I am against this. I like that the Adom world does not always cater to the player. Makes it more plausible.

Not too bothered either way. Perhaps I lean slightly toward 'no' for the reasons Evil mentioned. And catching myself thinking "I hope the puppy is in a good place" is more interesting than if it were a foregone conclusion. The only thing I don't care for is that it encourages meta-game exploits like pregenning the level, then returning with a means of teleport and monster detection. That should perhaps be covered by a separate RFE where levels are time-lapsed upon entry (pretty sure there is an RFE somewhere covering that idea...).

On the other hand it would be nice if there were more 'honest' strategic ways of increasing/ensuring success , for a price. Maybe if the time-limit were loosened so that you had an extra day, you could find more chances to cover the problem. Or if there were the right tools in some guaranteed shops that people have proposed as RFE's.

I like that the stupid puppy is so willing to get itself killed. The quest is a real challenge, as intended .. can you get there in the required time, will there be any obstacles that will force you to retreat, and when you finally get to the puppy-level, will you find it before it manages to get itself killed? This is the perfect illustration of the random cruelness of ADOM. I like it and want to keep it.

The small reward is a reflection of how the quest isn't at all necessary. It's just a bonus entry in the flg. A nice thing to have. Something players can try to challenge themselves more in the early game.

And even if he dies, you have a small vault to clear out anyway. I'll happily dive to PC:6 even when I know the dog is long dead (Because I hunted Kranach or whatever)