think about what you want to give people so you need something to slow them down. I absolutely love this concept.

The chest is intangible. Next to the chest is a lever. If someone pulls the lever they become intangible and the chest becomes corporeal. The person who pulled the lever still can't touch the chest. Their friend opens the chest. Inside is another chest. Inside that chest is a lever. Hyjinx insue.

Gonna add a little bit of a gambling mechanic to the Chest Weasel: give the party a mildly cursed magic item that has an annoying (and often hilarious) but workable curse and see what their reaction is. However, if they wanted to double down the Weasel could offer them a more powerful magic item with a more inconvenient curse, so on and so forth. The curse is directly tied to the Weasel and will fade once it’s properly fed. The party won’t know the curse fades until that happens. For example: we can have the Sword of Irritable Bowel Syndrome which makes the PC holding it want to use the bathroom three or four times a day at random intervals. Or how about the Gary’s Sword which makes all slain enemies rag doll uncontrollably glitching into terrain and flailing about so looting them requires a strength check or grapple roll. Things of that nature

That final chest weasel illustration is so magical, I'm in love

Hey I just found your channel a few days ago and I'm impressed by the quality of all of your work ! Every video is polished and interesting, it's motivated me to start DMing again ! So thanks for your work and keep it up

I am planning on having a tavern in my next campaign that is basically a mimic hive. I remember reading somewhere that mimics feed on the residual magic from magic items (which is why they like to eat adventurers that have them). This tavern will basically be a breeding ground for mimics. They don't attack the patrons since they are usually adventurers that constantly bring them residual magic. Almost everything in the tavern is a mimic. The tables, the plates, the mugs, maybe even the tavern itself. The entire town knows that the main rule in the tavern is NO FIGHTING. If something were to get broken... it would be bad...

A moment of silence for house mimics, sword mimics, chair mimics, table mimics, pot mimics, cake mimics, torch mimics, boat mimics, carriage mimics, shirt mimics, pants mimics, harp mimics, the banjo mimic, and the ever disregarded mimic maker. They'll get enough infamy eventually.

I am so happy you expanded on the Chest Weasel! I loved running that encounter in the Fey Wild one shot you made and wanted to incorporate it into my larger games.

Thank you for your videos, really! They are always great to watch and always good inspiration. I had my players face off some fairy shenannigans inspired by your ideas lately and according to them it was both frustrating and fun. For example, one chest sucked up all of one player's items when he opened it and then split into 20 other chests. I rolled 1d20 every chest he opened, 2-6 would give his items back and 1 all of them... everything else had things happen to him like coloring his beard rainbow, shaving, low dmg versions of spells that wouldn't kill him, punching gloves shooting out of them, etc... The thing was, he started to mistrust the whole system and went over to sneak up on the chests and trying to hurl them into a nearby river so he wouldn't have to deal with them... Greatings from Germany!! P.S. Yes, low numbers are good in The Dark Eye.

OMG A MIMIC VIDEO I WANTED THIS SO BAD

I loved your chest weasel idea since the Faye video. Thank you for another fun and helpful video

Can't believe I spent like all day watching pretty much every video you've made. The amount of inspiration I've gotten watching your videos is unreal. Doing Gods' work 🙌

Missed opportunity to name Chest Weasels "Faerrets"

I once played a semi-intelligent, friendly mimic that pretended to be a direwolf taxidermy. The story was that it was captured as a baby and raised by an eccentric collector and was rescued by the party hoarder house style. 10/10 one of my favorite memories

Antonio, another awesome video and concept! Your videos are my favorite morning routine

When I first saw the Chest Weasel during your Feywild episode, I fell in love with the idea! Thanks for making the Stat block for this, im definitely gonna use this little bugger! Keep up the great work!😸👍

So a couple things I want to say: 1. I adore the concept of the Chest Weasel, I think that could be a very cute encounter. 2. Fizban introduces the Hoard Mimic, a giant mimic that is capable of language, and is even intelligent enough to negotiate with people. Dragons often bargain with them to act as false hoards to bait out adventurers--- a mutually beneficial relationship. I know that Fizban's isn't part of the SRD, though, so I understand why you didn't mention it. 3. I feel like a lot of people forget that Mimics... don't have to exclusively be chests. They can be any inanimate object, from a candelabra to a staircase to a book to a door. As such, they could be used in an ambush-type scenario where suddenly the walls start to move and attack the party. Or they could be disguised as a door and surprise the party! (I used that in my campaign lol). Point is, chest mimics might be the most iconic, but we can get much weirder than a --famous Jigglypuff player-- hungry box.

