So I'm playing a pretty unoptimized creation wizard in a home game. I am about to hit level 3 and can't decide what direction I should go for feats.
My whole characters shtick is being able to do a lot of things with average quality. For my feats I have taken fast learner and improvisation so far and I am really liking being able to help my team with knowledge craft skills.
I am thinking about going for improved improvisation considering it would increase most of my skills by 2. However I dont know what I want to do after that. Should I focus on a single spell, most likely summon monster, with augment summoning and similar feats? Or should I stick with the multiple options route with spell mastery and flexible wizardry?
EDIT: another option is focusing on ray attacks and pick up feats like precise shot and weapon focus...
Your party composition would also be very useful, as well as what kind of campaign you're running. Feats for a dungeon crawl would be different than feats for courtly intrigue, although as a d6 class, Toughness is always a safe bet for a spare feat slot.
sorry,
The party consists of a barbarian, rogue, cleric, sorcerer, and me as a wizard. They aren't min-maxers but they do follow treatmont's guides and similar things to an extent. The campaign is a simple "do what the king needs you to do" home game. So while we might be dungeon crawling one day, the next we are acting as ambassadors to a neighboring kingdom or fighting off a band of thieves. While occasionally these missions take more than a game session, they usually wrap up in a couple hours, similar in style to a PFS game. It is a very relaxing game with friends and food.
A little more on the team. We are currently level 2...
The barbarian orc is a basic great sword user, dealing damage and not a lot else.
The rogue human is a uses a short bow for ranged sneak attacks, he is maxing a lot of the strength and dex skills(disable device, stealth, escape artist, etc.) as well as UMD...
The aasimar cleric is a shield and hammer user, with channel to heal the barbarian and himself, he has knowledge(religion), heal, sense motive...
The half-elf sorcerer is mainly a blaster mage in combat. He is also our party face out of combat with diplomacy and intimidate, he also has knoldge(arcana) and spellcraft...
And finally there is me, a human wizard (conjuration/creation) with abjuration and divination as my opposition schools. My ability scores are 10,14,12,17,11,14. I have a chicken familiar. My feats so far are fast learner and improvisation. I have put my skill ranks in perception, appraise, spellcraft, and linguistics, and profession(blacksmith). I have currently been using summon monster in combat. And with improvisation and i can usually pick up the slack if someone else fails a skill check.
I will be taking Improved Improvisation at level 3
As you can see the party is pretty well rounded, and the campaign is pretty easy so optimization is not a huge factor. However I do not want to fall to far behind in the later levels.
Once again I am currently debating between two options, however feel free to give others if you think they are better.
1. Go for a summoner, taking feats like augment summoning and superior summoning being able to help out the barbarian and cleric by providing easy flanking and other targets for our enemies.
2. Go full out on options, picking up flexible wizardry and its improved form, and possible improved counter spell and arcane blast
Well feats are fortunately not super important for wizards. What separates a useful party wizard from a useless one are the spells he can prepare. Just be sure your GM is familiar with the prices of copying spells from other spellbooks, even if he wants to then houserule it to be more expensive/hand out less gold than the assumed wealth by level. Really, a wizard can honestly not take any feats at all and still be a great wizard. Augment summoning isn't necessary because of just how powerful summoning is. That being said, the extra damage it provides is extra damage, and who can turn their nose up at that?
Since you have 12 CON and 11 WIS I would take serious looks at Toughness and Iron Will. Flexible Wizardry is interesting, good for a surprise combat in the middle of a social day or what have you. It's a 3 feat line however, and Fast Study does something similar for only 1 feat, which can be taken as your wizard bonus feat at 5th. You might look at that too. If you're allowed to use the crafting rules, Craft Magic Arms and Armor is very powerful (which is why it's sometimes banned) and fits in with your character being a blacksmith. At 9th you could take Golem Constructor to really push the idea of the craftsman wizard.
Arcane Blast is just not good. If you need an emergency blast every now and then, scribe a few scrolls of blast spells and keep them in a Haversack. As for Improved Counterspell, making sure you have one spell of every school prepared is just one more thing to consider when doing your homework, and I personally prefer to just prepare dispel magic or magic missile (ready an action to blast the enemy caster with missiles, forcing a concentration check).
I think you might enjoy Combat Advice. It gives you a nice thing to do with move actions, and adds to the knowledgeable wizard cliche.
If your GM allows item creation, the best choice at 3rd level for any wizard is Craft Wondrous Item.
This would allow you to cheaply (half market price) make items that would allow you to do multiple things: an item that adds a +3 competence bonus on skill checks for one skill has a creation cost of 450 gp, a pearl of power (1st level) can be created for 500 gp, etc.
If you're allowed to use the crafting rules, Craft Magic Arms and Armor is very powerful
Craft Magic Arms and Armor can't be taken at 3rd level (CL 5+ prerequisite).