Useless feats (re: Combat Casting)

[Yellow Sign]

My Sorcerer has Combat Casting and has used it many times. The latest was to line up a lightning bolt to catch several bad guys down a halway. I had to make a 5' step towards a enemy!
Its really up to the GM to make things interesting for the caster. Our group has been surrounded, outnumbered, and ambushed several times and we love it. It gets really tense trying to manuver in tight quarters with lots of enemies.

 

[Storminator]

I find that feats that give skill points are great for PCs that want to be good at skills. Which feat you use and which skill it adds to is of lesser importance.

What if you don't want to pump Concentration up because you need skill points for Scry? Use a feat. If you play (like I do) with Skill Focus = +2, then the +4 for Combat Casting starts to look like a good deal...much better than +2 to Scry. You control when you cast defensively, so you almost always get the +4.

And sometimes you DON'T want to use the 5' step, even if you can. In my game on Monday the kobolds were swarming around everyone. The mage was on the edge of combat, but would be surrounded next turn. He cast defensively, then used his full movement to get behind the ranger and some cover. He took an AoO for the move, but did it after he got the spell off, and the next round he was perfectly safe. Had he merely taken a 5' step, he would have been completely screwed.

It very much depends on the game. I've seen Toughness and Skill Focus used many times. As a player I make sure I use my feats, and as a DM I make sure my players need the feats they've taken.

PS