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[jamesadelong]

So, I just lost my only decent mechanic (and the only seemingly sane dwarf) in my fort to a drawbridge as I was attempting to defend against goblins. Now I have to wait for the next migration wave to get another mechanic, in the meantime I have to put up with passive defensive systems and zero maintenance with the magma cylinders.

It got me thinking, he was the most valuable dwarf of my fortress. Without him the fortress will likely go through a down period where I have to find and train a similar dwarf to legendary status. Not fun.

So who is your most valuable dwarf and why? And stories? Are they your favorite?

[Kaleb702 Games]

The brewer / farmer / everything-to-do-with-food guy, of course. It's doable without him, just really slow.

[Girlinhat]

Always the medic.  All skills can be trained, but altruism is a personality trait that is vital for doctors and unable to be trained.  Ergo, my spontaneously altruistic doctor is worth his weight in gold.

[JoshBrickstien]

My Stonecrafter. Without him, I'd never be able to afford metal from the caravans.

[jamesadelong]

Always the medic.  All skills can be trained, but altruism is a personality trait that is vital for doctors and unable to be trained.  Ergo, my spontaneously altruistic doctor is worth his weight in gold.

That is a remarkably good point...

[Stargazer]

My fort is currently at 160+ dwarves. I have multiples of most professions, several medics, weaponsmiths, carpenters, ect. Out of them all, I have only a single armorer. Luckily, he is legendary due to the artifact he crafted not long after he arrived at my fort. Without him and the spectacular armor he creates, my dwarves would be doomed to agonizing, gruesome deaths.

Well, more doomed and gruesome than they usually are.

[Mitchewawa]

Ahh, my legendary mechanic, though past his use, will be remembered forever.

His masterwork gears used in my weapon traps hit nearly 100% of the time. It was glorious...

He also doubled as a speardwarf; anti-forgotten-beast squad. Died to a poison 

[Satarus]

Legendary +5 Armorsmith or Legendary +5 Weaponsmith.  They can turn your militia to a killing machine just by handing out masterworks.

[nerdyboy321123]

Legendary +5 Carpenter... For being able to provide lodgings for any size migration wave in under 5 minutes

[Kilroy the Grand]

Hard to say, in my current fort it's a +5 engraver who simply LOVES to depict my dwarfs being slaughtered in the most humourous ways!

[Oaktree]

Medics are valuable and having a altruistic one is wonderful.

However, I'd say a high-skill armorer.  One weapon arms a warrior, but he needs 6-7 pieces of quality armor to become well protected.

I had a master one turn up in a migrant group and he was a godsend.  He's Legendary +5 now and is producing steel and candy armor for my militia and army like a stamping mill.  Trying to ramp up a back-up armorer is slow work - I keep hoping for someone to make an armor artifact and give me a second one (or a Legendary Weapon Smith to help round out production there.)

I value mechanics as well, but also have a lot of them tasked simply to keep up with work while the higher skill ones make mechanisms.

[Girlinhat]

My second most valuable dwarf is my armorsmith.  Mechanic can be trained over time, who doesn't have piles of stone available?  Metal, is a bit slower...

[Table Turning]

First off, miners.  Without them the fort wouldn't have even started, gotta give them some credit.

Rest of it goes to the mechanics and masons, without them I'd be quite royally fucked.  Since masons and mechanics prepare the majority of my defenses.

[Girlinhat]

Again I have to point to availability.  If you have a pick, you have a miner.  Miners are very easy to create.  So are stonecrafters and planters and brewers.  They come about naturally during the life of a fortress.  If you lose one, you can grab any peasant and make a new one easily.

A doctor needs altruism, that's rare, and I've taken skilled migrant soldiers and made them doctors purely for their altruism.  They've got level 5 in all combat and I make them doctors and they save everyone's life.  Metalsmiths/blacksmiths can be trained by Statues /R and Chains /R but an armor or weaponsmith cannot melt down a breastplate into 1 bar, making armor and weapons rather valuable and skill-intensive.  Raising an armor or weaponsmith isn't easy, which makes them valuable.  All other things are either renewable or nearly-infinite.

[Mitchewawa]

Actually, metal/armour/weapon smiths are quite easy to train up on maps filled with copper (usually ones without iron). One of my first fortresses was on a map with about 10% tetrahedrite per z-level; once you pump magma to the top for a few magma forges you can set tetrahedrite/galena/what-have-you for forgery repeat. After a minute or so you can put armor/weapons on repeat; I used barrels and bins on repeat as well.

I ran out of copper at around about 1000 (I dug a fair few z-levels out to the max) barrels, bins, boots and swords each, with a fair few legendary armor/weaponsmiths. This was around to when I got to mine candy; masterwork weapons and armour for all!