The Ten Foot Pole

[Archade]

A loooong time ago, in an Alpha playtest thread, someone brought up the ten foot pole, and how it was possible to buy a ladder, turn it into ten foot poles, and make an infinite amount of money.

Everyone thought this was amusing, and Jason said he would deal with that.

Can I recommend that the description of a 10 foot pole describe a take-down or collapsible metal pole? That would solve that whole argument in 20 words or less ...

[Quandary]

Or change Ladder cost > Pole cost

Or describe pole as finely carved/lathed object obviously not just a component of ladder with no more work needed.

etc... :-)

[Epic Meepo]

The infinite wealth loophole quoted in the OP is a false argument. Ladders are made from square pieces of wood and poles are round. If you want to turn a ladder into poles, you have to do a lot of woodworking. Which is the same thing you do when you make Craft (woodworking) checks. So unless making continuous Craft checks counts as an infinite-wealth loophole, turning ladders into poles doesn't count as an infinite-wealth loophole, either.

[Jason Bulmahn]

As I said before, this is something I am going to deal with, I just missed it in the Beta. The costs here will be adjusted.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

[Xuttah]

Thanks! Ruin another get rich quick scheme! :) I actually pointed this out to Archade to further underscore how broken the D&D economy was. He didn't mention that you could sell the rungs for firewood or make torches out of them. :)

Similar problems could be brought up with the cost of a cow/pig/chicken and the cost of a 1 lb chunk of meat...

(edit) ladder to 10' pole scheme only works if the ladders are the lashed together sort, not the ones made with sockets for the rungs...

[anthony Valente]

Hmm... that does seem wonky. It definitely takes more effort and material to make a ladder than a 10' pole. Perhaps just switch the prices?

[Slime]

anthony Valente wrote:

Hmm... that does seem wonky. It definitely takes more effort and material to make a ladder than a 10' pole. Perhaps just switch the prices?

As standard usable tools I assumed the normal ladder to be made of soft wood (like pine) planks put togheter with pins and the 10' pole (used for pushing boats, sounding well shafts, etc.) would be made from hardwood (like mapple) and finding a strong straight 10' long shaft of hard wood will cost more.

If you breakdown a ladder you end up with a couple of fragile 10' planks not poles usable as tools without breaking after a couple of days of use. Not a big difference for poking for traps but I wouldn't try using it to help climbing and the full ladder is somewhat bulky to haul around the dungeons.

Details I know but I like those details.

[Straybow]

If the ladder is intended to support a big, muscley, armored man, it better be made of something more than pine planks. :)