The runes are written in English.

They're the "Say Friend and Enter" runes. Gandalf couldn't figure them out but Merry (accidentally) did.

Is that _The Obelisk_?

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

This made me laugh really hard

Your daily reminder that"Nat 20" doesn't apply to skill or ability checks. It's applies to combat only.

Could be Pathfinder 2e and raised their result from failure to success, or any of the playgroups that house rule it so a 20 does apply which in my experience is so common it might as well be the default

My bestie had a character who only had a +1 in Charisma, but this was the highest in the party, so she became the party face. And she never rolled lower than 19 total when making Charisma checks for that character. The dice clearly had plans.

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)

Ah yes. They group hearing the language without understanding it. ESL (Elvish as Second Language) character.

If a Nat 20 doesn't succeed, what was the point of rolling in the first place?

Or when the awkward friend wants to play a bard and the butterfly plays a fighter with CHA as a dump stat, then becomes the face anyways because they love roleplaying and can manipulate the GM IRL

Just read that scene last week, actually. I forgot Gandalf's cope entirely. "I was trying to so hard to remember obscure lore I forgot we weren't all paranoid psychos in those days"

the tension before DM can put on a self satisfied look and say "even that wasn't enough"

I was once GMing for that same bestie in a 3d6-based system. I told her to roll, then realised her stats weren't high enough for her to succeed, so told her not to. She gave me a look, picked up the dice, and rolled a crit. Out of SPITE. And this is 3d6, so it's a 1 in 216 chance. She didn't need to manipulate me. Either I went along with it, or my dice would be forever cursed.

Generally speaking, to shut the player up about it

Sounds like a possibility for a really creative story moment. Maybe the comic book that character always carries around with them just so happened to use the same runes as their "secret language" and the author of that comic is some super nerd for that specific language.

Oh hey, its the funny elf face comics but from another artist!

I love it. I'm not even mad.....well....maybe a little. Lol