I once sent my players through a "character" test.
First they found the entrance, a hole in the ground. At the bottom of the hole was a long corridor. Atfer about 100 feet, a very well hidden trap goes off, which springs up a gate made of iron bars, behind the party. (Or, if the party just sent one person in it seperates the party. Test #1, does the party work together, taking equal risk, or do the cowards hang back and let one person take all the risk?)
Assuming that either all the party was there together, or they managed to get reunited, they move on to find the passageway ends... and before the players is a cavern. Above, below and to all sides are sheer walls, and to all sides is darkness. Anchored to the floor of the passageway is single rope, which goes into the darkness before the players. If your players have access to higher magic this is a good place for an Anti-Magic sphere, which extends into the blackness. Test #2, bravery. The cavern is actually an illusion, so if anyone falls, they simply dissapear and appear at the end.
After making it across the cavern, they move on into another room. Once everyone is off the rope, it collapses. Down a hall, they enter a room. Too the left they see a girl trapped in a cage, with a heavy metal spiked celing decending down to kill her. To the right a large pile of gold with a large heavy metal door decending to block off the gold. Test #3 is simple, greed. No matter which they choose, both are illusions.
After that, another door opens, which leads to a large room with 6 inch wide by 2 inch tall grooves cut down the center of the left and right walls. The grooves are spaced 6 inches apart and run from the celing to the floor, and are 2 inches deep. Once everyone is in the room, the door shuts and seals. Then the celing begins to decend, grinding lower. The only way to stop the decent is to jam the strongest weapon the party has (like a +1 magic sword!) into the grooves. Once the celing hits the weapon, it grinds to a halt, and the floor opens beneath the party. They drop about 20 feet and land in low corridor and the floor slams shut. Test #4, sacrifice.
The corridor leads to the last test. It opens up to a large room. Before the players is a cliff, with an apparently bottomless chasm. Extending out is a 1 foot wide stone path suspended in midair. It goes out about 20 feet, and splits into 3 seperate paths. Each paths leads to a platform. The right path leads to a large, ancient looking book (which represents Knowledge, but they have to figure that out!). The center path leads to a large sack overflowing with gold (ie, riches). The left path leads to an empty platform (ie, the Unknown). Once a person begins walking down the path, it crumbles behind them so that only one person can make the choice. The correct choice is of course the Unknown. What are adventurers for anyway, but exploring?
After the 5th test, the room disolves away to reveal the person who conducts the test. Usually a wise sage with information the party needs. Of course, the party needs to convince the sage that they are worthy of the information...
Yikes, that got longer than I intended. Anyway, good luck!