My favourite use of a mimic, was not to use a mimic. I had a suspicious chest at the end of a hall, as the players approached, one found a note written in secret druidic, it only said one word "Mimic" What followed was the players trying to communicate with the chest, trying to bribe it with food, then eventually preparing an all out attack which destroyed the chest. Inside was a note, that was a picture of a squirrel showing it's rear end. The whole thing was a prank. And there never was a mimic. (And no I didn't pull the "and the door next to the chest was the mimic" card cause that's lame.)

Excellent new concept as always! Such a pleasure every time you upload

An interesting mimic encounter: You find a room filled with chests and a book on how to identify mimics, the description slowly describes the book itself but before you would typically realize it transforms into a mimic. It still surprises you and has the mimic as a trap, but it gives the player the ability to realize it is a trap, and it basically tells you that there is a mimic in the room. (I saw the general idea of this on a video on another video).

Chest Mimics CAN be good as part of a dungeon gimmick. The Beast Castle, from the Beauty and the Beast, is a good example. ANYTHING can be alive, ANYTHING can be an enemy... or, given the proper motivation, an ally...

I really like taking the approach of Shovel Knight to Mimics, where the mimics are smart and they go into dungeons to get the treasure and magic items before the party, so that when the party finds the chest and get stuck to it, instead of a dangerous creature ready to eat you, its a very insistent salesman. giving mimics a bit of bagofholding-ness flavor and some background helping mages and thieves to smuggle things from place to place can give mimics a very nice role as a charming shopkeeper NPC, they can even go "you can find me in the city if you go here and here", and use their object mimicry to become a little hidden black market. had to rewrite my comment because my bad internet sent it to limbo

I used the chest weasel after seeing your feywild vid some time ago. My players absolutely loved it. One thing that surprised me is that the dimmest player who struggles the most with puzzles actually was the one to solve it. Long story short, he sweared like a sailor, gave into his frustrations and thus solved the puzzle. The look on his face after explaining what just happened was priceless. Funnily enough, by pure happenstance, I used the chest weasel in a tower filled with mimics. It was an adventure I made to show off mimics and to make people see that a mimic is so much more then just a punishment. I guess I subconsciously realised the chest weasel was just the perfect mimic.

Seeing your channel grow so fast is so awesome Moth people and candle robots sound incredible btw

Hey Pointy Hat! I remember you mentioned the chest weasel in your the other video about creating the feywild campaign. I used the chest weasel idea and ran with it. I used it as a familiar for an NPC that was delivering a letter to one of the players. It was a hit, their character found it so frustrating and annoying, opening so many different chests and even getting another player to help them, but immediately forgave it once they saw how cute it was. Meanwhile, everyone was giggling in the background. Thank you so much for this, I personally might include this creature in other campaigns cause I love it so much.😂

Sweet, I was looking forward for you to finally talk about those weasel mimics. Personally I like mimics, but I like it more when they turn to things besides chests. Like yeah I understand why, but if they are so good at shapeshifiting I think its a little limited that they only turn to just one thing. And the idea of an intelligent talking mimic sound so fun.

Really love your content and I'd love to join the stream so much, but it's at an odd hour for me. Anyhow, I'm so happy for you and super excited to see what your worldbuilding project will become :D

Thanks for including clips of Dark Cloud 2!!!! Freaking love that game!

Wow, I can’t believe you posted this now of all times. I just started working on a Mimic themed homebrew book for D&D this week. It’s going to have 6 mimic themed subclasses, a mimic playable race, tons of mimic statblocks based off different disguises, and a lot more. I was really nervous throughout this video, worried that your concept was going to be similar to something I working on, but luckily that didn’t happen. Looks like I *weaseled* out of that one

I love the idea of a chest weasel popping out of a chest in a dungeon, offers an array of magical items for sale, then constantly haggles with the adventurers before settling at the original price.

