…Sorry, you’re acting smug, but I’m not sure what you’re even trying to say. Did you not read my comment? Mimics breathe. Breathing causes motion. Ergo, they aren’t motionless. If you can spot the motion, you can distinguish them from a regular item. If not, you can’t.
My dude, I take your point, but you’re writing in properties for the mimic that aren’t in the rules, based on your real world perception of how things work. That isn’t applicable to the game mechanics. If you really have to have something to wrap your head around to explain the mimic both breathing and being imperceptible while impersonating an object, then model mimic breathing as some form of motionless skin breathing. Just realise that when you go digging for another reason to say why you can see it happening, its your model that is wrong, not the rules.
…you’re writing in properties for the mimic that aren’t in the rules…
The rules don’t say goblins breathe, either. If you can’t extrapolate that living creatures breathe, you’re not doing a good job.
…to explain the mimic both breathing and being imperceptible
I’m quite clearly doing the opposite, though. As does the lore attached to it, which clearly says “a mimic in its altered form is nearly unrecognizable”. Nearly unrecognizable means it is recognizable.
…some form of motionless skin breathing.
Okay, now you’re the one writing in properties that aren’t in the rules. Especially since its skin can be just wood.
…its your model that is wrong, not the rules.
No, neither are wrong. You just misunderstood the rules. And my model. The rules say they are indistinguishable when motionless. I say they aren’t motionless. No contradiction.
In Dark Souls, mimics breathe slowly. Like, 17 seconds per breath. It’s tough to spot, but you can spot it if you’re cautious. Since it’s proven to catch people off guard, but CAN be spotted, I figure, why not use what works?
I’m going ahead and hit “doubt” on that statement as I looked at my 2014 Monster Manual before writing my previous message and the word “nearly” is absent in that description.
Breathing doesn’t guarantee that you can see something lol. Show me a breathing insect with its “chest” moving up and down. If you account for evolution then mimics who could best hide their breathing are also absolutely something that would happen. Plenty of mammals can hold their breath underwater a crazy amount of time. A mimic that could also position and shape its body would have no trouble hiding its breathing.
They’re motionless and indistinguishable and you’re just going to have to deal with that.
Bonus: the way to find them out would be to see if a character notices them looking out of place. Maybe it’s a contested stealth vs incestigation/perception role, or maybe the description of the room even has clues. There are absolutely other ways to “safely” discover them aside from breathing.
Of course it doesn’t guarantee it. That’s why you roll dice.
Does evolution apply to aberations? And would evolution not grant the same benefit to every living being as well? Not to mention, co-evolution would lead to better mimic detection, surely.
I don’t see why I have to deal with your fiction over mine.
I brought up evolution as a way to explain the idea that even without magic it’s possible for there to not be any motion when a creature is breathing. There are also worlds where a mimic could be a normal animal, so that’s good there too. You, hilariously, are aaking if evolution even applies to aberations while being dead-set on them breathing, as if that isn’t a comically easy thing to hand-wave away if we’re saying the creature is a proper, built-for-purpose monster.
The book says “motionless” and “indistinguishable”. Those words mean “without motion” and “with nothing to [visually] distinguish it from the object it is trying to imitate”. There is no breathing motion because then it would not be motionless and there is nothing to tell it apart. Both of those are ok in a game context because there other ways to discover the monster.
We aren’t talking about your subjective opinion and your original comment was an “um actually” in relation to someone else’s so if you want to know why you’re having this conversation it’s because you started it.
Holy shit you’re dense. This isn’t Dark Souls and that’s a video game, not a table-top, theatre of the mind, RPG.
If you can learn that the crate, which is indistinguishable from any other crate, has no reason to be where it is then you can perform further tests to expose whether or not it is a mimic. It will look exactly like a crate the whole time and that’s fine. It’s not a paradox, you’re just not very intelligent.
You’re fifty-two cards short of a deck and making it everyone else’s problem.
…Sorry, you’re acting smug, but I’m not sure what you’re even trying to say. Did you not read my comment? Mimics breathe. Breathing causes motion. Ergo, they aren’t motionless. If you can spot the motion, you can distinguish them from a regular item. If not, you can’t.
My dude, I take your point, but you’re writing in properties for the mimic that aren’t in the rules, based on your real world perception of how things work. That isn’t applicable to the game mechanics. If you really have to have something to wrap your head around to explain the mimic both breathing and being imperceptible while impersonating an object, then model mimic breathing as some form of motionless skin breathing. Just realise that when you go digging for another reason to say why you can see it happening, its your model that is wrong, not the rules.
The rules don’t say goblins breathe, either. If you can’t extrapolate that living creatures breathe, you’re not doing a good job.
I’m quite clearly doing the opposite, though. As does the lore attached to it, which clearly says “a mimic in its altered form is nearly unrecognizable”. Nearly unrecognizable means it is recognizable.
Okay, now you’re the one writing in properties that aren’t in the rules. Especially since its skin can be just wood.
No, neither are wrong. You just misunderstood the rules. And my model. The rules say they are indistinguishable when motionless. I say they aren’t motionless. No contradiction.
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In Dark Souls, mimics breathe slowly. Like, 17 seconds per breath. It’s tough to spot, but you can spot it if you’re cautious. Since it’s proven to catch people off guard, but CAN be spotted, I figure, why not use what works?
Where does this “nearly” come from? Because my Monster Manual doesn’t have that word in the mimic description…
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I’m going ahead and hit “doubt” on that statement as I looked at my 2014 Monster Manual before writing my previous message and the word “nearly” is absent in that description.
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Breathing doesn’t guarantee that you can see something lol. Show me a breathing insect with its “chest” moving up and down. If you account for evolution then mimics who could best hide their breathing are also absolutely something that would happen. Plenty of mammals can hold their breath underwater a crazy amount of time. A mimic that could also position and shape its body would have no trouble hiding its breathing.
They’re motionless and indistinguishable and you’re just going to have to deal with that.
Bonus: the way to find them out would be to see if a character notices them looking out of place. Maybe it’s a contested stealth vs incestigation/perception role, or maybe the description of the room even has clues. There are absolutely other ways to “safely” discover them aside from breathing.
Of course it doesn’t guarantee it. That’s why you roll dice.
Does evolution apply to aberations? And would evolution not grant the same benefit to every living being as well? Not to mention, co-evolution would lead to better mimic detection, surely.
I don’t see why I have to deal with your fiction over mine.
I brought up evolution as a way to explain the idea that even without magic it’s possible for there to not be any motion when a creature is breathing. There are also worlds where a mimic could be a normal animal, so that’s good there too. You, hilariously, are aaking if evolution even applies to aberations while being dead-set on them breathing, as if that isn’t a comically easy thing to hand-wave away if we’re saying the creature is a proper, built-for-purpose monster.
The book says “motionless” and “indistinguishable”. Those words mean “without motion” and “with nothing to [visually] distinguish it from the object it is trying to imitate”. There is no breathing motion because then it would not be motionless and there is nothing to tell it apart. Both of those are ok in a game context because there other ways to discover the monster.
We aren’t talking about your subjective opinion and your original comment was an “um actually” in relation to someone else’s so if you want to know why you’re having this conversation it’s because you started it.
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Holy shit you’re dense. This isn’t Dark Souls and that’s a video game, not a table-top, theatre of the mind, RPG.
If you can learn that the crate, which is indistinguishable from any other crate, has no reason to be where it is then you can perform further tests to expose whether or not it is a mimic. It will look exactly like a crate the whole time and that’s fine. It’s not a paradox, you’re just not very intelligent.
You’re fifty-two cards short of a deck and making it everyone else’s problem.