The horrible yet caring experimenter.

[Shinizak]

The Test of the Demon Web got me thinking of a concept. How could you go about making a dungeon that tested the physical, mental, & social attributes with out making it seem like a trip through the "oddly placed puzzle land?" also, what if the tester genuinely "cared" for the subjects, just in a way that the subject would object, like if the tester seemed to think the players would be happier as a fish sandwich, or without that nasty sleep cycle to go through ever night?

How can I do this elegantly?

also, ignore the grammar errors, it's 2 in the morning and I haven't slept in 26 hours due to insomnia.

[Ferrin]

Think of something with no real negatives, like grafts. They add to the body and improve you at the minor cost of some health, but they look horrible a lot of the time. You can take it further by transplanting not just parts of creatures, but the entire psyche into another body.

Or there's Mindrape which has it's moral issues, it can be used for good, but how good is it really if you neglect free will? Is it good if you turn evil to good? Or evil because you effectively replace a person?

As for social, hmm, have there be another group of adventurers with half of them evil and half of them good which the party meets. Good and evil can co-exist and even flourish, it's hard to put together in a group, but if there's a paladin in the PC's party it can lead to some interesting discussions.

[Shinizak]

I was thinking more like "the rat in the maze" deal more then the "mouse under the knife" kind of scientist.

[2xMachina]

No sleep cycle? That's quite decent actually, since Elves don't. And people buy Ring of Sustenance for the -6 hours sleep per day.

[Totally Guy]

It sounds sort of like GlaDos from Portal to me. Or at least how she tried to be perceived.

[onthetown]

The only way in closes when the party first enters the dungeon. Placed around the "maze" are switches that reveal food and water. Do they stay by the switches and rely on that source of food and water, or do they explore further to try to find a way out?

[endoperez]

Ooh, what about meta-traps? Like the "Test of Paranoia"?

This is an old story, but there's a room with a red button. When the button is pressed, all exits shut down, described so that the players are likely to panic. A timer with numbers will start running down (20, 19, 18...). Pressing the button resets the timer. Holding the button down keeps resetting the timer indefinitely.

When the timer reaches 0, the doors open.

[Lysander]

It sounds sort of like GlaDos from Portal to me. Or at least how she tried to be perceived.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps the labyrinth can have magic mouths in each room programmed to provide advice, hints, encouragement, and congratulate them on navigating obstacles.

[Lycanthromancer]

That's exactly what I was thinking. Perhaps the labyrinth can have magic mouths in each room programmed to provide advice, hints, encouragement, and congratulate them on navigating obstacles.

Have the sound from those spells come from tubes which extend into the ceiling, making it seem like the voice is being routed from elsewhere in the complex (a P.A. system, if you will), but when the players eventually manage to wildshape/polymorph/gaseous form their way up, they find it ends about 18" in. The tube just protects the magic mouth trap from being dispelled. If the players make a high enough Knowledge: Arcana check, they realize the spells are routing the sound from elsewhere, rather than merely running a previously-installed program.

In any case, the Caretaker (as he calls himself) is testing subjects to toughen them up for an upcoming challenge that (he asserts) is incredibly important for the well-being of the world's future that his divinations have revealed (he's warned others, but they just laughed at him when their own divinations turned up nothing of the sort).

Have him apologize profusely for putting the PCs through this, and have him go from a brittle, bright personality to breaking down in tears later on as he (vaguely) alludes to some of the horrible things that have happened to other people he's 'tested' (many of which were killed in horrible, painful ways), and he blames himself for the pain he's caused, but feels that the event he's trying to prevent is bad enough to be worth whatever cost he (and his test-subjects) have to pay. He regrets that he's been put in this position and what he's had to do, but he feels he has to do it.

He provides assistance between challenges (exquisite food, relatively lush sleeping quarters that are safe from being breached, good equipment to replace anything that's been lost, and attempts at comforting words for anyone who needs it), though he refuses (apologetically) to let the PCs out because he's committed to saving the world from some upcoming catastrophe.

Once the PCs reach level 10, have him be the last challenge of the lot. He's a wizard of no little power and has prepared a room for his eventual defeat and death. He tries to make himself seem diabolical and evil (well after he's established that he's got a good heart, misguided or not), but the Sense Motive DC is low enough for the PCs to realize from the beginning that he's basically committing assisted suicide because he can't live with the things he's done.

Have him polymorph into a hydra or a dragon or something, buffed and with buffed, mindless minions, but have them all fight haphazardly, purposefully allowing the party to win. If the party fails to fight back effectively, he pushes harder, basically forcing them to kill him. His dying words are of relief that he doesn't have to do this anymore, and that he wishes the party luck in what is to come, shortly before something terrible happens, which culminates in some sort of eventual epic final battle with a C'thulhoid Tarrasque from Outer Space, an invasion from the Lower Planes, breaches from the Far Realm, a huge breakout of John Russo-style zombie plague, or something much much worse.