What Item Creation feat should I pick?

[Arkham]

Forge ring. Definately forge ring. Because everything that can be done as a Wonderous Item can be done as a ring. And rings aren't big and bulky like Staffs, Wings, Carpets, Belts, etc.

 

[Hatchling Dragon]

I'm going to say Craft Wand as well. Simply have a Wand of each of your most favored spells (ie: Fireball for attack, Fly for 'utility', ect.) and you don't have to tie-up slots, robbing you of the Wizard's biggest advantage, versitility.

If your DM allows it an alternative for either of your previous Craft skills might be to try Magical Artisian from FRCS or Magic of Faerun. If you intend to 'crank out' magical items in number the savings in gp and/or Exp would make it a very good choice.

If you go with Wands you may want to seriously consider taking Heighten Spell as a Meta Magic feat. There's nothing quite like the look on an enemy caster's face as your Heightened (4th) level Lightening Bolt totally bypasses his just-cast Minor Globe of Invulnerability. This option is even better if you're able to get the Artisan feat for Wands, it helps off-set the increased cost of the higher level cost calculations.

Hatchling Dragon

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I never take wands. It's basically is just a more affordable bundle of 50 scrolls. Yeah there are other beneifts since it is spell trigger, but not large enough for me to spend a feat. Also if you use the T&B chart, with wonderous items you can make wands that can be used by anyone though at the increased 900xspell level x caster level in GP instead of 750.

I think rods rock for a couple reasons, absorbtion, and metamagic rods. Seriously put a rod of absorbtion in your hand and you are immune to virtually all save or die spells its well worth the 50,000gp and the feat. Of course if your dm lets you build wonderus item rods it's a moot point. You really got to see what the dm lets you do with wonderous items before you make any other feat purchases.

 

[dcollins]

Post #1:

Craft Ring - Less versitile, but some of the most powerfull items in the game, including spell storing, evasion and a few other sweet items (no my DM will not let me duplicate the effects of these items with wonderous items, he's a better DM than that)

Post #2:

I'd would not go for a ring because any power of a ring can be put into a wonderous item for the same price.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste!

 

[Johno]

Wands are great... for non-offensive spells. The DC for offensive spells is set to the minimum to be able to cast the spell, and nothing in 3e will raise that.

So a wand of Fireballs has a DC of 14 (10 + Spell level (+3)+ Minimum Intelligence (13) mod (+1))... not very impressive, especially at high level.

The answer of course is to build offensive wands that don't allow saves: Enervation, Summon Monster IV, Evard's Black Tentacles all spring to mind.

IMO, Craft Wands is necessary for the well-rounded Wizard.

Forge Ring is cool too. The ability at high levels to stack several of those powerful abilities into one ring slot is not to be dismissed lightly. Especially as you are apparently starting out high level (Archmage/Harper mage)

In order to create the metamagic rods, you need access to the metamagic feat, making them less interesting to start with.

 

[Acmite]

Wands are great... for non-offensive spells. The DC for offensive spells is set to the minimum to be able to cast the spell, and nothing in 3e will raise that.

This is incorrect. The default DC for wands is set to the minimum needed to cast the spell, and your example is correct for calculating the price of the example wands in teh DMG. However, when crafting wands using the feat, the caster level can be set by the PC (or NPC) providing it is not higher than her own, or lower than the minimum needed to cast the spell.

So, a 7th level wizard with the Craft wands feat can make a Wand of Shield at 7th level caster if she wishes. In fact, as far as I know, you can place metamagicked spells in a wand as well--providing you don't exceed the 4th level spell max allowed by wands.