Its a really cute idea, I like it as an alternative and separate thing apart from mimics. Honestly I would use both in a game to mix it up and show not everything is a mimic but they are still out there and they have a chance of finding one... or a Chest Weasel that could just fool around with them.

My party and i went to an inn that was essentially a giant mimic. Everything in there, was a mimic. From the floorboards to the curtains. My character took it upon herself to take and look after a mug of ale. When the campaign was done, the mimic mug had become something like a non combatant familiar. Next time we rolled up characters in the same universe, i rolled up the same mimic, all grown up, in a suit of armour. It was an artificer/beast barb. I loved that thing.

Mimics can be done well, but the dungeon master has to use them responsibly or else they can ruin a game singlehandedly. Chest weasels are amazing though, I love those little fluff noodles. "It's annoying" is MUCH better than "don't trust anything" ❤

Imagine making a campaign with a lot off chest weasels and when the players get used to them mimics!

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO MAKE THESE OMG!!!! They are awesome and I love them and so high quality! They are thought out and the art and everything! So much work has been put into these and absolutely appreciated!

You make very professional videos! Very funny, very useful, and just plane old fun! Not many RU-vidrs can make that claim just starting out.

Mimics are great! In Pathfinder there's a third party book called 'Legendary Shifters' by Legendary Games, and that class is extremely fun, but it also has a a Mimic class archetype, that allows YOU! THE PLAYER! To turn into a Mimic! I played this class in a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and it was super fun! The mixture of stealthy object disguising and EXTREME MONSTROUS VIOLENCE was super fun and cool. ANGRY BOX NOISES INTENSIFY! There was a lot of fun with it, some really interesting class abilities, and it just lead to some really fun shenanigans. At the end of the campaign he retired and became a Tavern. ...Yes, I know what I said.

I've got an encounter made where a mimic has made a deal with someone. They wear it as armor and are stated as a grappler. So each turn they try to make sure they have someone to chomp and beat up together. Friendship is beautiful

At this point he just needs to make a book honestly I’d buy it 110%

Was recommended this video as I've recently been diving into D&D, and have to say the chest weasel seems like an interesting take on the mimic. If I ever get around to building my own campaign I would love to add those little guys around for a flavorful twist.

I love the chest weasel idea. I've used mimics for horror - a keg gets delivered to a tavern, and soon people start disappearing. It doesn't 'teach' my players against any particular behavior, but it does make them understand that people aren't the only hazardous things they can encounter in the city.

The ultimate irony of watching this video for me is that in my current campaign, I have a magic item shop that's run BY a high intelligence mimic! Combined with the fact most of book purchases have for expanding his product list, the addition of the Chest Weasel is icing on the mimic shaped cake for new ideas of a side event I'm thinking of putting my players through. Top notch as always Pointy Hat!

Haven't finished the video yet, but I can't wait for how you're going to do the lich version of the Monk. Your lich series is my favorite and how I found your channel.

I'll have you know that the DM of one group I'm playing with recently used a chest weasel. I did not know about them, as I only saw your video now. It was a super fun encounter and my character ended up empathising with the chest weasel deeply. I thought it may bring you joy to know your inspiration went out into the world and returns to you having fulfilled its intention. Once for certain, but surely many times over :) In completely unrelated proceedings, I shall not watch your feywild video before the end of this campaign 🫣

I’ve been replaying Prey the last few days, so this is exactly what I was thinking about! I can’t wait to see what the twist is…

For everyone like me who wants a twist on dragons, we will unite in all videos from this one on, because our greedy lizards deserve it too!!! DAY 3 ASKING FOR DRAGONS ON THE CHANNEL

This is such a cute idea!!! I'm making my first campaign (for a group of friends that mostly never played) and i will certainly use this! It just seems so fun I will have to work a little on the details but it'll certainly be worth it

Gotta say that video came at a perfect moment. Me and my players were preparing to play the Feywild one-shot and, me knowing them, in the Chest Weasel encounter they would probably swing an axe at the treasure chest at the second trolling move I would make. And create a stat block by myself is not one of my strengths. I may need to translate the stat block to my language, but I already did this to the whole adventure so it won't be a big deal. Anyway, great video Antonio! Keep up the good work!

