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[daggaz]

There has been a lot of discussion about this, but the most recent threads devoted to the subject I can find are up to five years old, so maybe it's time to bring it up again.  Now dwarves are rather unfortunately expendable at times, but the starting seven give the player a unique opportunity to design their skills sets, which directly influences the initial growth rate/capabilities of the fortress.  So the question is how best to take advantage of that setup?  Without going into detail for every skill, I will describe some of the choices I make and why, and welcome discussion about how other players here may do it differently.

My focus is on a balance between immediately useful/necessary skills, and useful skills which are hard to train in-game.  I typically don't embark on evil biomes, but will occasionally remark on the differences this entails.  I am going to just ignore skill rust as players have the option to turn it off and the whole rust-mitigation aspect complicates the discussion immensely.  But feel free to bring it up of course.

SO.

1) Mechanic 5 / Diagnostician 5.  This is the only dwarf I "reroll" for, I am looking for good scores in analytical ability (as the first priority, both skills depend on this trait), intuition, and memory.  He should preferably not be weak as he will be lifting a lot of stone early on.   Diagnostician is something that might come along later with migrants, but might very well not, and your entire hospital line depends on it.  It's not easy to train without purposely injuring your dwarves.   Mechanic has a good synergy and gives your doctor something to do in the meantime, the mechanisms are needed for initial defense (traps and bridges) and will be the mainstay of your economy for some time. 

2) Mason 5 / Building Designer 5.  It's handy to have these together, as this dwarf can now single-handedly construct stone draw-bridges, which are of immense value to defense.  One can argue that mason doesnt need to be that high as he will level it up fairly quickly (spam block construction), but I like to be quick with my first masonic items and its convenient if they arent all super low value (doors, tables, thrones for your first dwarves, and get those bridges up asap).  This dwarf should be strong or at the very least NOT weak. 

3 + 4) 2x Miner (0 ranks if non-evil, 5 if evil), Armorsmith 1 for one and Weaponsmith 1 for the other.   I then use the remaining ranks on weapon skills (priority) and dodging.  Never spend skill points in mining unless you absolutely must dig quickly, you will be legendary before any other dwarf even gets a chance to mood.  These dwarves might become legendary smiths, but otherwise they are going to go into the military as soon as the initial fort is constructed and we have some migrants to replace them on the digging.  They should preferably have good traits for military servitude (iron will, rapid healing, good physical attributes especially endurance). 

5) Teacher 5 / Axedwarf 5 .  Something new Ive been trying.  Teacher seems a bit harder to train and more valuable to have in the beginning.  This guy immediately gets carpentry and wood-cutting turned on, and will chop wood and make a few items for the fort in the beginning.  He might mood into legendary carpentry, and if you are lucky you will get an artefact hatch which can be a first line of defense for FBs.  Later on a migrant can be the full time carpenter, this is a skill which quickly goes to legendary just making barrels from 0 ranks.  This frees up our teacher to begin training some migrants / the miners.  I've considered having him learn a defense skill instead, but it seems to me that weapon skill is the most important so...

6) Weaponsmith 5.  He doesn't need any other skills, get him into a magma forge asap and start cranking out cheap weapons. 

7) Armorsmith 5.  Same thing as the weaponsmith, tho you might consider Growing 5 as an additional skill for evil biomes where caravans and especially migrants are not guaranteed.   Otherwise farming is stupidly broken and food is not an issue.  Growing goes on this guy because he is slightly easier to train than the weaponsmith.  One thing which you should not do is double these two smithing jobs on the same dwarf.  If they dont get a mood, you are going to need to focus on training for a long time and its counterproductive to have one dwarf try to do both tasks. 

I used to bring a broker but frankly it's not needed.  In sufficiently evil biomes you arent going to see many caravans/migrants anyhow, and if you do, you are guaranteed to find a dwarf with strong relevant social skills, eventually one with Judge of Character (which seems to not really improve significantly with more ranks).  Appraisal auto-trains to highly effective levels after the you open the trade screen with the first large caravan.  Before then, just trade surplus mechanisms (especially masterwork) for whatever you really need and you will be fine.  Trading and economy in general is broken as hell, so even without this ease of building a broker post-embark, you are going to be just fine.  Not bringing a broker has the advantage that you get to select him from migrants AFTER your expedition leader is chosen.  If you build a broker, he invariable becomes leader and I find that half the time this asshole is stuck in a meeting and a non-broker dwarf has to do his job anyhow or you miss the caravan.  Really. Annoying. 


