Best feats for a Wizard

I was just wondering if anyone out here can give me some advice. What are the best feats for a young wizard in a 3.5 campaign, and why? My character has finally gotten his first bonus feat, and I am not sure what to do. To give a little backstory, this is a Forgotten Realms setting that so far has taken place solely in the Vast. The wizard has been in a lot of combat, although he is not really very good at it. With so few spells, and complete lack of skill with any weapons, he does very little on the field of combat.

I would like to be a bigger contributor to my parties survival. One has already died, on my watch, and I would prefer it not happen again. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

-Shaylon

You didn't say what feats your wizard already has.

I'm particularly fond of spending time scribing scrolls in order to minimize the primary weaknesses of a wizard - too few spells per day and required daily spell preparation. Any spell that is a lifesaver in the right circumstances, but for which those circumstances rarely come up, is an ideal candidate for scribing.

Utilize wands. A simple, low-level wand of magic missiles keeps a Wizard a viable force in any combat. Those d4s add up after a while, and the ability to pick off nearly dead monsters and allow your party tanks to apply their damage to other foes is invaluable.

As far as feats go, you can't go wrong with Spell Focus (Evocation). Not very creative, maybe, but a definate helper.

Another favorite of mine is Heighten Spell. While you won't want to fill up your higher spell slots with Heightened spells, remember the scrolls. You can spend extra money/XP (still minimal, btw) to scribe any of your spells at as high a level as you desire, and just keep them around until you need them. It's kind of fun to get to high levels of play and still have your lowly first level spells be viable options in combat because of judiciuos use of the Scribe Scroll/Heighten Spell combo.

If your DM allows it, take Energy Substitution (sonic). This is munchkin-y, but very few monsters have any resistence or immunity to sonic attacks. Just prepare all your energy-type spells as sonic spells and you're good to go.

Right.

Is this your 3rd level character feat or your 5th level wizard bonus feat?

If it is the former: Improved Initiative is alwyas good for a wizard.

If you have the time to craft items - brew potion is good for helping allies. You should be able to make some invisibility potions.

Craft wand is real good. Using a wand does not generate an AoO and it adds to your spells per encounter total.

I agree with MerakSpielman - making up scrolls ahead of time is way to increase your character's effectiveness.

Now if there isn't time to make items in your game (a real shame) - Improved Initiative, Skill Focus - (spellcraft, any craft skill you are using the most of, Spot, etc.).

the most broken feat in the FR was Spellcasting Prodigy at level 1.

but they've toned it down for the revision

Sorry, I forgot to mention this. It is my 3rd level feat, and I took Toughness at 1st, as in the starter package for the Wizard in the PHB. Thanks for the advice, to all!

I took Toughness at 1st

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Ouch. Will the DM let you change it?

If you're third level, spell choice will have more to do with your overall power level than feats. And anyway wizards are pretty much supposed to suck until 5th level.

If you are third level the best advice I can give would be to take the spell web. It's probably the best in your situation though I don't know FR spells very well. One of them might better as they tend to be overpowered compared to those in the PHB.

As to feats, a lot of good wizard feats which you ought to take early on don't actually kick in until later. Empower spell and Craft Wondrous Item are both excellent for example but only get good at 5th and 8th level respectively. Right now your probably best off taking Improved Initiative if you don't have it already.

I pretty much only play spellcasters, so I have kind of gotten into a habit of taking the same feats every time. Spell focus is great (I always take evocation), Spell Penetration when you get to your 6th level feat is recommended, as you get higher in level the things with spell resistance really start to make you waste spells if you don't roll high enough, so this feat is enormously helpful. (I think so anyway )
Energy Substitution rocks! Sonic or Acid are recommended for that one. Another feat I like, but isn't in the core books is Spellbook Mastery in Spells and Spellcraft by Fantasy Flight Games, I don't remember if this is a first level only feat, but it allows you to use your INT modifier for the number of spells you add to your spellbook every level instead of just being able to add only 2 each level. It comes in really handy, and may even be a bit tweeked, but if you INT is 16 or higher, you are already benefiting from it.
Another suggestion though it isn't a feat, is that if you make a wizard again, try school specilization. It limits you to the schools you can cast from, but that is a bonus spell you get to cast each spell level, that extra spell has proven more useful to me more times than I can count.

Personally I would recommend not taking Spell Focus unless you're an uber-specialist or want to quaify for a PrC. It only gives a +1 bonus in 3.5 as opposed to +2 in 3.0.

ghettognome said:

Another feat I like, but isn't in the core books is Spellbook Mastery in Spells and Spellcraft by Fantasy Flight Games, I don't remember if this is a first level only feat, but it allows you to use your INT modifier for the number of spells you add to your spellbook every level instead of just being able to add only 2 each level. It comes in really handy, and may even be a bit tweeked, but if you INT is 16 or higher, you are already benefiting from it.

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There's a very similar one in Complete Arcane called Collegiate Wizard but it can only be taken at 1st level. It gives you four new spells per level instead of two, six starting spells + int bonus at level one and +2 on Knowledge (Arcana) checks. Worth taking, IMO.