So, I've had an idea for a puzzle based on a series of traps. The idea would be that on the surface it appears like there are several traps spread across different rooms. When pieced together however the traps allow a party to solve the overall puzzle.
On entering the first chamber there is a trap that can be seen with high enough perception or investigation checks, but has no visible way to disarm. When activated it casts a variant of Mass Polymorph. The animal the character is turned into is one of seven different animals (Bat, Crab, Frog, Poisonous Snake, Spider, Stirge, Scorpion). There is no obvious way out of the room at first. If a character either rolls very well on perception, or investigation they will find that the brickwork of the walls has some small gaps in that some animals have made their homes these animals are extremely territorial but will allow creatures of their own to pass unharmed.
The idea here is that players might initially see the shape change as a negative trap. If they do get changed they get drawn to the scent of the creatures of the same kind.
Should a character head through one of these gaps they'll find an ancient drainage system (or other similar tunnel). Each of these tunnels lead somewhere specific.
Path 1 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers an Acid Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 2 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers a Wind/Force Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 3 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers a Cold Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 4 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers a Fire Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 5 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers an Radiant Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 6 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers an Necrotic Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 7 - Leads to a room which is flooded with blinding light, a wall that appears to be white solid crystal. In this room is a lever which arms or disarms the Polymorph trap. There is also a lever which causes the wall separating this room with the Polymorph room to lift into the ceiling.
Once both levers in Path/Room 7 have been flipped, the crystal wall drops to reveal a wall of fire that cannot be extinguished by magic or mundane means (think Prismatic Wall here) is opaque and is impassable.
The solution here is for someone to enter Path/Room 3, place the marble they find there onto the pressure plate and it will become cold to the touch, imbued with a magical cold power. All the marbles in all the paths/rooms do the same.
Throwing the cold marble into the wall of fire causes the wall to dissipate, revealing a wall of Acid behind it also opaque and impassable. Throwing the force/wind marble at this wall causes that wall to drop. Then a wall of cracking black necrotic smoke, countered by Radiant Marble. Then a wall of Ice, countered by the fire marble. Then a Wall of wind/cloud countered by the acid marble. Finally a wall of radiant light, countered by the necrotic marble.
Touching or attempting to pass through the walls cause that type of damage on a failed saving throw, or half such damage on a successful throw.
I am intending to determine damage by pulling from the table in the DMG. The traps would be intended to be 'Deadly'.
The purpose here is that holy grail of designing a puzzle that can't be solved by player knowledge (like a riddle), or by a simply character check. Now, my intention would be to utilise character ability checks to drip feed information and help connect the dots if players get stuck.
I also considered designing the area differently. Having a long snaking corridor leading to the polymorph room, but running off that some side rooms with traps...perhaps the traps somehow recognise the 'correct' creature form and so don't trigger if the correct creature walks into the room?
The point of the Polymorph really is to help minimise damage as Mass Polymorph confers temporary HP so initial damage done by traps would only serve to help player character survivability.
I'm just not sure how well this all hangs together as a puzzle. So any feedback would be awesome.
I think it will work, but it is a LOT of complexity and the players may burn out after a few rooms unless they are super into puzzles.
If you already know them well proceed! If not, maybe cut it back to a progression of puzzles that interlink so there's a feeling of success and progression before the next trap!
I think it will work, but it is a LOT of complexity and the players may burn out after a few rooms unless they are super into puzzles.
If you already know them well proceed! If not, maybe cut it back to a progression of puzzles that interlink so there's a feeling of success and progression before the next trap!
Sorry, should have made clear, this also is designed for the party to split up. So each character will be changed into a different creature. This then should cut down on fatigue, and again plays into that fear of splitting the party. So, if you have a party of five players (or in one of my three active campaigns 7) the PCs will only have to take on a maximum of two rooms each which should cut down on the tedium potential.
I think it will work, but it is a LOT of complexity and the players may burn out after a few rooms unless they are super into puzzles.
If you already know them well proceed! If not, maybe cut it back to a progression of puzzles that interlink so there's a feeling of success and progression before the next trap!
Sorry, should have made clear, this also is designed for the party to split up. So each character will be changed into a different creature. This then should cut down on fatigue, and again plays into that fear of splitting the party. So, if you have a party of five players (or in one of my three active campaigns 7) the PCs will only have to take on a maximum of two rooms each which should cut down on the tedium potential.