Things that people often train but they don't need to. 
Mining (unless evil biome, see above)
Carpentry
Wood Cutting
Brewing (bring booze, skill here only effects time not stack size, you will be fine)
Growing (unless in very dangerous biome) you will be swimming in food, its stupid
Herbalist (same thing as growing, food is not an issue)


I find with this kind of build, I have more than enough embark points left over to tank up on all booze, increase seed stockpiles somewhat (in case of early mistake of stupid planting when season is too short), get some wardogs, a couple cats, a bunch of random food, and even splurge on two shearable pack-animals if I want to.  I dont bring any of those last embark items which I can quickly make myself.   

[Sarmatian123]

I've been forced through "sorry but I can't deal any more with this <cough!>" mechanism into doing quite few embarks. These days I do not open caverns at all, when digging for lava for example. So my setup is to get things organized asap and have as many Dwarves doing stuff as possible. Specially if I need to dig for some reason into one of the 3 caverns.

I got spread sheet system going for jobs, which is based on attributes required by the jobs. Attributes go in range 4,-4. I read Dwarves attributes into sheet and it sums up those negative and positive points on second page in list of jobs. There I can see then the highest scorers and jobs fastest learners. Then I go adding just 1 skill point on all those fast learners.

1. Organizer+social things+(Cook) (sociopath focus? social creepy crawler?) (creativity for cooking)
2. Broker+social things+(Miner/Engraver) (focus on memory+intelligence+intuition, judge of intent rly)
3. Carpenter (Woodcutter + all crafts, later on) (creativity focus)
4. Grower+Herbalist+Record Keeper (I add Brewer later on and limit harvesting to growers only) (strength focus for growing/brewing) (memory focus for herbalist and record keeper, can be assigned on any Dwarf really)
5. Mason+(Miner/Engraver)
6. All-Doctor+(Miner/Engraver)
7. Mechanic+Building Designer (high intelligence focus)

I give all my Dwarves +1 in conversationalist, discipline, dodging, (striking), (kicking) and shield using.

Because sometimes DF throws in Dwarves with different sets of attributes, the job setups could change from time to time, but I always send administration workers and masons mainly into mining and always supplement carpenter with wood cutting. Also I send them all in with 5 picks and 2 battle axes (copper preferably), brew, something to eat, anvil, 2 dogs, 2 cats and just in case 3 stones (for mechanisms). Rest can always be made on place and if not found on surface, then always in caves.

[martinuzz]

I have grown fond of combining miners with medical jobs on embark. I take two miners, one will become diagnostician / surgeon, the other bone setter/ suturer. Because of the uniform mess, they won't be fighting in the front lines anyways, and that suits the medics fine. Who's gonna operate on the wounded if the surgeon got killed in battle?
I kinda never pay much attention to attributes, except for my militia commander. I probably should, but I am getting masterpieces anyways.

[jecowa]

I have grown fond of combining miners with medical jobs on embark. I take two miners, one will become diagnostician / surgeon, the other bone setter/ suturer. Because of the uniform mess, they won't be fighting in the front lines anyways, and that suits the medics fine. Who's gonna operate on the wounded if the surgeon got killed in battle?

I prefer making the armorsmith and weaponsmith the miners because mining synergies well with armorsmithing and weaponsmithing because mining trains most attributes used by them (endurance, kinesthetic sense, spacial sense, strength).

1) Mechanic 5 / Diagnostician 5.  This is the only dwarf I "reroll" for, I am looking for good scores in analytical ability (as the first priority, both skills depend on this trait), intuition, and memory.  He should preferably not be weak as he will be lifting a lot of stone early on.   Diagnostician is something that might come along later with migrants, but might very well not, and your entire hospital line depends on it.  It's not easy to train without purposely injuring your dwarves.   Mechanic has a good synergy and gives your doctor something to do in the meantime, the mechanisms are needed for initial defense (traps and bridges) and will be the mainstay of your economy for some time. 

Is having high-level mechanics skill important? I don't think mechanisms made by a highly-skilled mechanic are any more useful than mechanisms made by an unskilled mechanic. The only differences is that dwarves will get happy thoughts from walking by the artisan mechanisms.

2) Mason 5 / Building Designer 5.  It's handy to have these together, as this dwarf can now single-handedly construct stone draw-bridges, which are of immense value to defense.  One can argue that mason doesnt need to be that high as he will level it up fairly quickly (spam block construction), but I like to be quick with my first masonic items and its convenient if they arent all super low value (doors, tables, thrones for your first dwarves, and get those bridges up asap).  This dwarf should be strong or at the very least NOT weak. 

