Traps are puzzles. Even if they didn't roll high enough, you should still describe enough about their environment that they could reasonably deduce that a trap was there.
https://theangrygm.com/traps-suck/
(I don't always agree with everything this guy says - especially when he strays away from the topic of games - but he's absolutely right about traps.)
Oof. That's definitely not how it should go.
But GMing isn't something the rulebook is all that good at teaching people how to do, so stuff like this is quite common :(
I dislike FATE for exactly this reason - it breaks my immersion too much
Within the same campaign? Yes, I expect the statblock to be (reasonably) fixed.
But from one campaign to the next? Not necessarily, unless they're explicitly set in the same setting.
I prefer the BLeeM method: try to kill them and then be amazed at how they, like cockroaches, survive anyways
What the player says determines what the character says - but the dice determine how they say it.
It's just like everything else, the player chooses what to attack, but the dice say how it goes.
Naturally, the player's choice of words could give them a boost or hinder them. Also, I wouldn't let the player just "roll to seduce." You gotta rp a little if you want a rp reward.
Of course, but it favors the RPer who just wants to be decent more than the minmaxer, since it encourages breadth not depth.
You could just give players multiple ASIs, but they can't be applied to the same stat
Don't knock it till you try it. Making MAD builds more viable is really great for the game. Obviously characters will still have a couple low scores, but it's nice not to suck at everything except one thing.
it would require a pretty comprehensive rework, yes. You'd need to (as an example):
give martials something really cool that they can do to compete with the "cool factor" spells offer (I think having a large variety of weapon options would help, especially if the weapons all feel different and have different mechanical effects)
Let martials use their physical prowess to dynamically interact with the battle (They can already do things like shoving enemies, but a really robust list of tricks that characters can do with their athletics, acrobatics, stealth, medicine, etc. skills could really help level the playing field. After all, spells are mostly useful for their utility and not just raw damage.)
Make spells less all-or-nothing using multiple saving throws or varying levels of success (this lets you nerf the "top end" of spells while keeping their overall power the same)
give martials more ways to cheat the action economy, like more actions per turn on average than casters get
make more enemies resist magic but weak to normal weapons, or make more enemies weak to certain kinds of physical damage (slashing, piercing, silver, etc.)
give martial characters "backdoors" into magical skill (for example, maybe characters with a high arcana skill can do magic as long as they have time to prepare - like rituals instead of combat magic - or they could use arcana and a satchel full of scrolls/wands to cast magic even as a martial)
give characters more access to ability score increases on their weaker ability scores so they don't have to optimize as heavily around only one ability score
... just to name a few I'd have in mind
So just buff the martials! Easy peasy
Hot take: jails are evil, so someone good would be more interested in rehabilitation