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I've played a Brawler before and I used variant multiclass in order to get some Cavalier abilities, focusing on teamwork feats (and immense defensive capabilities) and used the Exemplar archetype to get someone who had zero supernatural or spell-like abilities (but could buff the whole party). This meant I had very few feats to work with and I used Martial Flexibility all the time to pick up the slack. My character feats were pretty much: Improved Unarmed Strike, Additional Traits, Lingering Performance, Chain Challenge and Steadfast Personality.
As for the feat 'chains' I would generally use:
1) Deflect Arrows, Snatch Arrows, Throw Back Arrows (aka, screw you archers)
2) Point-Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot (aka, I'm the archer now)
3) Broken Wing Gambit, Wounded Paw Gambit, Osyluth Guile (aka, Bet you can't hit me)
4) Crane Style, Dedicated Adversary, Defensive Weapon Training (aka, you really can't hit me)
5) Pummeling Style, Pummeling Charge, Precise Strike (aka, I'm going to mach punch you)
6) Quillbreaker Defense, Spiked Destroyer, Dragon Style (aka, You like my armor spikes?)
7) Jabbing Style, Call Out, Dedicated Adversary (aka, Come on and fight me)
There were other combos but they varied depending on the situation, such as with when I'd use Snake Snake Style in combination with another style feat through the use of Combat Style Master.
my go-to is dedicated adversary for a one feat that do a lot (just +2 to attack and damage for a craeture kind kind is great). it team well with creature focus which is not a combat feat, but can be taken with things like paragon surge. the later doesn't grant the full course abilities of favored enemy like the former (the +2 is only for 'Perception checks, Survival checks, and weapon damage rolls against creatures of the selected type'. and 'You can attempt Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify such creatures.').
1. What feats to you consider part of the indispensable core that he should actually know outside of martial [flexibility]?
Not sure if I'd want it on a tag-along NPC, but in general, Pummeling Style+Pummeling Charge. Brawler has a lot of attacks, which means moving into melee ranged makes them lose out on a lot, and DR reduces damage a lot. The above two feat fix both issues.
Learn/Know:
Weapon Focus... it is always helpful and it is often a prerequisite, flex into Dazzling Display for area debuff, stuff like that.
Dirty Fighting... allows you to flex into lots of fun stuff without various prerequisites.
Critical Focus... it is always there for you when you need it, and you can flex into fun Critical feats.
Dodge... it is always helpful and it is often a prerequisite.
Point Blank Shot... it is always useful for your backup ranged weapon, and you can flex into Precise Shot or Rapid Shot depending on where you are in relation to people you care about.
artful dodge can replace dodge and combined with the brawler's cunning can let you use int instead of dex for feats, and consider yourself as having 13 int and dex even if you do not have ether of them, for feats requirements.
General rule of thumb for martial flexibility:
Use martial flexibility to learn situationally useful combat feats, permanently learn feats that are always useful and/or are prerequisites for multiple situational feats that you find yourself using frequently.