You could also reduce the number of rooms (and barriers) to match the number of players you have. I would cut the perception/investigation check to discover the holes with the animals; you never want to lock information that is necessary to solve the puzzle behind a skill check. I'm also not sure, from the description you gave, how the players are supposed to get the charged marbles back from their individual rooms into Room 7. Do the marbles fit through the animal passages? If that's the intention, what happens if the polymorph expires (say, because a player took too much damage from an element trap) before they leave the marble room?
Additionally, I'm not sure it's intuitive that Force/Wind is the opposite of Acid, so that might warrant some adjustment.
I think it will work, but it is a LOT of complexity and the players may burn out after a few rooms unless they are super into puzzles.
If you already know them well proceed! If not, maybe cut it back to a progression of puzzles that interlink so there's a feeling of success and progression before the next trap!
Sorry, should have made clear, this also is designed for the party to split up. So each character will be changed into a different creature. This then should cut down on fatigue, and again plays into that fear of splitting the party. So, if you have a party of five players (or in one of my three active campaigns 7) the PCs will only have to take on a maximum of two rooms each which should cut down on the tedium potential.
You could also reduce the number of rooms (and barriers) to match the number of players you have. I would cut the perception/investigation check to discover the holes with the animals; you never want to lock information that is necessary to solve the puzzle behind a skill check. I'm also not sure, from the description you gave, how the players are supposed to get the charged marbles back from their individual rooms into Room 7. Do the marbles fit through the animal passages? If that's the intention, what happens if the polymorph expires (say, because a player took too much damage from an element trap) before they leave the marble room?
Additionally, I'm not sure it's intuitive that Force/Wind is the opposite of Acid, so that might warrant some adjustment.
Some great points thanks.
Yep, reducing the rooms for the number of players present is a great idea.
I think I'd have said that once polymorphed, the passages become obvious to the player characters. The investigation/perception check would have been for players in their normal form.
Getting the marble back, I think somewhere along the line, once each marble is charged a larger passage would be revealed, or a secret door would open. Hadn't thought that one through 100% if I'm honest.
Force/Wind countering acid was stolen from Prismatic Wall where the Orange layer of acid is blown away by wind. It's one of those weird quirks like the Fiends who utilise cold damage often but are resistant to both cold and fire for...reasons?!
this will require some experimentation on the players part, so they may wind up taking multiple hits. Maybe reconsider the damage output from deadly to just dangerous?
this will require some experimentation on the players part, so they may wind up taking multiple hits. Maybe reconsider the damage output from deadly to just dangerous?
So, that's why the traps are repeatable. The polymorph trap can be retriggered if necessary. As can all the traps. They aren't one and done, but rather able to be triggered each time the plate is weighed down with something.
Beyond that, this is in and of itself a pretty serious defence mechanism. What I intend to put behind it would be of high value. There will be no roaming enemies so they'll have the ability to rest and heal as/when needed. So, I feel like Deadly makes sense. There's mitigation here. I'm not out to kill the player characters. At Level 4, that's 4d10 or an average of 20hp. Even with the damage carry over, it's unlikely to knock a polymorphed character directly into unconsciousness, and even if the dice I roll go to hard I have the option to fudge that damage roll if it's going to be absolutely necessary to provide the party a lifeline.
Beyond that, this is in and of itself a pretty serious defence mechanism.
Sooo... hmm. I do like the overall concept, but this runs into the issue I have with a lot of D&D traps, which is "why was it designed this way, if it was supposed to keep people out?" You basically hand any party who walks in the keys to getting through it -- if it was truly a defense mechanism, why is that polymorph there at all?
What if the mass polymorph were provided to them or found earlier in the dungeon? The idea would be that the pseudo-prismatic wall is the defense mechanism part, but the polymorph is the "back door" that whoever built it created as a failsafe, not part of the trap itself
The other issue I have is that there's no real opportunity for player ingenuity, which, granted, is always a tough needle to thread on these things. There's really only one way to get through it -- get polymorphed, get the marbles, use them appropriately. What if the wizard wants to send their familiar through to find a marble, instead of getting changed into a frog and doing it themselves? That sort of thing. Leaving windows for player agency makes the whole thing more rewarding when they finally crack it
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Beyond that, this is in and of itself a pretty serious defence mechanism.
Sooo... hmm. I do like the overall concept, but this runs into the issue I have with a lot of D&D traps, which is "why was it designed this way, if it was supposed to keep people out?" You basically hand any party who walks in the keys to getting through it -- if it was truly a defense mechanism, why is that polymorph there at all?