What's so great about having a high-level building designer? Just to increase the value of your buildings?

5) Teacher 5 / Axedwarf 5 .  Something new Ive been trying.  Teacher seems a bit harder to train and more valuable to have in the beginning.  This guy immediately gets carpentry and wood-cutting turned on, and will chop wood and make a few items for the fort in the beginning.  He might mood into legendary carpentry, and if you are lucky you will get an artefact hatch which can be a first line of defense for FBs.  Later on a migrant can be the full time carpenter, this is a skill which quickly goes to legendary just making barrels from 0 ranks.  This frees up our teacher to begin training some migrants / the miners.  I've considered having him learn a defense skill instead, but it seems to me that weapon skill is the most important so...

Do artifact hatches provide better defense than normal-quality hatches? I think dodging skill might be better to train because it can be used by all the military dwarves and not just the ones using axes.

Things that people often train but they don't need to. 
Mining (unless evil biome, see above)
Carpentry
Wood Cutting
Brewing (bring booze, skill here only effects time not stack size, you will be fine)
Growing (unless in very dangerous biome) you will be swimming in food, its stupid
Herbalist (same thing as growing, food is not an issue)

Having brewer 5/grower 5 is really efficient. He larger stacks means fewer trips between the farm and the still. And I think this helps conserve barrels/large pots too.

[daggaz]

I prefer making the armorsmith and weaponsmith the miners because mining synergies well with armorsmithing and weaponsmithing because mining trains most attributes used by them (endurance, kinesthetic sense, spacial sense, strength).

That's a good idea, I might have to try that next time, especially considering I already give them 1 rank as it is.  On the other hand, its also nice to have four dwarves that can mood into legendary smiths. 

Is having high-level mechanics skill important? I don't think mechanisms made by a highly-skilled mechanic are any more useful than mechanisms made by an unskilled mechanic. The only differences is that dwarves will get happy thoughts from walking by the artisan mechanisms.

As far as Ive heard, it improves weapon traps (which I dont use but ok).  But other than give happy thoughts, it makes the mechanic link mechanisms faster (important in dangerous biomes in early game) and I assume as well that it makes him create them faster in the workshop.  It definitely increases the value, with masterwork being worth at least 360 urists each.  As I mentioned, mechanisms can easily dominate your economy, I often buy the entire second caravan with this method.  (Trading is broken of course). 

What's so great about having a high-level building designer? Just to increase the value of your buildings?

Again, the buildings will be installed faster, which is important in dangerous biomes and as well frees your mason up faster for getting back to production work.  Not sure if it increases building value, but again, this is not a bad thing.

Do artifact hatches provide better defense than normal-quality hatches? I think dodging skill might be better to train because it can be used by all the military dwarves and not just the ones using axes.

Yes, building destroyers cannot destroy artefacts, so you can use them to make a normally vulnerable fortress design impervious to attack.  Good point on dodging.. definitely better in the long run in that regard.  Doubly so if I am giving my miners ranks in axes at the start.

Having brewer 5/grower 5 is really efficient. He larger stacks means fewer trips between the farm and the still. And I think this helps conserve barrels/large pots too.

 
Yeah but as mentioned, unless you are in a really tight embark, food is so broken that this simply isnt a problem.  They also train up fairly quickly, so why not save this slot for a different skill(s) instead. 

[Dracko81]

A lot of interesting points made, but I play with a completely different philosophy when embarking it seems.  My standard layout on dwarves is:

2x Miners with 1 point in mining
1x Carpenter with 1 point in carpenter and 1 point in wood cutting
1x Mason with 1 point in mason and 1 point in building design
1x Stone Crafter with 1 point in stone crafting and 1 point in mechanics
1x Planter with 1 point in Grower
1x Brewer with 1 point in Brewer

This is done purely so I don't need to add labours for the first 6 months of the embark which is one of the more annoying things to do.

The only thing I do however is look at the dwarves desires and if I can I will pair up a female and male dwarf close to the same age to mine, both with wanting to raise a family.  Mastering skills desire I drop into planter and brewer.  While having the other 3 usually wanting to craft a masterwork desire.

I personally don't see the need to spend any points on embark on skills, since anything you add can typically be trained in the first year to the same level.

This allows me to spend a lot of points on raw resources I pack into the wagon.  Typically I will embark on metal poor and/or tree poor sites, meaning I will want to have at least 50 logs and 20 ores.

[martinuzz]

The only thing I do however is look at the dwarves desires and if I can I will pair up a female and male dwarf close to the same age to mine, both with wanting to raise a family.  Mastering skills desire I drop into planter and brewer.  While having the other 3 usually wanting to craft a masterwork desire.

