Most overlooked feat?

[Quartz]

What do you think is the most overlooked feat? We're always hearing of Skill Focus, Melee Weapon Mastery, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Energy Substitution, Improved Feint, etc etc.

But there are plenty of other feats out there which seem to be incredibly useful but seem to be ignored.

Can I propose Extend Spell? Doubles the duration of your spell for +1 level. Wonderful for a low-Epic character when combined with Time Stop. And very useful for low-level characters when it's on a Metamagic Rod. It makes low-level Summon Monster spells a lot more useful. And Extended Mage Armour, anyone?

 

[Mistwell]

Personally I think Mobility is underrated. Dodging between foes to intentionally draw their AOOs so your allies can move freely without provoking is very powerful.

 

[Slapzilla]

Run. Especially if you spent a lot of time in dungeons. It is great in the open field, but how many of these are there?

 

[Thurbane]

Run. Especially if you spent a lot of time in dungeons. It is great in the open field, but how many of these are there?

I'll second this. One of the guys I play with ALWAYS takes this for his characters, especially fighters. It can make a huge difference, especially to a heavily armored character, making it harder for the enemy to retreat, or just to get out of harms way.

 

[Archimedes314]

What do you think is the most overlooked feat? We're always hearing of Skill Focus, Melee Weapon Mastery, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Energy Substitution, Improved Feint, etc etc.

But there are plenty of other feats out there which seem to be incredibly useful but seem to be ignored.

Can I propose Extend Spell? Doubles the duration of your spell for +1 level. Wonderful for a low-Epic character when combined with Time Stop. And very useful for low-level characters when it's on a Metamagic Rod. It makes low-level Summon Monster spells a lot more useful. And Extended Mage Armour, anyone?

Well, personally, I rarely see people take Skill Focus and find that Extend Spell is one of the most common metamagic feats.

My vote for most underrated feat would probably be, at least in core, Mounted Combat. It opens up lots of great feats (Spirited Charge anyone?), plus being mounted is awesome (+1 attack, +4 AC, sign me up). And you can always get a cohort to ride you, negating one attack a round. A lot of people avoid it in my experience because they can't take their mounts into dungeons, but you can just play a small sized character with a medium mount.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am not sure, but since 3.5, Skill Focus (Concentration) sounds better than Combat Casting to me.

Blind Fight and Run are both feats that aren't exactly "powergamer's wet dream", but I found them very useful in the past. Both negate a lot of negative conditions.
Blind Fight means you are faster in the darkness, and you can afford to close your eyes to fight a Medusa or a Bodak (and you really want that, because everyone knows that a high class-based saving throw modifier means rolling 1s and 2s a lot on your save. At least in my experience, or rather selective perception ). You also can't be sneaked that easily by invisible rogues.
Run allows heavily armored warriors to cover the battle field without opening themselves up much. The Dex loss from running might not affect AC much for these, but sneak attacks become very nasty this way.) Dodge, Mobility also retain their effectiveness, and ranged attackers still suffer the -2 penalty to attack you while running.

Improved Unarmed and Improved Grapple are nice for a Fighter going against spellcasters and smaller enemies (but not against multiple ones), and also give you a small edge when fighting against the grapple monsters. Characters wielding one-handed weapons two-handed often (maybe once they got an animated shield?) should consider Deflect Arrows, too.

Fighters could use Iron Will so they can use both Wisdom and Charisma as a dump stat, especially useful in 25 point buys, where you still want to quailfy for the dex and int based feats or just have an awesome strength). You lose a feat, yes, but you might get a lot more from the new options available to you (or just more hit points )

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Although it's less valuable in a dungeon setting, my wizard took Animal Affinity and has been greatly enjoying it. Combat mobility is a great thing to have, and the little bonus to Ride and Handle Animal is enough that I can run around and cast spells while mounted. (Skill Focus: Concentration makes the checks a breeze!) The mount takes a double move, and I cast a spell and dig around for my next trick? Awesome. At low levels (2-3) we ambushed a bandit caravan as follows: My mount runs ahead, I cast Obscuring Mist in their midst, and by the end of the round I've already left the mist, and everyone else has surrounded them and fires into the caravan. That was fun.

The two-skill-bonus feats are great, if you can find a combo that you use regularly. No one turns away a familiar's Alertness, for example. Someone needing to get through physically difficult situations would like Athletic. Acrobatic is great, too, for clear reasons. Two groups can benefit from these feats: the skill monkey who needs that extra edge after Skill Focus, and the less-skilled who can't afford to spend the skill points, but needs just a little competency.

 

[roguerouge]

My girlfriend's been using Daredevil Athlete quite a bit. +5 bonus to any one of a number of physical skills (jump, climb, balance, etc.) 3 times per day? It allows her character to minimize her investment in those skills.

 

[Darklone]

Extend Spell is very common in our groups as well.

I'd go with Run too. My campaigns tend to have a lot of traveling adventures and tactical army fights in the open.

 

[Shin Okada]

There are so many feats in non-core material. So if you include them I can't name one.

But in regard to core feats, I say Eschew Materials.

Many wanna-be fighter-mages take Still Spell feat or try hard to make his total miss chance 0%, or gets Armored Mage ability. But they tend to forget the fact that without this feat, he still need one free hand for casting some spells with material component. This feat is also useful when a caster is caught or anyway lost all his belongings.

Edit: And this feat is often overlooked by DMs and even authors for WotC. By the rule, monsters without human-like hand can replace somatic component with their body moves. But they still need material components in contact. So, many monster spellcasters should better take this feat or have a lot of trouble. Can't move away from the pile of components!