Mimic 5e: How the Treasure Chest Bites, and How to Get Unstuck

The mimic is a CR 2 Medium Monstrosity with AC 12, 58 hit points and a top speed of 15 feet (20 in 2024). It can't chase anyone. Instead it waits as an object, and anything that touches it sticks: a creature adhered to it is grappled (escape DC 13, with Disadvantage on the check), and the mimic then bites the stuck creature with Advantage for piercing plus acid damage. The 2024 version loses its perfect disguise (False Appearance) but gets a bonus-action Shape-Shift, a Pseudopod that grapples in any form, and a Bite that deals 12 instead of 7 piercing to a grappled target.

Table of Contents

• •Mimic Stat Block (2014)
• •The Mimic in the 2024 Rules
• •How the Mimic Fights
• •Running a Mimic Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Mimic
• •Mimic Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Mimic Stat Block (2014)

The 2014 mimic from SRD 5.1:

Four traits do all the work, and they chain together:

1. •Shapechanger. As an action, it turns into an object or back into its amorphous true form. Its statistics don't change, so it never has to change back to fight.
2. •False Appearance (object form only). While motionless, it's indistinguishable from an ordinary object. Read literally, no Perception or Investigation check reveals it; the players find out when they touch it or it moves.
3. •Adhesive (object form only). Anything that touches it sticks. A Huge or smaller creature that sticks is grappled (escape DC 13), and checks to escape have Disadvantage. Its Pseudopod hit also applies Adhesive while it's in object form.
4. •Grappler. Advantage on attack rolls against any creature it's grappling.

Note what the mimic lacks: a Multiattack. It makes one attack per turn. Its damage comes from Advantage and from keeping its victim stuck. It's also immune to acid damage and to the Prone condition, and it has darkvision out to 60 feet.

The Mimic in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps the mimic at CR 2 (450 XP), AC 12 and 58 hit points, and reworks how the trap springs.

What this means at the table:

• •The 2024 mimic can be found. Without False Appearance, nothing makes the disguise automatic. The SRD 5.2.1 Search action uses Wisdom (Perception) to find a concealed creature or object, but the SRD sets no DC for spotting a disguised mimic. Our suggestion as DM: compare the check against the mimic's Stealth roll (+5), or use DC 15 if you prefer a fixed number.
• •It hits harder once someone's stuck. A grappled target takes 16.5 average damage per Bite instead of 11.5.
• •It can reset. Shape-Shift is a Bonus Action, so a 2024 mimic can bite and turn back into a chest on the same turn, which matters when the party retreats and comes back.
• •It fights fine as a blob. The 2024 Pseudopod grapples in any form, so a mimic that has been revealed is still a grappler. A revealed 2014 mimic in true form can't grapple at all unless it changes back to an object, which costs its action.

How the Mimic Fights

A mimic plays like a trap with hit points. The DM's job is to make the moment of contact feel fair and the next three rounds feel desperate.

Step 1: the touch. Someone opens the chest, tries the door handle, sits on the stool. That creature is stuck and grappled. In both editions that's automatic; there's no attack roll and no save. If no one touches it, the mimic can attack first: its Pseudopod (in object form) applies Adhesive on a hit.

Step 2: the bite. Every turn after that, the mimic bites the stuck creature with Advantage. Against AC 16, a +5 attack hits on 11+ (50%), and Advantage raises that to 75%.

Those averages include critical hits. A level 2 wizard has around 14 hit points, so a 2024 mimic's single Bite has a real chance to drop one.

Step 3: the escape problem. Escaping takes the victim's action and a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against DC 13, with Disadvantage.

So a stuck wizard spends turns failing to get free while being bitten. Under 2024 rules the Grappled condition also gives them Disadvantage on attacks against anyone except the mimic, so the best use of a stuck character's turn is often to hit the mimic.

Step 4: the retreat. With 15 or 20 feet of speed, a mimic can't follow a party that runs, so it keeps biting whoever is stuck to it. A 2024 mimic that's losing can Shape-Shift into a new object and wait for the party to come back for the treasure.

Running a Mimic Encounter

A mimic is 450 XP. Using the 2024 budget (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters:

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines, used by our encounter calculator, one mimic is Medium for four level 2 characters (thresholds 400 Medium, 600 Hard) and Deadly for level 1 (400).

