#If you want a party who is not paranoid, in spite of being repeatedly attacked by mimics, the only way to get it is to metagame, in cooperation with the players.

Many of the answers here consist of variations on "don't use mimics" or "don't ambush your players with mimics. What if you want to be able to use mimics, but at the same time have your PCs not be paranoid about them all the time? Well, that's going to take some metagaming. After all, if you say you want your players to be surprised the twelfth time you hit them with a suit of animated armor, you're basically saying that you want the emotional and social payoff of consistently outsmarting your friends without actually having to put in the work to come up with anything novel. That's both mean and somewhat lazy.

On the other hand, maybe what you really want isn't to constantly count coup over your friends at the table, but instead just to have the experience of a moderately foolish party who is constantly getting surprised by mimics because it makes for an interesting tactical experience. That is the sort of thing you can talk out with the party, and potentially get them to agree to, especially if you're willing to promise that the mimic-style encounters will have some other benefit. Perhaps you lard a bit more treasure into them, or you make them a bit under-leveled or something. You'd essentially be giving all of your PCs the flaw "insufficiently paranoid about mimics", and then rewarding them when they RP it properly. That could actually be a pretty entertaining game, especially if everyone was okay with playing it up a bit for humor value.

If you want a party who is not paranoid, in spite of being repeatedly attacked by mimics, the only way to get it is to metagame, in cooperation with the players.

Many of the answers here consist of variations on "don't use mimics" or "don't ambush your players with mimics. What if you want to be able to use mimics, but at the same time have your PCs not be paranoid about them all the time? Well, that's going to take some metagaming. After all, if you say you want your players to be surprised the twelfth time you hit them with a suit of animated armor, you're basically saying that you want the emotional and social payoff of consistently outsmarting your friends without actually having to put in the work to come up with anything novel. That's both mean and somewhat lazy.

On the other hand, maybe what you really want isn't to constantly count coup over your friends at the table, but instead just to have the experience of a moderately foolish party who is constantly getting surprised by mimics because it makes for an interesting tactical experience. That is the sort of thing you can talk out with the party, and potentially get them to agree to, especially if you're willing to promise that the mimic-style encounters will have some other benefit. Perhaps you lard a bit more treasure into them, or you make them a bit under-leveled or something. You'd essentially be giving all of your PCs the flaw "insufficiently paranoid about mimics", and then rewarding them when they RP it properly. That could actually be a pretty entertaining game, especially if everyone was okay with playing it up a bit for humor value.

If you want a party who is not paranoid, in spite of being repeatedly attacked by mimics, the only way to get it is to metagame, in cooperation with the players.

Many of the answers here consist of variations on "don't use mimics" or "don't ambush your players with mimics. What if you want to be able to use mimics, but at the same time have your PCs not be paranoid about them all the time? Well, that's going to take some metagaming. After all, if you say you want your players to be surprised the twelfth time you hit them with a suit of animated armor, you're basically saying that you want the emotional and social payoff of consistently outsmarting your friends without actually having to put in the work to come up with anything novel. That's both mean and somewhat lazy.

On the other hand, maybe what you really want isn't to constantly count coup over your friends at the table, but instead just to have the experience of a moderately foolish party who is constantly getting surprised by mimics because it makes for an interesting tactical experience. That is the sort of thing you can talk out with the party, and potentially get them to agree to, especially if you're willing to promise that the mimic-style encounters will have some other benefit. Perhaps you lard a bit more treasure into them, or you make them a bit under-leveled or something. You'd essentially be giving all of your PCs the flaw "insufficiently paranoid about mimics", and then rewarding them when they RP it properly. That could actually be a pretty entertaining game, especially if everyone was okay with playing it up a bit for humor value.

#If you want a party who is not paranoid, in spite of being repeatedly attacked by mimics, the only way to get it is to metagame, in cooperation with the players.

Many of the answers here consist of variations on "don't use mimics" or "don't ambush your players with mimics. What if you want to be able to use mimics, but at the same time have your PCs not be paranoid about them all the time? Well, that's going to take some metagaming. After all, if you say you want your players to be surprised the twelfth time you hit them with a suit of animated armor, you're basically saying that you want the emotional and social payoff of consistently outsmarting your friends without actually having to put in the work to come up with anything novel. That's both mean and somewhat lazy.

On the other hand, maybe what you really want isn't to constantly count coup over your friends at the table, but instead just to have the experience of a moderately foolish party who is constantly getting surprised by mimics because it makes for an interesting tactical experience. That is the sort of thing you can talk out with the party, and potentially get them to agree to, especially if you're willing to promise that the mimic-style encounters will have some other benefit. Perhaps you lard a bit more treasure into them, or you make them a bit under-leveled or something. You'd essentially be giving all of your PCs the flaw "insufficiently paranoid about mimics", and then rewarding them when they RP it properly. That could actually be a pretty entertaining game, especially if everyone was okay with playing it up a bit for humor value.