Mimic

Medium monstrosity (shapechanger), neutral

Armor Class
12
natural armor
Hit Points
58
9d8 + 18
Speed
15 ft.
  • STR +3
  • DEX +1
  • CON +2
  • INT -3
  • WIS +1
  • CHA -1
Skills
Stealth +5
Damage Immunities
acid
Condition Immunities
prone
Senses
darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Challenge 2 450 XP · Proficiency +2

Traits

Shapechanger

The mimic can use its action to polymorph into an object or back into its true, amorphous form. Its statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Adhesive (Object Form Only)

The mimic adheres to anything that touches it. A Huge or smaller creature adhered to the mimic is also grappled by it (escape DC 13). Ability checks made to escape this grapple have disadvantage.

False Appearance (Object Form Only)

While the mimic remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary object.

Grappler

The mimic has advantage on attack rolls against any creature grappled by it.

Actions

Pseudopod

Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage. If the mimic is in object form, the target is subjected to its Adhesive trait.

Bite

Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) acid damage.

How to run it

The mimic is a trap that fights back, and the reveal is most of the encounter. False Appearance means it is indistinguishable from an ordinary object while motionless, so it gets to choose the moment. Let it wait until someone touches it.

Adhesive then does the real work: whoever touched it is grappled with disadvantage on the escape check, and Grappler gives the mimic advantage on every attack against them. One character is effectively removed from the fight while the rest decide whether to help.

Building the encounter

One mimic is a reasonable encounter for a party of four at level 2 or 3, and it plays as a puzzle more than a battle. It has speed 15 and cannot chase anyone.

Put it where a party will interact with objects without thinking: a treasure chest, a door handle, a ladder rung. The encounter is only interesting if the mimic gets to be an object first, so it needs a room where touching something is the obvious move.

What to pair it with

Anything that punishes the party for being stuck in one place. Even a couple of skeletons with bows turn a mimic from an inconvenience into a serious problem, because the grappled character cannot take cover.

A mimic in the same room as the real treasure is a good trick: the party has to work around it rather than through it.

Reskins

Any predator that pretends to be scenery. A living door, a carnivorous rug, a statue that grabs, a patch of floor. The stat block cares only that it looks like an object and sticks to what touches it.

Adhesive and False Appearance together make this one of the most reskinnable creatures in the SRD, because the whole identity is behavioural rather than physical.

Commonly played wrong

Adhesive and False Appearance are object-form only. A mimic that has reverted to its amorphous form has neither, so a mimic revealed and then reverted has thrown away its two best traits. Keep it in object form.

The escape DC is 13 with disadvantage on the check, which is much harder than the number suggests. Expect grappled characters to stay grappled for several rounds, and plan the encounter around that rather than being surprised by it.

Compared to others at this CR

At CR 2 the mimic has more hit points than the ogre and does about half the damage. It is not competing on raw threat.

What it offers instead is a fight where positioning has already gone wrong before initiative was rolled. No other creature at this tier opens the encounter with a character already grappled and at disadvantage.

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