Can magical constructs pathfind?

Question

Inspired by Does this Tenser's Carnival Attraction gimmick work? I began thinking of more perverse topography.

If the wizard summoned Tenser's Floating Disk (or possibly another magical construct able to follow the caster), but rather than take a bridge, they teleported into the middle of the spiral, or in fact an actual maze, would the magical construct be able to find its way to the center?

My thought was setting a puzzle where one player could teleport in, but the other players had follow on foot. Having a magical construct lead the way would be a cool solution.

Related, possible dupe: Obstacles, and Can Tenser's Floating Disk move around corners? — Someone_Evil, Sep 06 '20 at 18:42
@someone_evil, I wonder if I should mention other spells like unseen servant that seems to fit a similar group of questions. — AncientSwordRage, Sep 06 '20 at 19:18
Do you want it to find the shortest path, or is it possible that it uses the right-hand rule (always take the rightmost corridor that you haven't taken thus far) or some other way that may lead to traversing a lot more of the maze? — Mary, Sep 06 '20 at 19:23
It won't try if there's an obstacle, and if it's not smart enough to work out a path, the walls are an obstacle. — Mary, Sep 06 '20 at 21:17
@mary granted there's no line of sight, but nothing states it can't work its way there as there is a clear path — AncientSwordRage, Sep 06 '20 at 21:18

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 29 '20 at 01:25

Probably not.

This is not clearly explained, or even unclearly explained, anywhere. So it going to be up to the DM. But I can give a brief argument for why "No" is the most reasonable ruling.

It is quite a simple argument. Path finding as described in the question (through a maze) is achievable only through a 6th level spell - find the path:

This spell allows you to find the shortest, most direct physical route to a specific fixed location that you are familiar with on the same plane of existence.

To achieve this path finding ability, an intelligent being must be an 11th level caster, so it stands to reason that a non-sentient magical force conjured by a 1st level spell could not replicate this ability.

Can magical constructs pathfind?

1 Answers1

Probably not.

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