The effort put in by the hat for each episode is always so appreciated. When I eventually decide to DM a campaign, I will definitely utilize maaaany of his creations

I love this one, it looks literally pulled out from one of those old stories people made up to explain things they didn't understand. I also love your art, dude, you're so talented

That my friend is a fantastic concept! I love all of the ideas you come up with. If only my DM wasn't a self proclaimed Sadist. Other wise I would have recommended this idea to him.

Firstly, I want to express my appreciation for your content. Not only is it enjoyable to watch, but it's also quite inspiring. Your videos have not only offered exciting ideas for playing different character classes and handling various in-game situations, but your energy has also been something I've incorporated into my own Dungeons & Dragons sessions. I have a request for a video that I'd love to see. Could you create a tutorial on how to play as a necromancer? My current character, who is a Bard, has made a pact with the god Myrkul. In the event of my character's demise, they will return as an undead being. Given this narrative, I believe it's fitting for my character to become a necromancer. I've attempted to build this concept myself, but I must admit it's been a bit challenging. I'm struggling to determine which sources to follow online, and I thought perhaps you could provide some guidance in that regard. This might be a no brainer but I'm new to DnD.

I love mimics - eager to dive into this one :)

I like the idea that any seemingly intact treasure inside a Mimic, is itself a baby mimic in hibernation pretending to be gold, jewels etc.

I just need you to know your videos are hilarious and also informative. Keep up the good one

omg i love your little hat avatar, so cute. i love the soft-colored pencil style, reminds me of old game manual illustrations

I like the idea of sentient mimics. They could set up a lot of encounters that are not just straight up battles. Mimics of course could just be seen as straight up unintelligent monsters as they usually only care about survival, or in the case of wizard mimics they're just doing their job. Fey creatures that feed off emotions in non harmful ways are cool too. Like imagine a creature that feeds off positive emotions being a companion of the chest weasel. The creature gets it's meal, after the weasel gets their own meal, from the relief of the party. It add more layers to the encounter, and this creature could assist with a backdoor option in case they both run into to the sort who can't take a joke.

I like when chest mimics are basically guard dogs of important treasure. Golden Sun and Dark Souls actually played it well by rewarding the player with nice loot most of the time.

You deserve way more likes, love your content man, keep it up!

So I've been working on a large module that is based entirely on mimics, and I've had to really dig to come up with a good amount of Lore that technically doesn't exist to make it interesting. Stuff like this is always nice to see because it let's me see another way to use them without really using them, and then saving the actual thing for something far worse, but much more fun in its own way. Once again, fantastic work Mr. Hat!

The one time I used a mimic in my campaign it wasn't a chest. It was an elevator. The party went into this spooky abandonded mansion to dismantle a network of vampire traffickers. They stepped into the elevator...and then the elevator opened its mouth. The surprise and twist worked, while the only negative consequences long term is that they always take the stairs now.

I didn't use mimics yet in dungeons against my players but i did introduce a tabaxi merchant called Shimmer who sells magic items but also has a small army of mimic gold coins My players loved her so im planing on making her appear more later down the line

Man this channel is awsome! Hey @pointy hat, you should do a fan twist series looking over fan submitted "twists" added to things like monsters, spells and classes. I have several ideas for twists and I'm surprised that you didnt mention the alpha Chad mimics (a mimic colony) :) love the content keep it up!!!

Just wanted to let you know, ran the Chest Weasel in a one-shot, and it was GOLD! You did a great job with it, and (after the fact) my players LOVED it! Thank you, Mr Hat, 10/10!

Angst Weasel, chests are just one source of frustration. As chests are just one form a mimic can take. The last one I ran was an odd chair in a dining hall. Literally, a thirteenth chair at a twelve-person table. Not to be confused with the animated objects like the table itself which animates after the mimic dies!

I really miss House Mimics, which is a small house that is a mimic. So many fun applications, such as if one decided to start stalking the players.

Oh my god I want one, I'm imagining a chaotic good arcane trickster with one who just goes around stealing every other sock, or all of someone's spoons so his weasel can feed on their anger.

I love your effort with all that homebrew