Choosing Crafting Professions

LOTRO-Wiki has some good info about crafting and professions, but here's my quick guide on choosing a vocation (group of three professions). Classes that would strongly benefit from a particular vocation are marked with an *.

Vocation	Lore Reasons	Practical Reasons
Armourer (makes armour) Prospector, Metalsmith, Tailor	Dwarves - renowned for their fine mithril armour	Captain* - make own armour, armaments, banners and legendary emblems Champion - make own armour Guardian* - make own armour, shields and legendary belts
Armsman (makes weapons) Prospector, Weaponsmith, Woodworker	Dwarves and elves - renowned for making good quality weapons	Burglar - make own weapons and tricks Captain - make own weapons Champion - make own weapons Guardian - make own weapons and shield-spikes
Explorer (gathering and makes armour) Forester, Prospector, Tailor	Hunter - exploring the wilds for prey	Beorning - make own armour Burglar* - make own armour and legendary burglar tools Captain - make own cloaks, armaments and banners Hunter - make own armour Lore-master - make own armour Minstrel - make own armour Rune-keeper* - make own armour and legendary rune-satchels
Historian (makes potions, dyes, scrolls and books) Farmer, Scholar, Weaponsmith	Elves - long-lived: remember much history because they were there Lore-master - natural scholars Minstrels - make songs based on historical events	Hunter* - make own offhand weapon, bow chants, oils and legendary hunter books Lore-master - make own off-hand weapon and legendary lore-master books Minstrel - make own off-hand weapon and legendary minstrel songbooks
Tinker (makes jewellery and food) Prospector, Jeweller, Cook	Burglar - attracted to gems and jewellery	Champion - make own jewellery and legendary champion runes Lore-master* - make own jewellery, talismans, brooches and pet food Rune-keeper* - make own jewellery and rune-stones
Woodsman (makes wooden weapons) Forester, Woodworker, Farmer	Hunter - natural outdoors-person	Beorning* - make own weapons and legendary beorning carvings Hunter - make own weapons Lore-master - make own weapons Minstrel* - make own weapons and instruments Wardens* - make own weapons and carvings
Yeoman (makes food and armour) Farmer, Cook, Tailor	Hobbits - enjoy food and farming lifestyle Beorning - famous for baking honeycakes Lore-master - could specialise in studying plants/beneficial foods	Lore-master - make own armour and pet food

Pretty much all classes can benefit from scholar potions and buff scrolls, food made by cooks, or hope tokens (and jewellery while levelling) made by tinkers.

Explorers are good as a first character as they can gather cloth, leather, wood and ore so will be able to supply materials for future characters, or alternatively sell it all on the auction house.

Metalsmiths are also quite useful as they can create crafting tools so you only need one tool per vocation instead of one for each profession, plus their crafting tools provide buffs to make crafting more efficient.

If you want to cover all the professions, you will need at least four characters:

1. Historian - Farmer, Scholar, Weaponsmith (get ingots from tinker/armourer)
2. Tinker - Prospector, Jeweller, Cook (get raw food from historian/woodsman)
3. Armourer - Prospector, Metalsmith, Tailor (get processed leather from woodsman)
4. Woodsman - Forester, Woodworker, Farmer