What if the mass polymorph were provided to them or found earlier in the dungeon? The idea would be that the pseudo-prismatic wall is the defense mechanism part, but the polymorph is the "back door" that whoever built it created as a failsafe, not part of the trap itself
The other issue I have is that there's no real opportunity for player ingenuity, which, granted, is always a tough needle to thread on these things. There's really only one way to get through it -- get polymorphed, get the marbles, use them appropriately. What if the wizard wants to send their familiar through to find a marble, instead of getting changed into a frog and doing it themselves? That sort of thing. Leaving windows for player agency makes the whole thing more rewarding when they finally crack it
Really good points.
To the reason the 'puzzle' is created this way - the Campaign's big enemy is an odd one. She actively wants to present the opportunity to be stopped. She has throughout the campaign presented her attempts to literally extinguish all magic from the world as a philisophical belief difference that sentient creatures would be better off without magics than with magics. She has not yet lied to the party (except by ommission), and positions herself as reasonable. Her viewpoint is that if she is destined to fail and the party are clever enough to stop her then it is meant to be. The puzzle is her twisted way of the lengths that the party are willing to go to in order to stop her. Now, I appreciate that this seems a little off the wall, but that is part of the point. She's implacable in her belief, but believes herself reasonable. She sees this puzzle as a gauntlet/proving ground. The enemy goes to great lengths to attempt to appear reasonable (by her own definitions) - to that end she even allowed the party to walk freely through her fortress on the agreement that neither side would initiate aggression against the other. The purpose of such action was an attempt to show that she wasn't co-ercing any of her people, and maybe, just maybe win the party over to her side. I appreciate that this might be a stretch for some people, and that's 100% cool.
As to player ingenuity, I 100% accept what you're saying, but from my experience few puzzles have the opportunity for ingenuity in their solution. Think for example about the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. In that puzzle you have to move a tower of descending sized discs from the left most stack of three, to the right most stack. One disc at a time may be moved, and no larger disc may be placed atop of a smaller disc. As a result there is effectively only one way of completing said puzzle. This of course does not hold true of all puzzles. Peg solitaire for example has I believe just four possible solutions from like 28 possible patterns. Again, there's no real way of using ingenuity to solve that puzzle. Even a game which has potentially 'infinite' possible actions like Blackjack has been 'solved' there is a right and a wrong way to play blackjack. Deviation from the 'right' way of playing massively reduces your odds of winning.
With that in mind, I would suggest that ingenuity in solving fixed puzzles of this sort is not an actual problem. Is it not just a different element of gameplay? There are many areas and elements in which players can flex their ingenuity within a TTRPG. A social encounter for example might have the appearance of limitless possibilities, but no matter how hard you try, you aren't going to ever be persuasive enough to get a monarch, part of whose core identity is that the crown is theirs by right, to reliquish said crown. No persuation or intimidation check is ever going to cut it. As such, sometimes we have to either say 'no you can't roll for that' providing such an explaination - or and in my opinion it's the lesser option, provide the illusion of choice and allow the roll. I do get it though - players don't tend to like hearing that their idea isn't going to work.
All of that said, Mage Hand would be an entirely viable way to retrieve said marbles. As would getting their familiar to pick it up. There's no active harm or reason why either should be disallowed...the familiar however is likely to be attacked by the beasts that have made such a route their home. At this point though we're also into the territory of Passwall, Stone Shape or Mold Earth. I could easily see a world in which a party decide to literally cut their way through a dungeon by utilising these spells - and if you've never had a party just cut out entire sections of a dunegon or location by doing this...count yourself lucky. It is a legitimate tactic that can be used. If the party wish to burn through spell slots to literally carve a new tunnel underground - they can! It is 100% viable. So while the puzzle might have a single solution - the party's possible ways around the puzzle are only limited by their selected or prepared spells.
With that in mind, does such a puzzle really limit player agency?
So, I've had an idea for a puzzle based on a series of traps. The idea would be that on the surface it appears like there are several traps spread across different rooms. When pieced together however the traps allow a party to solve the overall puzzle.
On entering the first chamber there is a trap that can be seen with high enough perception or investigation checks, but has no visible way to disarm. When activated it casts a variant of Mass Polymorph. The animal the character is turned into is one of seven different animals (Bat, Crab, Frog, Poisonous Snake, Spider, Stirge, Scorpion). There is no obvious way out of the room at first. If a character either rolls very well on perception, or investigation they will find that the brickwork of the walls has some small gaps in that some animals have made their homes these animals are extremely territorial but will allow creatures of their own to pass unharmed.
The idea here is that players might initially see the shape change as a negative trap. If they do get changed they get drawn to the scent of the creatures of the same kind.
