Dwarf questions

[theebie]

Are they stupid ?

Dwarves focus: become rich
Fella-A says to Dwarfie: Jump down that cliff ! There's a treasure there !

How far can they plan ?

If there's something that'd set Dwarfie back a year, but promising to
be an even greater reward afterwards, would he do that ?

What about two years ? Five years ? Ten years ?

---theebie---

[Larrath]

According to the Dwarf racial documentations, dwarves have infinite patience whenever their Focus is concerned.  If the dwarf's focus is to build a tower and the fastest way they could think to do that would be to stack bricks, the dwarf could easily labor for fifty years until that tower is completed.

Dwarves are extremely single-minded, but they're not stupid.  The image I most like is this - pretend that there is a geometric plane where human thoughts exist.  The thoughts move and wander from place to place pretty freely.  With a dwarf, the part of the plane that relates to the focus would have an anchor, tied to the thoughts by a spring.
The dwarf can think about something unrelated to their focus with effort (stretching the spring), but it will inevitably snap back to the focus.
Basically, it means that they can think very slowly or not really bother with even major details unless their focus is somehow involved, at which case they'd be obsessively meticulous.

A dwarf tends to be a slow thinker, but it's not unusual for a dwarf to come up with a plan that would take several decades in order to meet their focus.

Now, whether or not a dwarf would sacrifice a small part of what they accomplished from their focus depends on their personality.  If the dwarf's focus was to gather all the bread in the world and they had five loaves, they could plan something like this:
1) Speak to contacts to verify the bread can be stolen back from the templar.
2) Give one loaf of bread to the templar.
3) Use favor gotten from the templar to confiscate all the bread in the baker's local bakery.
4) Hide the bread.
5) Steal the bread from the templar.
6) Bribe/kill templar to prevent him from killing or taking the bread away.

On the other hand, some dwarves would prefer much simpler plans and lives.

I don't think any dwarf would put their lives in extreme danger in order to only partially complete their focus.  If your focus was to kill Allanak's Senators, the dwarf would never barge into the heavily-guarded Senate and try to kill the Senators, killing one or two at the very best before being crushed by the guards.  However, that same dwarf could run in there carrying a barrel full of flash powder and blow himself up.

I doubt any dwarf would ever jump down a cliff unless they had a very good reason to believe there is actually treasure there.  Most dwarves would probably do research and find ways to safely extract the treasure.

Dwarves, like all other Zalanthans, have very strong wills to live.  Their focus is even a stronger desire, but they're still not suicidal unless their focus absolutely requires it.

[Morrolan]

Are they stupid ?

Dwarves focus: become rich
Fella-A says to Dwarfie: Jump down that cliff ! There's a treasure there !

Dwarfie subdues Fella-A, ties a rope to him, and pitches him off the cliff.

Dwarfie "where, exactly?  Can ya grab that for me?

[X-D]

I personaly think this part of the docs sums up dwarves the best.

So Are Dwarves Deceptive and Manipulative?
No. It's a very fine line. Very few dwarves are deceptive. The overwhelming nature of the dwarven focus makes all dwarves very single-minded. Deception requires subtle thought, lies, and trickery. And while these traits are not foreign to dwarves in and of themselves - they do require a quick and clever wit. If a dwarf were to ask himself, "Hmmm... what can I do to make that elf think the nobles have found his tribe?" the only possible answer would be: "Bah! Who cares! How am I going to free these slaves!?" (or, of course, whatever his focus happens to be.) Now, if deception and manipulation can help attain the focus, then a conflict appears. A dwarf has infinite patience and determination when it comes to their focus. It will be difficult for a dwarf to be deceptive, due to the subtle thought involved, but the dwarf will think and think and think about it for seven years, and then they will know what they have to do. While an elf will use deception as a reflex, it is something that takes immense effort for a dwarf. If unprepared or surprised, a dwarf should not be deceptive. But the dwarf should, by all means, spend a long time dwelling on it - forcing their single-minded intelligence to think about being subtle - and then acting with absolute deception.

A dwarf would not just go Wee and jump off the cliff, first, he would get a second, third, forth, fifth....twentieth etc opinion/story on wether or not there was really treasure down there, then, he would begin planning on extracting the treasure and returning it to safety, in safety and securing it from all takers.

Watch the southpark episode "Cartmen gets Pubes" Think of cartman as the dwarf and the ninth grader is an elf:)

[Marauder Moe]

Watch the southpark episode "Cartmen gets Pubes" Think of cartman as the dwarf and the ninth grader is an elf:)

Bwahahahah!  Fantastic and hilarious analogy!

I think, though, someone who knows dwarves well enough may learn that they can be manipulated with their focus.  If you met a dwarf who dreamed of having a gold ring, and somehow convinced said dwarf that you had one, it'd be pretty easy to get him/her to do just about anything for you.  Of course, should the dwarf somehow realize that you don't have a gold ring, you may find that you are now considered a very serious obstacle in this pursuit.