The XP math understates how a mimic plays, in both directions. The first victim gets no defense against being stuck, which makes it nastier than its CR. But it can't move, so a party that steps back and attacks from range can kill it with no risk except to whoever is already glued to it. Plan around that: put mimics in rooms where backing off has a cost (a flooding chamber, a timed door, guards on the way) or pair one with a creature that pins the party in place, like a gelatinous cube in the corridor outside.

How Players Beat a Mimic

• •Don't touch things with your hands. Poking a suspicious chest with a 10-foot pole is the classic test. The pole sticks (Adhesive works on anything), but only creatures get grappled, so you lose a pole, not a turn.
• •Know what doesn't work. Detect Magic shows nothing; a mimic isn't magical. Acid Splash does nothing because it's immune to acid. Effects that knock creatures Prone fail because it's immune to that condition. Hold Person can't target a Monstrosity, and the 2014 Command fails because the mimic has no language.
• •Target Intelligence. The mimic has Intelligence 5 (−3), its worst save. Wisdom is +1 and Charisma −1. Spells that force Intelligence saves are rare at low level, so Charisma-save effects like Bane are the practical choice.
• •Free the victim by killing the mimic, fast. AC 12 is easy to hit (a +5 attacker hits 70% of the time). In both editions a grapple also ends if the grappler is incapacitated. Focus fire and burst damage beat trying to pull a friend loose.
• •Fight from range once it's revealed. At 15 feet (2014) or 20 feet (2024) of speed, a mimic can't reach anyone who backs off. Magic Missile, cantrips and arrows end the fight safely, as long as nobody is still stuck to it.
• •Fire and cold work fine. The mimic only ignores acid. Burning Hands is a decent opener on a revealed mimic, though a 58 HP creature needs more than one spell.

Mimic Encounter Ideas

The auction lot. An estate sale in a dead wizard's house offers "Lot 14: iron-bound chest, locked, contents unknown." The chest is a mimic that ate the wizard's apprentice months ago and has lived off rats since. The winning bidder (maybe the party, maybe a rival) is going to open it in front of a crowd. Any equipment a mimic carries isn't transformed, so the apprentice's ring is still inside it.

The barge crate. On a slow river barge, cargo keeps going missing at night, and so does a deckhand. One of the 40 crates in the hold is a 2024 mimic that Shape-Shifts back into a crate every time someone comes down with a lantern. The party has to search the hold crate by crate, with Perception checks against its Stealth, while the barge captain refuses to let them break open cargo he's paid to deliver.

The fed door. A dungeon door has a bowl of fresh meat beside it, and someone has scratched "FEED IT" into the stone. The door is a mimic the dungeon's builder trained to let fed visitors pass. Feed it and it stays still. Touch it hungry and it bites. The bowl is empty when the party arrives. Recording the session with Loreify helps when the players later argue over who fed the door last time (how session notes work).

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a mimic in 5e?

The mimic is CR 2 and worth 450 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 12, 58 hit points and a speed of 15 feet (20 feet in 2024).

How do you escape a mimic's Adhesive?

Use your action to make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against DC 13. The mimic's trait gives that check Disadvantage. Killing or incapacitating the mimic also ends the grapple.

Can you detect a mimic in 5e?

Under 2014 rules, False Appearance makes a motionless mimic indistinguishable from an ordinary object, so no check reveals it; it's found by touch or when it moves. The 2024 mimic has no False Appearance, so a Wisdom (Perception) check can reveal it. The SRD sets no DC; one fair DM ruling is to oppose the check with the mimic's Stealth (+5). Detect Magic doesn't work in either edition.

Is a mimic immune to acid?

Yes. Both versions are immune to acid damage and to the Prone condition. Their Bite deals extra acid damage.

Does a mimic have a Multiattack?

No. Both the 2014 and 2024 mimics make one attack per turn: a Bite or a Pseudopod. They rely on Advantage against grappled targets instead of extra attacks.

What objects can a mimic turn into?

The 2014 mimic can turn into any object. The 2024 mimic shape-shifts into a Medium or Small object, so chests, doors, stools and statues work, but a wagon doesn't.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.