Should a character head through one of these gaps they'll find an ancient drainage system (or other similar tunnel). Each of these tunnels lead somewhere specific.
Path 1 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers an Acid Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 2 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers a Wind/Force Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 3 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers a Cold Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 4 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers a Fire Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 5 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers an Radiant Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 6 - Leads to a room with a pressure plate. Stepping on this pressure plate triggers an Necrotic Damage Trap. In this room somewhere is a crystal marble/ball discovered when investigating the room.
Path 7 - Leads to a room which is flooded with blinding light, a wall that appears to be white solid crystal. In this room is a lever which arms or disarms the Polymorph trap. There is also a lever which causes the wall separating this room with the Polymorph room to lift into the ceiling.
Once both levers in Path/Room 7 have been flipped, the crystal wall drops to reveal a wall of fire that cannot be extinguished by magic or mundane means (think Prismatic Wall here) is opaque and is impassable.
The solution here is for someone to enter Path/Room 3, place the marble they find there onto the pressure plate and it will become cold to the touch, imbued with a magical cold power. All the marbles in all the paths/rooms do the same.
Throwing the cold marble into the wall of fire causes the wall to dissipate, revealing a wall of Acid behind it also opaque and impassable. Throwing the force/wind marble at this wall causes that wall to drop. Then a wall of cracking black necrotic smoke, countered by Radiant Marble. Then a wall of Ice, countered by the fire marble. Then a Wall of wind/cloud countered by the acid marble. Finally a wall of radiant light, countered by the necrotic marble.
Touching or attempting to pass through the walls cause that type of damage on a failed saving throw, or half such damage on a successful throw.
I am intending to determine damage by pulling from the table in the DMG. The traps would be intended to be 'Deadly'.
The purpose here is that holy grail of designing a puzzle that can't be solved by player knowledge (like a riddle), or by a simply character check. Now, my intention would be to utilise character ability checks to drip feed information and help connect the dots if players get stuck.
I also considered designing the area differently. Having a long snaking corridor leading to the polymorph room, but running off that some side rooms with traps...perhaps the traps somehow recognise the 'correct' creature form and so don't trigger if the correct creature walks into the room?
The point of the Polymorph really is to help minimise damage as Mass Polymorph confers temporary HP so initial damage done by traps would only serve to help player character survivability.
I'm just not sure how well this all hangs together as a puzzle. So any feedback would be awesome.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I think it will work, but it is a LOT of complexity and the players may burn out after a few rooms unless they are super into puzzles.
If you already know them well proceed! If not, maybe cut it back to a progression of puzzles that interlink so there's a feeling of success and progression before the next trap!
Sorry, should have made clear, this also is designed for the party to split up. So each character will be changed into a different creature. This then should cut down on fatigue, and again plays into that fear of splitting the party. So, if you have a party of five players (or in one of my three active campaigns 7) the PCs will only have to take on a maximum of two rooms each which should cut down on the tedium potential.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
You could also reduce the number of rooms (and barriers) to match the number of players you have. I would cut the perception/investigation check to discover the holes with the animals; you never want to lock information that is necessary to solve the puzzle behind a skill check. I'm also not sure, from the description you gave, how the players are supposed to get the charged marbles back from their individual rooms into Room 7. Do the marbles fit through the animal passages? If that's the intention, what happens if the polymorph expires (say, because a player took too much damage from an element trap) before they leave the marble room?
Additionally, I'm not sure it's intuitive that Force/Wind is the opposite of Acid, so that might warrant some adjustment.
Some great points thanks.
Yep, reducing the rooms for the number of players present is a great idea.
I think I'd have said that once polymorphed, the passages become obvious to the player characters. The investigation/perception check would have been for players in their normal form.
Getting the marble back, I think somewhere along the line, once each marble is charged a larger passage would be revealed, or a secret door would open. Hadn't thought that one through 100% if I'm honest.
Force/Wind countering acid was stolen from Prismatic Wall where the Orange layer of acid is blown away by wind. It's one of those weird quirks like the Fiends who utilise cold damage often but are resistant to both cold and fire for...reasons?!
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
this will require some experimentation on the players part, so they may wind up taking multiple hits. Maybe reconsider the damage output from deadly to just dangerous?
So, that's why the traps are repeatable. The polymorph trap can be retriggered if necessary. As can all the traps. They aren't one and done, but rather able to be triggered each time the plate is weighed down with something.
