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I'm actually starting to get into D&D and I may be soon buy the D&D Starter Set. Mimic is a monster whose concept I love, and I would like to put at least one as soon as possible when I'll DM, even if I have to change some little things in the base scenario.
But as I never DM'd or even played a D&D game, I don't have any idea on at what level can a party fight one of these monsters with a bit of a challenge but without risking everyone dies.

Based on played games (as DM or player), when should I introduce my first mimic to give my party not too deadly challenge ? (When = about what level?)

For more context, my party should be about 4/5 players who're medium used to RP but never played D&D before.

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2 Answers 2

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At level 2 (on average).

From here,

CR tells you the upper maximum difficulty of the monster, assuming a party of 4.

Since the Mimic has CR2, it's a challenge for a level 2 party.

That being said, you can easily adapt this.

  • After a boss fight, the level 3 party is low on resources, and finding a mimic instead of loot can be a challenge for them.

  • At level 1, a party that somehow realises the enemy is a mimic without being jumped by it (say, some NPC pointed it out, or some other motive gave that information), can also trivialise the encounter. The mimic has a lot of HP, but low damage and awful mobility. It can be easily kited from afar.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks a lot. I started but haven't finished to read the basic rules (as I don't plan to buy all 3 core books before being sure that I like DnD enough) and I didn't find this. Thanks also for examples about how to introduce it to other levels. But if it may be a challenge for a lv.3 party after a great fight (boss), does it can be still a challenge at higher levels ? \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 14:28
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    \$\begingroup\$ Also remember that CR is not always the best way to calculate an encounter. I tend to base it on a combination of AC and number of actions per round. If the party will never beat the AC and don't have a lot of spells that to provoke saving throws, they will probably never hit it. Also is, if the enemy has way more actions than the party, they will be dealing a lot more damage than the party. CR is an ok base line, but don't use it as the be all end all. \$\endgroup\$
    – SaggingRufus
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 14:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Zoma a basic Mimic probably won't ever challenge a high level party, but there are similar monsters of higher power levels, or you can make your own. But it should be another question. \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 14:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Zoma I feel compelled to mention that you can legally download the Basic version of the 5e rules from the Wizards site and they will probably give you a pretty good idea of how much you like it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Roger
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 15:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Erik as suggested I created a new question. If anyone's interested into having a higher level mimic, here's the link \$\endgroup\$
    – Zoma
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 15:52
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Lvl 1, according to Dragon of Icespire Peak

One of the proposed quests that a lvl 1 party should start with culminates in a fight against a mimic. Of course, one of the other quests is a fight with a CR 3 Manticore, so this should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Reading through that quest, it gives a couple options for completing the quest without fighting the mimic, notably, a DC 12 Charisma (Persuasion) check to convince the King the mimic is dead. \$\endgroup\$
    – Thomas Markov
    Commented Mar 16, 2021 at 12:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ I ran a party through both encounters at level 2 and 1 respectively and they won both with minimal GM assistance. The manticore was a tough fight but they loved it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Guybrush McKenzie
    Commented Mar 16, 2021 at 12:07

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