The 10-foot pole, antithesis of what adventuring should be?

[Maggan]

Would you agree that a pike or spear is an effective weapon?

Put it like that, and you can see that you can get a whole lot of power into a thrust on a ten foot pole - even if it's only one character doing the thrusting.

Ummm ... a difficult question. Is a pike or a spear an effective weapon?

No, not if you use the spear to clobber someone to death. Neither does the pike make a good concealed weapon, IMO.



But yes, I agree that you can thrust with a 10 foot pole. But how universally useful is it to be able to thrust at things, while trying for example to detect a pit trap?

To me the proverbial 10 foot pole seems more likely to be a "10 foot mechanized lifting, pulling and pushing device that folds up into a swiss army knife" when considering the many uses it's been put to over the years.

/M

 

[Raven Crowking]

I come off as much more abraisive on message boards than I do in person.

Yeah, I know that feeling.

I wouldn't worry about it too much, ThirdWizard. For the most part, you come across as a pretty cool and rational individual. IMHO, of course.....and we all know what that's worth.

 

[The Red Priest]

I fail to see any significant difference between "I tap every five foot square with my ten foot pole" and "I check every five foot square for traps." In fact, I would say there is more of a sense of accomplishment from the latter by far, as presumably the former could have been done by an orc barbarian with a lobotomy and automatically succeeded without a roll, whereas if the latter is successful, it shows the character's skill.

If I wanted a game where the outcomes were based solely on a die roll, I'd play yahtzee. Frankly, I could give a rat's behind how clever my character is, cause it doesn't exist anywhere except in my head. Well, maybe the DM's and other players' heads, too. I'm the one who wants to have the fun, not my imaginary friend.

Also, anyone who thinks that a pole's only use is checking for traps, had better re-think their dungeoneering. That is, if their characters' ever set foot in a dungeon. Hmmm.. speaking of which. What's the the name of the game again? SomethingOrOther & Dragons??

 

[Mercule]

Sweet jesus! Dont push a button with a pole! You'll trigger the trap that causes any wooden object touching the button to animate into a level draining undead treant!

I'm so going to be using this one.

 

[The Red Priest]

Please post more (aka QFT). I could have made the same argument in a sentence but it wouldn't have been as funny.

Cheers!

Edit: Welcome to ENWorld.

QFT?

 

[Raven Crowking]

D&D characters are living beings in semi believable fantasy worlds, those worlds will go on whether the individual character live or dies. The onus is on those characters to maintain thier lives. If someone thinks they deserve to survive falling prey to a trap, they've fallen for Wotc's marketing ploy.

QFT


(Quoted For Truth)

 

[papakee]

My character always brought a 12 foot pole...just to make fun of the characters who only had 10 foot poles.

Truthfully, I've not bothered with 10 poles since the early 1E days, but the sectioned pole has been on the character sheet a time or two since then. They come in handy sometimes for club replacements, firewood, crossing alleys, retrieving items, probing the depth of water, probing oozes for treasure, climbing, holding a mirror around a corner, roasting a gnome over a fire, etc, etc. Several of these things would have a skill check, but without the pole it would be harder or impossible to do.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

bah. everyone knows you need an eleven foot pole. how else do you avoid touching those 10 X 10 trap squares.

You need an eleven foot pole in case you come across something you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

 

[MerricB]

Ummm ... a difficult question. Is a pike or a spear an effective weapon?

The pike? It's an awful, awful weapon. It's only effective when you have a formation and basically a lot of pikes all pointing at the enemy, or you set it against a charging horse.

It can be quite effective as such, due entirely to reach, but it has no mobility.

It's not really something you take into a dungeon.

Cheers!

 

[jmucchiello]

The pike? It's an awful, awful weapon. It's only effective when you have a formation and basically a lot of pikes all pointing at the enemy, or you set it against a charging horse.

It can be quite effective as such, due entirely to reach, but it has no mobility.

It's not really something you take into a dungeon.

You laugh now. But the next time a company of chargers is rolling at you in a ten foot corridor, you'll wish you had a line of pikemen to stop that charge cold.