Beyond that, this is in and of itself a pretty serious defence mechanism. What I intend to put behind it would be of high value. There will be no roaming enemies so they'll have the ability to rest and heal as/when needed. So, I feel like Deadly makes sense. There's mitigation here. I'm not out to kill the player characters. At Level 4, that's 4d10 or an average of 20hp. Even with the damage carry over, it's unlikely to knock a polymorphed character directly into unconsciousness, and even if the dice I roll go to hard I have the option to fudge that damage roll if it's going to be absolutely necessary to provide the party a lifeline.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Sooo... hmm. I do like the overall concept, but this runs into the issue I have with a lot of D&D traps, which is "why was it designed this way, if it was supposed to keep people out?" You basically hand any party who walks in the keys to getting through it -- if it was truly a defense mechanism, why is that polymorph there at all?
What if the mass polymorph were provided to them or found earlier in the dungeon? The idea would be that the pseudo-prismatic wall is the defense mechanism part, but the polymorph is the "back door" that whoever built it created as a failsafe, not part of the trap itself
The other issue I have is that there's no real opportunity for player ingenuity, which, granted, is always a tough needle to thread on these things. There's really only one way to get through it -- get polymorphed, get the marbles, use them appropriately. What if the wizard wants to send their familiar through to find a marble, instead of getting changed into a frog and doing it themselves? That sort of thing. Leaving windows for player agency makes the whole thing more rewarding when they finally crack it
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Really good points.
To the reason the 'puzzle' is created this way - the Campaign's big enemy is an odd one. She actively wants to present the opportunity to be stopped. She has throughout the campaign presented her attempts to literally extinguish all magic from the world as a philisophical belief difference that sentient creatures would be better off without magics than with magics. She has not yet lied to the party (except by ommission), and positions herself as reasonable. Her viewpoint is that if she is destined to fail and the party are clever enough to stop her then it is meant to be. The puzzle is her twisted way of the lengths that the party are willing to go to in order to stop her. Now, I appreciate that this seems a little off the wall, but that is part of the point. She's implacable in her belief, but believes herself reasonable. She sees this puzzle as a gauntlet/proving ground. The enemy goes to great lengths to attempt to appear reasonable (by her own definitions) - to that end she even allowed the party to walk freely through her fortress on the agreement that neither side would initiate aggression against the other. The purpose of such action was an attempt to show that she wasn't co-ercing any of her people, and maybe, just maybe win the party over to her side. I appreciate that this might be a stretch for some people, and that's 100% cool.
As to player ingenuity, I 100% accept what you're saying, but from my experience few puzzles have the opportunity for ingenuity in their solution. Think for example about the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. In that puzzle you have to move a tower of descending sized discs from the left most stack of three, to the right most stack. One disc at a time may be moved, and no larger disc may be placed atop of a smaller disc. As a result there is effectively only one way of completing said puzzle. This of course does not hold true of all puzzles. Peg solitaire for example has I believe just four possible solutions from like 28 possible patterns. Again, there's no real way of using ingenuity to solve that puzzle. Even a game which has potentially 'infinite' possible actions like Blackjack has been 'solved' there is a right and a wrong way to play blackjack. Deviation from the 'right' way of playing massively reduces your odds of winning.
With that in mind, I would suggest that ingenuity in solving fixed puzzles of this sort is not an actual problem. Is it not just a different element of gameplay? There are many areas and elements in which players can flex their ingenuity within a TTRPG. A social encounter for example might have the appearance of limitless possibilities, but no matter how hard you try, you aren't going to ever be persuasive enough to get a monarch, part of whose core identity is that the crown is theirs by right, to reliquish said crown. No persuation or intimidation check is ever going to cut it. As such, sometimes we have to either say 'no you can't roll for that' providing such an explaination - or and in my opinion it's the lesser option, provide the illusion of choice and allow the roll. I do get it though - players don't tend to like hearing that their idea isn't going to work.
All of that said, Mage Hand would be an entirely viable way to retrieve said marbles. As would getting their familiar to pick it up. There's no active harm or reason why either should be disallowed...the familiar however is likely to be attacked by the beasts that have made such a route their home. At this point though we're also into the territory of Passwall, Stone Shape or Mold Earth. I could easily see a world in which a party decide to literally cut their way through a dungeon by utilising these spells - and if you've never had a party just cut out entire sections of a dunegon or location by doing this...count yourself lucky. It is a legitimate tactic that can be used. If the party wish to burn through spell slots to literally carve a new tunnel underground - they can! It is 100% viable. So while the puzzle might have a single solution - the party's possible ways around the puzzle are only limited by their selected or prepared spells.
With that in mind, does such a puzzle really limit player agency?
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.