Things a dungeon for 5 level 6 characters should have?

[The Human Diversion]

If you're in my Wednesday night Faerun home game, don't read this!:

As a forward, my home game is set in non-spellplague Faerun (I.E. the timeline at the end of D&D 3.5)

So on their way to stopping an invading Orc army, my homegame players are taking a bit of a side quest into an ancient dungeon. I want this dungeon to be a former "research" lab where a rogue Illefarn wizard did cruel experiments on all manner of beasts.

What kind of rooms/encounters should I include? So far I have holding pens where test subjects are held in stasis, so even after thousands of years they are still there. I also have a disposal pit where there's an ooze of some sort at the bottom. I'm figuring some sort of laboratory/experiment chamber and maybe a library plus a small number of living spaces.

What other kind of encounters would fit well? This can be pretty out-there since it's a home game and the more bizarre the better.

The party is an Elf swashbuckler haunted one, a gnome arcanist, a Tengu inquisitor, a human monk, a pixie ninja, and a nymph (bestiary levels who will eventually be an oracle)

Thanks!

[Bigdaddyjug]

You should look into the Thornkeep superdungeon book from Pathfinder Online. The Dark Menagerie level and the Sanctum of a Lost Age sound like they would fit perfectly into what you are looking for. Dark Menagerie is designed for level 5ish characters, and Sanctum of a Lost Age is designed for level 7 characters. If you have them level up halfway through, they should be able to complete both levels without a problem.

Here's the description of each level:

•Dark Menagerie (by RPG legend Ed Greenwood): In life, the wizard who ruled this realm kept many trophies, mementos, and even captured pets from his journeys, both to entertain his dark sensibilities and to cow his business associates and coerced allies. Now, kept alive all these years via stasis-inducing magic that's recently failed, the unfettered beasts of his magical menagerie run amok.

•Sanctum of a Lost Age (by Paizo Publisher Erik Mona): Scholars claim the dungeons below Thornkeep were built by the Ancient Azlanti, but how do they know, really? If Rozimus of Tymon speaks true, one level of Thornkeep’s dungeon holds survivors of that long-dead empire eager to return to the world and share the lore of their glorious age. They’re not undead, Rozimus claims, or illusory phantoms, but true living and breathing High Azlanti! But why does Rozimus know so much about them, and why is he so eager to return to the dungeon he claims almost killed him 5 years ago?

Heck, the whole thing sounds exactly like what you want in this dungeon. It's got 5 levels and each one is supposed to grant a level's worth of experience. You could cut out the 1st level as it's really just an introduction to the dungeon sort of. And if you don't want them gaining too much experience, just take the best parts of what you see.

[Ascalaphus]

Some ideas:

Spoiler:

Systems for catching escaping monsters, that the PCs might trigger by accident (Trap); if that happens they need to make it to the control center to release their compatriot.

In the control center, if they misunderstand the control panel, the risk of releasing all the monsters held in stasis.

Research notes in your best Aperture Science style. Maybe even a helpful (yet somewhat disturbing...) Construct that tries to assist the PCs.

Experimentation rooms with nasty equipment that might activate by accident.

A fight with monsters in an experimentation room, that suddenly activates, making this room very dangerous to both PCs and monsters. Tactical possibilities for the players to use the room against the monsters.

A really nasty monster that's escaped, but the PCs can use the facility's devices to recapture it.

Notes on which parts of the monsters have arcane uses if harvested (loot).

The unquiet spirits of monsters/people/test subjects that died here. The spirits might be persuaded to help the PCs if the PCs will help them find rest. On the other hand, they might trigger all kinds of nasty things if angered (see above).

[The Human Diversion]

Bigdaddyjug - Excellent advice! Unfortunately My girlfriend (who is in the party) and I played through Thornkeep with our PFS pair. That being said, I'm going to poke through Thornkeep tonight and see if there's anything we didn't face that I can pilfer and she won't know where it's from!

Ascalaphus - Great ideas! I'll be using a lot of them, for sure.

[Bigdaddyjug]

And if you have the map pack for Thornkeep, you can always use the maps for your dungeon and just reflavor what is in the rooms.

[cnetarian]

Is that party of 6 characters?

A pack of wererats. Maybe they were normal rats which entered the dungeon and were mutated by some residual magic effect, maybe they are the descendants of experimental subjects, or maybe they are just wererats which found the dungeon and made a lair there (best not to have an answer to this). Regardless of how they got there, they now have a system of warrens too small for most humanoids which has secret entrances in various dungeon rooms and a significant number of rat-type allies they use to swarm invaders - while a wererat or rat swarm is only CR2, a wererat with 4 dire rats and 4 rat swarms appearing in the middle of the party should cause tactical confusion and present a challenge even though it is a nominally underlevel encounter.