Have you ever used the 10-foot pole?

poilbrun · Aug 25, 2004

Gez said:
In addition, finding 10-ft. Poles is kinda hard. You'll be happy if you find one that is 7-ft tall.

Don't ever do that again when I'm drinking tea!

dead · Aug 25, 2004

The Thief-Acrobat might use one for balance when tight-rope walking.

I guess a Quarter Staff is close enough, though. What'd that be? 5 or 6 foot?

Why is a Quarter Staff called a *quarter* staff anyway? Quarter of what? The 20-foot pole?

The Forsaken One · Aug 25, 2004

Our 10-foot poles tend to become 9 foot poles on a fairly regular basis. It's 9 oiut of 9 times... "I get my 9 foot pole" .."Errr ok Richard what patch of green slime did you stick it in this time".

Goobermunch · Aug 25, 2004

I actually had a character who used the 10' pole to great effect in our Planescape game. Of course, it was more than just your stock 10' pole.

I had 2 10' poles cut into 1' sections that could be screwed together. In addition, I had several additional pieces that could be screwed onto the ends of the segments (T-junctions, 45 degree angle junctions, 90 degree angle junctions, a hammer head, a spade head, a globe with continual light cast on it, mirror).

This was probably the single most useful piece of equipment the party had (well, aside from the Aasimar Paladin's two-handed sword, the immovable rods, and the ring gate . . . .). I'd attach the mirror to an angle junction and use it to peek around corners and check out rooms before we entered. I could build a ladder if we needed one to reach a high space. We never had a problem crossing 10' pits (20' pits were a bit tricky, but that's life). We were never short a hammer or a shovel.

Anytime we found ourselves without a critical piece of equipment, I'd jot it down and see if we couldn't get the requisite piece made for the pole. Of course, as we leveled up and our spellcasters became more versatile, we used the pole less and less frequently. Still, I'm rather fond of my old 10' pole.

--G

Queen_Dopplepopolis · Aug 25, 2004

Once upon a time, my friend's Cleric used to carry around a 10 foot pole so that he could "not touch stuff with it."

Very entertaining.

diaglo · Aug 25, 2004

dead said:
I guess a Quarter Staff is close enough, though. What'd that be? 5 or 6 foot?

Why is a Quarter Staff called a *quarter* staff anyway? Quarter of what? The 20-foot pole?

i always assumed the quarter staff was in reference to the ox-goad. which was used to measure the distance between a team of 8 oxen. so 1/4 of that would be 2 oxen side by side in the length.

i think the ox-goad became the rod. a rod = 5.5yards

so it was 1/4 of 16.5 feet

vulcan_idic · Aug 25, 2004

I still find it useful, though my 10-ft. pole has been replaced with a quarterstaff... not as long, but same idea. My monks (my favorite class) always carry them... I usually drop them for fighting, but I keep carring them around for their sheer utility!!

Plane Sailing · Aug 25, 2004

pre-1e it was a constant friend in every adventuring party. The first thing that was done when you came across something suspicious that wasn't moving was "prod it with the 10ft pole".

I have never seen it used in 3e and sadly I think it is due to the skills system as much as anything. In the old days players would describe what the PC wanted to do and the DM had to adjudicate the success or failure ("Can I see a tripwire under the slab? What about a pressure point? I put the lantern on my 10ft pole and lift it up towards the roof" DM: "your light reflects off the spider waiting to jump on the first person into the room" PC "I lunge the lantern at it on the pole" etc.) Nowadays it is often reduced to mechanically "roll a spot check". "roll a seach check". "You're not a rogue so you can't find that kind of trap".

I like 3e tremendously (it brought be back to D&D after all) but the skill mechanics have reduced the interactive puzzle solving aspect of D&D in my own experience. And led to the demise of the 10ft pole.

Cheers