Poisoned die idea

So there was a room in my campaign that was full of splotches of acid. I didn’t want to just make a same old check and I came up with the idea that some sides of the directed in failure eg 1 5 12 17 all made you take the damage. You didn’t add the bonus. I want to do the same type of thing for another room but can’t think what. What are your suggestions?

I’m confused on what you’re trying to say. What do you mean directed in failure, can you specify?

Quote from ClassicCharismaCaster >>

I’m confused on what you’re trying to say. What do you mean directed in failure, can you specify?

I think 'directed' is an autocorrect from 'die resulted' -- i.e. if you roll a specific number on a d20, you take damage regardless of how good your bonus is on the check or whether you met the DC

That doesn't seem like a great idea, though. Better to just do half damage on a successful check, or something like that. Players are gonna feel some kind of way if they roll a 17 and get a 25 on the check or whatever, and the DM says "Too bad, you get hit anyway". The d20 roll is already taking care of the randomness of the situation, so... let it do its job

Is the other room also full of acid?

So, this is something that has been tried in other games. If I'm understanding right, instead of having the party make an athletics check to jump over or an acrobatics check to nimbly tiptoe around the acid, everyone rolls a die and on certain numbers they take acid damage?

What you'll often find especially among more modern GMs is that this tends to get seen as unfriendly to players and doesn't get done a lot. It's similar to how some monsters in prior editions of D&D could cause you to lose entire levels as they sapped life force from your character. 

This though seems more like a 'luck' check than anything else to me, so what I'd do is have the acid dripping indiscriminately from the ceiling no matter how fast or strong a player character is they're going to take acid damage unless they are unnaturally lucky. So, give the players a new stat and come up with a bunch of scenarios in which luck will play a factor. That's what I'd do anyhow. You can then take seemingly ordinary traps and puzzles and have them influenced by luck. The gears and mechanism of the trapped chest seem very rusted, the spring looks to be seized - there's no way to know if the trap can be sprung or not. If the players choose to open the chest and take the risk, have them roll for their luck and see if the ancient trap mechanism activates.

Similarly, this allows the players access to new ways of solving puzzles. They try to guess a password or 4 digit numbercode, a good luck roll gives them than.

Again I will say this is a style of play that D&D kinda both is and isn't built for. It can certainly be fun, and most D&D is built on luck and statistics anyway, but that luck is often for the players not the characters. So having something be a 'real' luck test for the characters can take the game in a different direction. As I say other TTRPG systems do this. Sadly, the loudest of the D&D playerbase on the internet often aren't big fans of the heavy luck aspects. So if you do go down this road ask yourself if it suits your players' styles and interests first.

Quote from martintheactor >>

You can then take seemingly ordinary traps and puzzles and have them influenced by luck. The gears and mechanism of the trapped chest seem very rusted, the spring looks to be seized - there's no way to know if the trap can be sprung or not. If the players choose to open the chest and take the risk, have them roll for their luck and see if the ancient trap mechanism activates.

That's literally what the usual d20 roll is supposed to represent, though -- the element of luck and things outside the player's control

If they roll poorly on a check, the DM can simply narrate it as the old mechanism appeared to be rusted shut and inoperative, but it creaked to life anyway unexpectedly