Don't think that helps in any way. There's a rumour that says dwarves with the same jobs get into relations more easy, but I have never noticed any such bias. Dwarves of completely different jobs will marry just fine. The only things required are, being within 10 years of age difference, having a sexual preference that includes wanting to marry, and spending enough time together on 'no job'.
The rumour could stem from the fact that dwarves with the same jobs are more likely to be on 'no job' while next to each other at the same time.

[Dracko81]

The only thing I do however is look at the dwarves desires and if I can I will pair up a female and male dwarf close to the same age to mine, both with wanting to raise a family.  Mastering skills desire I drop into planter and brewer.  While having the other 3 usually wanting to craft a masterwork desire.

Don't think that helps in any way. There's a rumour that says dwarves with the same jobs get into relations more easy, but I have never noticed any such bias. Dwarves of completely different jobs will marry just fine. The only things required are, being within 10 years of age difference, having a sexual preference that includes wanting to marry, and spending enough time together on 'no job'.
The rumour could stem from the fact that dwarves with the same jobs are more likely to be on 'no job' while next to each other at the same time.

I don't doubt it, probably confirmation bias playing a part into it because I remember seeing it happen.  But I also don't aim to have it at embark, the only thing that matters is that I don't spent more than 50 points on skills and my dwarves can fulfil their dreams.  Pointless to have my planter for instance, with the desire to be want to create a masterwork.

[jecowa]

The wiki makes it sound like any hatch can block a building destroyer.

As building destroyers can only destroy buildings on other z-levels under certain conditions, hatch covers can be quite effective at keeping out enemies if used properly.

[anewaname]

The wiki makes it sound like any hatch can block a building destroyer.

As building destroyers can only destroy buildings on other z-levels under certain conditions, hatch covers can be quite effective at keeping out enemies if used properly.

They can, if used in the method described in the "certain conditions" link. It exploits the pathing code. The artifact hatch covers work in all cases.

[jecowa]

It looks like the advantage of the artifact hatch over the normal hatch for defense is that you don't have to remember to forbid it when a building destroyer attacks. I don't think I've ever forbidden anything, so I'm not sure how much of an inconvenience that would be.

[daggaz]

With an artefact hatch, you can have a building destroyer  on the surface who cannot destroy the hatch to gain entry into the tunnels below.  An ordinary hatch can be destroyed in this setup whether you forbid it or not. 

[Noodz]

I might not be the best opinion on this matter since i suffer from a terrible case of restartitis, but currently i am eschewing complex skills and going with 20 to 30 regular dogs. I like playing fortress defense, and while these dogs are no match for invaders, they give me peace of mind against wildlife.

As for equipment, i go for 6 picks and 1 axe. I just like digging fast and getting my fortress layout ready asap. It also means all my starting seven have a weapon in hand at all times.

When i do bother about skills, i usually look into animal trainer (when i embark in biomes with interesting wildlife, like wild moist broadleaf forest), armorsmith and weaponsmith. If i expect early fights, i also consider training all peasants as novices into any weapon skill, so i can draft them without causing bad thoughts.

[NESgamer190]

In terms of dwarf skills, I tend to go no higher than novice, mostly to make 'em that profession by default.  As for what my skills get delegated to...

2 miners in novice mining
1 carpenter, woodcutter, and building designer
1 mason, mechanic, and building designer
1 plant gatherer and farmer
1 full cook (brewing, cooking, butchering, and tanning on the side.
1 'super-noble' (Appraisal, judge of intent, bookkeeping, and manager)

Equipment, I tend to not bring wooden finished products where possible and rely on fort-built stuff (like wheelbarrows and stepladders, splints and crutches, you get the idea.)  You'd be amazed at how many points for embark get eaten up by finished products.

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Things that people often train but they don't need to.
Mining (unless evil biome, see above)
Carpentry
Wood Cutting
Brewing (bring booze, skill here only effects time not stack size, you will be fine)

Secret Elf Confirmed!  If you where a proper an right-thinking dwarf, you would intrinsically know the value of all of these things.

The wiki makes it sound like any hatch can block a building

destroyer.

As building destroyers can only destroy buildings on other z-levels under

certain conditions, hatch

covers can be quite effective at keeping out enemies if used properly.

They can, if used in the method described in the "certain conditions" link. It exploits the pathing code. The artifact

hatch covers work in all cases.

I think the wiki is in error here.  I'll have to check to make sure, before I go to the effort to explain it though.