How many official and D20 Feats are there? Which ones are worth taking?

[ForceUser]

Some of my players will spend hours reading feats and PrCs when we are designing new characters for a game. It is nearly impossible anymore to just put together low level characters in a half hour and play. It typically takes us the better part of an entire gaming session, just to create new characters.

You know what's funny? My reaction to the staggering abundance of options is exactly the opposite of your players'--when presented with an overwhelming number of choices, I tend to simplify, ignoring almost everything except the PHB. The core feats are still the best.

 

[Particle_Man]

Speaking as a DM with not enough time to prepare, I think "toughness" is the best feat. Have an NPC that you need to slot 6 feats for quick? Toughness x 6 = 18 more hp.

As a pc, it really depends on the class. Cleave is nice for fighters. Item Creation for spellcasters. Improved Natural Attack for monks.

 

[Nyeshet]

Considering the vast number of feats, I'm usually willing to negotiate replacing a pre-req feat for a PrC with another that has a similar effect or works well with the idea / concept of the PrC itself.

It is amazing how many feats there are, but I wonder what the number of (official) feats would be if the list were rid of its many duplications. Just to make this clear: nearly half of the feats are duplicated once, twice, or even three times. That suggests at least a quarter of the list is unnecessary.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Thank you all for answering. I've bookmarked the links, and appreciate the advice.
It really has come a long way since 1st edition! Now, you can customize your character to no end (and, in ways the poor DM cannot sometimes guess ) at 1st level, and continue from there.
I realize that many of the Feats were altered from 3.0 to 3.5. And that would grant further options - do we use the 3.0 or 3.5 variant of the Feat?
Then add in the d20 feats, and apparently Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed is really popular (cheers, Monte Cook!) so there are, indeed, a staggering number of options.

I guess the DM and the players need to sit down beforehand and say: we will use these books or all of those books, and we will use 3.0 or 3.5 or 3.0 here and 3.5 there, and so on.

 

[ForceUser]

I guess the DM and the players need to sit down beforehand and say: we will use these books or all of those books, and we will use 3.0 or 3.5 or 3.0 here and 3.5 there, and so on.

Exactly. For example, I don't allow material from books that I don't own.