by vatas » Sun Nov 27, 2016 4:04 pm
Carpentry is an "Ability*" that is raised by spending Learning Points. It's primary effect is to softcap** board quality. Sawing boards only counts Carpentry value. When building objects like Herbalist Tables, Tanning/Curding Tubs only the materials are taken into account, no attribute/ability of the character performing the construction will have any effect.
Carpentry will affect certain crafts. Most notable are:
-Cheese Tray will be softcapped by geometric average of Dexterity and Carpentry.
-Hunter's Bow will be softcapped by geometric average of Dexterity and Carpentry and Marksmanship.
-Tafl Boards are softcapped by geometric average of Intelligence and Carpentry.
Depending on how many people you are playing with. (if you're alone you will most likely have to raise most Abilities.) With 2-3 people you would most likely have to take on role of Tree-planter which requires you to raise Farming and possibly work on other crops as well. Farming doesn't seem to be used in conjunction with Carpentry on any craft but will benefit from Dexterity like Carpentry does. Dexterity also affects Sewing together with the titular Ability.
TL;DR: Raise Dexterity. It will affect most crafting recipes aside from Smithing and Cooking.
*Attributes (STR AGI etc) are raised by eating food. Abilities (UA, MC etc.) are raised by spending LP on them. Skills are one-time purchases with LP that mostly unlock new crafting recipes and constructions.
**Softcap means reducing crafted item's quality be formula (material-average+softcap)/2 if softcap is lower than material-average.