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[Sanctume]

I usually embark with a Carpenter+5 skill and just crank out beds, barrels, cages on repeat early on.

I reach a point where I made enough masterwork beds, and little reason to make other wood things except charcoal for steel.

So the carpenter is pretty much retired and wasting away idle. 

With 5 more points from the embark, I'm wondering what other professions is worth pursuing.

I consider a wood cutter/axe dwarf, but I usually have decent recruits selection from the first 2 migrant waves. 

What labors do your carpenter pursue after making enough masterwork beds?

[steel jackal]

usually my carpenters are my lumberjacks too

though if all else fails a useless dwarf is good for a hauler or soldier

[khearn]

I don't really pay that much attention to mine, now that you mention it. He usually has a few other skills left over from the days when the fort was so short-handed (not a height joke - really!) that everyone had to wear a few hats.

Hmmm, just checked my current fort, but it appears that my original carpenter hasn't survived. Oh yeah, he got killed by a forgotten beast back in 253. I remember now, it was when I first opened up the passage from the caverns into my automated forgotten beast trap. He was one of the crowd that just had to run out into the caverns to pick up all the corpses of critters that had been killed by the forgotten beast. And while they were rushing out, the forgotten beast was rushing in, and met them just outside of the traps. Here's a hint guys: if the caverns are full of corpses, maybe there's a reason for it.

Anyways, by the time I don't have much use for a carpenter anymore, my original carpenter (assuming he's still alive) is usually a fairly decent cook or brewer or farmer or something along those lines, so I just let him/her continue in those side professions, while still being available to make the occasional ☼willow bin☼ or ☼oak shield☼ as needed.

[4kn]

i just go for 4 or 5 +5 miners and a mason - in order to make huge ass 10z-level moat and cut part of those stones into blocks for my 2+ zlevel wall. this needed as fast as possible before the first invasion, all else can be trained after walling up. yeah, im gamey

[gchristopher]

My embark skill choices are increasingly based on "what can't I get later?" and that has led to a clear top choice for extra skill points: Architecture.

Building Design skill shows up in all kinds of weird places, and is near-impossible to train. The last embark brought five dwarves with with +5 building design skill. 15 years later, they're still all I've got for that skill, with everything else covered by 20 skill legendaries.

It's shocking how little you really need of other seemingly essential skills at embark. A couple points of farmer gets you limitless food, fast, and a point of cooking or brewing turns into mastery overnight.

If you're going for trap-based defenses, any moodable skill where the need isn't immediate (weaponsmithing/armorsmithing/any crafting/etc), only needs enough points to stay as the highest moodable skill. Maybe embark with a trade-value-producing skill? Lots of options work great there, my preference is glass.

[Libash_Thunderhead]

I just use some peasants with some fighting skills and enable all kinds of jobs.
At first it is not really important to have high quality items and you have more than enough time to train them.
Maybe I will train a miner first otherwise I just focus on plant gathering, cooking and brewing.

[Sanctume]

I was reading about Building Design in the wiki and it seems like a good "cheese" to make a bunch of archery targets or supports in an enclosed burrow.

[khearn]

I've read that a good way to train architects is to lock them in a room with a bunch of stone and designate a bunch of bridges. They'll design the bridges (and haul the rocks), but won't build them (assuming they don't have masonry turned on), then you undesignate and re-designate and let them start over. If you designate the same bridges over and over, they shouldn't even have to haul the rocks after the first time, so they'll spend full time designing. Might want to stick some food and booze in there as well.

[Saiko Kila]

I don't make barrels at all (since large pots), and never liked bins anyway (Quantum Storage is more useful), so my carpenters make only beds, minecarts and cages. Plus sometimes blocks for padding landing zones.

Minecarts are good for QS, and thieving animals like them, so eventually they are more important than other things, but once you get enough of them, it's time for other jobs. If you use many cages then wooden cages are also important (they are light - good for hauling), but they are recycled, plus you can get them from elves in huge quantity.

My three best carpenters are also woodcutters (one is also a siege engineer, to train them early), while the rest are the eclectic mix of woodcrafters, stonecrafters, furnace operators, farmers and tailors. Tailors are good, because the need for tailors arises about the same time the need for carpenter diminishes. Furnace operators and farmers are always good.

If I don't know what to do with a dwarf, I train him as a siege operator. It keeps them busy and content. Also if you actually USE siege engines, then having lots of siege operators is required to be successful. For every ballista I have like three or so training catapults.

[Blue_Dwarf]

Building Designer is also my choice for his second profession.

I give Carpenter to my most creative dwarf. The goal is to eventually make all wood items masterwork, and to trade fine wooden spiked balls to the first caravan.

That doesn't leave a lot of options for his second labor. Most skills are too labor-intensive, so they don't work. Architecture, on the other hand, benefits perfectly from the creativity (I assume). Plus he can design the first bridges and the depot a lot faster.

[Sanctume]

Got this info from the wiki.
There's stats synergy with Carpenter and Building Designer.

And if using him also as Wood Cutter, it's not far of a job to do Soaper as well as Ashery job of making Lye, and even Wood Burner.
Not bad to have that just in case I need early defense, give him novice axe skills and novice discipline and bring a copper axe (68 embark points) instead of training wood axe (17) or (3) from a log.

Stats: Strength, Agility, Creativity, Spatial Sense, Kinesthetic Sense (carpenter)
Stats: Analytical, Creativity, Spatial Sense (building designer)
Stats: Strength, Agility, Endurance, Willpower, Spatial Sense, Kinesthetic Sense (wood cutter)
Stats: Strength, Toughness, Endurance, Kinesthetic Sense (lye maker)
Stats: Strength, Toughness, Endurance, Kinesthetic Sense (soaper)
Stats: Strength, Toughness, Endurance, Kinesthetic Sense (wood burner)

[timotheos]

My carpenters embark skills are normally on building designer. Because it just never seems to train up otherwise.
I only use the carpenter for beds and shields. So once I have a full set of exceptional/masterwork beds I set her onto making mechanisms out of all the junk stone.
Which then gives a good combination for any future power generation projects.

[slashnul]

I let the carpenters pick themselves, not the other way around.  I assign 2 scholars pre-embark.  Then I give carpentry, masonry, woodcrafting, and stonecrafting to two dwarves who have the stats for it.  The remaining three are dual miner/detailers.

I focus less on personal property than group experience.  I plop my dwarves down 60 to a room but make the taverns, temples and libraries very nice.

[feelotraveller]

For me it depends on the dwarf and the embark but a lot of my starting carpenters are also cooks (reasonable crossover of attributes) or potters.  Both of these tend to see more demand later in my forts history when carpentry needs are on the decline. 

My carpenters make a bit more than some others wheelbarrows, axles, crutches and splints come to mind, not that too many are needed of any of these.

Occasionally they will get building design but early on I prefer only one dwarf per profession and usually my mason is given building design, or perhaps my mechanic (generally the alternative candidate for cook).  Siege engineer also tends to go better with the dwarfs I make mechanic or mason but is another possibility.

On rare occasions animal trainer is also worth considering.

[the woods]

Stuff you need buckets for:

• baths
• cleaning?
• lye
• milk
• other good shit

if any of that sounds good to you please turn wood into buckets. thank you.