Feat for a binder posing as a wizard

[TKDB]

We just hit level 12 in the campaign I'm currently playing in, and I'm having trouble deciding on a good feat for my character. I'm playing a binder, but one who pretends to be a wizard and is extremely paranoid about being found out for what he really is. He didn't exactly get a very warm reception when he first started soul binding, and his experiences since then haven't generally gone much better.

At any rate, I've invested pretty heavily in this ruse, sinking three feats and quite a hefty amount of skill points into it. As a result, I don't have much in the way of prereqs in place to qualify for any particularly flashy feats at this point. Furthermore, since this campaign is expected to end around level 15, I feel like it would be something of a waste to take something that might set me up for a good feat down the road but gives only a minor benefit at this point in time. If possible, I'd like something that opens up some nifty, entirely new trick, but failing that I suppose I can settle for the old standby of crunchy numerical boosts to what I do most often.
All WotC content is permitted, including online material and Dragon magazine, and third-party material may be permitted if I run it by the DM first. Also, the DM is generally pretty accomodating about houseruling to adapt things that don't technically work by RAW, so if there's a good feat meant for another class that could be easily tweaked for use by a binder it'd be worth at least mentioning.

My feats right now are:

• A homebrew feat I worked out with the DM to get UMD and Spellcraft as class skills. Even with Karsus for wand and staff use, I really wanted to be able to use scrolls as well, and of course a wizard has to have Spellcraft.
• Improved Binding
• Quick Draw. The DM ruled I could use this to pull out a wand or scroll as a free action as well as put wands away, letting me pass off item-based spells as actual spellcasting if I pull off a Sleight of Hand check. Yes, I maxed out Sleight of Hand cross-class for this.
• Ignore Special Requirements (my first binder bonus feat)
• Magical Aptitude. I needed a little boost to be able to UMD scrolls as reliably as I wanted, and I figured the extra +2 to Spellcraft would be nice given how thin my skill points are spread with this concept.
• Expel Vestige
• Sudden Ability Focus (my second binder bonus feat; nothing really stuck out to me at the time when I was picking this, so I figured I'd go with something nice and versatile)

As far as my style of play, I tend to bind Karsus a lot, as you might expect. My UMD is high enough that I don't need him for wands, but I do have a couple staffs he helps with, and the detect magic also helps a lot with selling the wizard role. My other vestige slot has lately been filled with Zceryll quite a lot due to the sheer versatility of her summoning (to say nothing of the several other very nice abilities she offers), but I also rather like Haures and Astaroth Unjustly Fallen, and plan to start binding them more regularly as well now that I have another slot available. I've also been thinking about binding Focalor more often, since I keep finding myself wishing I just had a decent fallback option I can just spam while my big abilities are cooling down and none of my wands or scrolls are suitable for the circumstances. For less combat-focused purposes, I tend to lean toward the combination of Dantalion + Naberius if general social stuff is the main item on the agenda, or Astaroth (the Dragon magazine one) with either Malphas or the other Astaroth if we're looking for intel. My pact augmentations mainly tend to go toward initiative, though I usually try to spare one for saves as well.

Outside of vestiges, I have a bunch of wands and scrolls, as well as a couple staffs. So if there would happen to be any feats relevant to working with those sorts of things, that would also be appealing.

What do you suggest?

 

[Empirate]

How about picking Weapon Focus, then going into Knight of the Sacred Seal, with Karsus as your favored vestige? Sounds like you'll be binding Karsus a lot anyway. Sure, WF is kind of a waste of a feat on your build, but KotSS is rather a good PrC for every Binder.

Other than that, have you talked to your DM about Obtain Familiar? It's not available for Binders per se, but with your concept and your DM willing to support it, you might just get it houseruled in. That one would afford tons of versatility, as well as strengthening your theme. With your high ranks in UMD, your familiar can pick up a wand and effectively double your actions; it can act as a scout, negating the need to bind lowly Malphas for that; it can Aid Another on UMD and Spellcraft (as well as everything else); it provides Alertness while it's near, and another minor benefit (Hummingbird's init bonus is huge, but Raven will be better, since it can speak, thus activate wands); you can share spells (presumably spells from scrolls as well? Would need to check that), or you might get a houseruled version that allows your familiar to share a single vestige ability with you; and it's generally neat for roleplaying, for getting another set of Spot and Listen checks etc. It also sets you up for Improved Familiar down the road, which is just one of the most awesome feats in the game.

 

[ImperatorK]

Magical Training. You have a spellbook now. You only have cantrips in it, but no one has to know.

 

[Empirate]

Magical Training. You have a spellbook now. You only have cantrips in it, but no one has to know.

You don't need a feat to possess a spellbook. Those things are freely available one or more at a time with each dead Wizard you should chance to meet...

