One thing we often do is we gate the ability to roll on a check through whether or not the skill is trained - for example in our games with lockpicking, you can only attempt to pick a lock if you have proficiency.
This prevents the situation where the character with years of training and practice in a specific niche skill beefs it, but someone with no idea what they’re doing then tries and succeeds - we say some things are only possible to try if you know how.
Don’t apply this house rule to everything, but it’s worth considering, especially in games where your party can casually drop a +10 or a +15 onto any skill check through the right magic to force a success anyway.
Your daily reminder that"Nat 20" doesn’t apply to skill or ability checks. It’s applies to combat only.
It does in fact apply to skill checks and ability checks. Nat 20 just means rolling a 20 naturally on the dice before any modifiers are added :) I think what you meant was that “critical success” only applies to combat! In this instance, the natural 20 still means it’s the highest possible roll for an ability checks which gives it the highest possibility of success.
Just a daily reminder that someone can always come around and surpass in pedantry. (Sorry I couldn’t resist :) No hard feelings meant)
If a Nat 20 (the highest you can ever roll on a 20-sided die!) doesn’t succeed, what was the point of rolling in the first place?
Generally speaking it’s considered bad practice for a GM to call for rolls that literally no one in the party can succeed at, but as with anything in tabletop roleplaying there is nuance.
There could be a narrative reason for the player to not know just how difficult something is and you don’t want to give it away by just telling the players they can’t succeed. If the most capable member of the party rolls a 20 and fails then the “reward” is the narrative of the attempt and learning what you’re up against.
Or maybe someone in the party could succeed but for whatever reason the child-prodigy wizard with a strength of 8 wants to try lifting the portcullis. It wouldn’t make any sense for them to actually do it.
They’re the “Say Friend and Enter” runes. Gandalf couldn’t figure them out but Merry (accidentally) did.
Actually my inspiration to use the “your character is too smart” sometimes when a smart character flops a roll
“You’re too busy getting lost in the many potential complex solutions to the riddle, and are hopelessly consumed by it’s mysteries” for “when is a door not a door” or similar