 

[ImperatorK]

But it's better to sell it, because it's useless to you. With Magical Training at least you have some use of it.

 

[TKDB]

How about picking Weapon Focus, then going into Knight of the Sacred Seal, with Karsus as your favored vestige? Sounds like you'll be binding Karsus a lot anyway. Sure, WF is kind of a waste of a feat on your build, but KotSS is rather a good PrC for every Binder.

The main issue with that is that KotSS wouldn't really give me all that much of value, since the campaign will probably end before I hit any of the abilities that are particularly relevant to my style of play. I'd probably only get up to third level or so in the PrC before the campaign ends, since I couldn't actually start until ECL 13, meaning all I'd get are the vestige's protection abilities, an extra point of BAB, a higher Fort save, and a chance at more hp. The difference in hp is negligible at this point, and the BAB is irrelevant to my style of play. Vestige's protection looks rather underwhelming to me, given we're at the level where AC is getting pretty meaningless unless you've really invested heavily in it (which I haven't -- our beaters have, but I'm rarely adjacent to them where they could benefit from the aura at KotSS 3) and I'd need to be able to anticipate when an enemy is going to be throwing out a Ref-save effect for the save bonus to be meaningful. I feel like that's not really worth blowing a feat slot and losing out on immunity to negative levels and energy drain.

Other than that, have you talked to your DM about Obtain Familiar? It's not available for Binders per se, but with your concept and your DM willing to support it, you might just get it houseruled in. That one would afford tons of versatility, as well as strengthening your theme. With your high ranks in UMD, your familiar can pick up a wand and effectively double your actions; it can act as a scout, negating the need to bind lowly Malphas for that; it can Aid Another on UMD and Spellcraft (as well as everything else); it provides Alertness while it's near, and another minor benefit (Hummingbird's init bonus is huge, but Raven will be better, since it can speak, thus activate wands); you can share spells (presumably spells from scrolls as well? Would need to check that), or you might get a houseruled version that allows your familiar to share a single vestige ability with you; and it's generally neat for roleplaying, for getting another set of Spot and Listen checks etc. It also sets you up for Improved Familiar down the road, which is just one of the most awesome feats in the game.

Now that definitely might be worth looking into. I was actually just looking at familiar optimization stuff recently since I was preparing a backup character in case this one died last session, and I was rather impressed by just how much a familiar can offer to a savvy player. I'll run it by the DM -- especially the vestige ability-sharing adaptation, that would be really interesting.

Magical Training. You have a spellbook now. You only have cantrips in it, but no one has to know.

Unfortunately, that feat is only available at first level. I actually considered taking it during character generation, but I simply couldn't find a feat slot to spare for it. I'll just have to keep making do with my totally fake spellbook full of meaningless scribbles and get my cantrips from wands and scrolls.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you really want help to avoid being found out, Skill Focus: Bluff seems the most useful (unless your DM has not and will not actually run any encounters where you could get found out.)

 

[TKDB]

If you really want help to avoid being found out, Skill Focus: Bluff seems the most useful (unless your DM has not and will not actually run any encounters where you could get found out.)

Well, I already have a Bluff bonus of +26 before adding vestige abilities or whatever circumstance bonuses I might get from flaunting my fake spellbook, stereotypical wizard garb, superfluous spell component pouch, and forged wizard academy diploma. Skill Focus just strikes me as a tad excessive.
Sleight of Hand, maybe...though really, the simple fact that people generally have more important things to focus on in combat than carefully watching how the "wizard" casts his spells has meant I've never needed to actually roll it. (I didn't know this before making this character, but it turns out that unless you're being actively watched or are trying to manipulate something on another's person, Sleight of Hand checks are just a flat -- and not particularly high -- DC.)

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

It's not flashy, but Improved Initiative is always a great fallback for "I dunno what feat to pick".
That's assuming Leadership isn't allowed.

 

[TKDB]

It's not flashy, but Improved Initiative is always a great fallback for "I dunno what feat to pick".
That's assuming Leadership isn't allowed.

Even if Leadership were allowed (I never bothered to check), I probably wouldn't take it for this character anyway. Kind of hard to justify having a horde of loyal followers when you've spent most of your life keeping your head down so the mage's guild doesn't find you and lynch you for using blasphemous dark magic.

The DM has approved a tweaked version of Obtain Familiar, though, so I think I'll go with that. Instead of sharing spells and delivering touch spells, my familiar gains all the passive benefits granted by my pacts as long as it stays within empathic link range, and I can share activated abilities the same way you'd share spells with a normal familiar. And for extra RP fun, the familiar is also subject to the signs (and influences, when I fail a binding check) of all my active pacts.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!