Good general caster feats? And maybe some more specific recommendations

[Seer_of_Heart]

I am fairly new to dungeons and dragons and 3.5 having only really done theoretical stuff and no actual games. When building 3 characters, my friends don't know the system as well as I do so they asked me to make a character for them, I find that i don't really need feats or just 2-3 that have high requirements that I won't be able to use. Even though feats are a limited resource I can't find feats good enough to use, and consider most feats a waste but cannot find any feats worth using. So what are feats that you would recommend for any caster arcane or divine? We are all level 1 for now and we have a wizard that I am a bit unsure what my friend wants to do with, my wizard who I am planning on making an arcane heirophant, and a cleric.

Also I ask this because in my campaign my dm is homebrewing airships as a main focus and except for 2 characters who get free ability to use/pilot the ships the other characters need to take feats if they want to pilot the ship, which is why I am asking if there are any feats that I really need or if it is worth it to use feats on piloting instead.

[eggs]

In any case, you're probably going to get the best feedback by Googling handbooks for specific classes or hitting the handbook index (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=399.0)to find a rundown on their class-specific feat selections. Most give pretty thorough rundowns of feat options - especially Dictum Mortuum's Wizard Handbook on the old WotC boards.

Prestige class qualifications often demand most of my builds' low-level feats. Be sure to map those ahead of time, and see which of those you need, or which relate to your builds. In the Arcane Hierophant's case, that's probably things like Natural Bond, Practiced Spellcaster, Companion Spellbond, and maybe Greenbound Summoning if it isn't too cheesy for you.

For low level filler (not related to any specific builds or prerequisites), Obtain/Improved Familiar for arcane classes (Obtain from Complete Arcane, Improved from the DMG), Craft Wondrous Item, Improved Initiative and Quick Recovery (from Lords of Madness). Most casters have access to some form of Summoning; for those that do, Augment Summoning and Summon Elemental (from Complete Mage) fill a good handful of feat slots.

At mid levels, Arcane Mastery is solid, especially if you plan on doing any dispelling and lowish level metamagics like Sculpt spell and possibly Split Ray (both from complete adventurer) are useful. Either Flyby attack (from the monster manual) or Mobile Spellcasting (from Complete Adventurer) can be very useful for cowardly/shrewd tactics like burrowing out of the ground on your turn to cast, then back in to avoid attacks; but they each have downsides - Flyby Attack's being that you have to fly to use it, Mobile Spellcasting's being a harsh Concentration check requirement.

At higher levels, Quicken Spell, Ocular Spell (from Lords of Madness) or both are useful for gaining a stronger grip over the action economy. Twin Spell can also be a strong asset for casters who focus on either repeated , and Metamagic Specialist. Extraordinary Spell Aim and possibly Extraordinary Concentration (both from Complete Adventurer) are both handy to have at high levels, but unless you're really focusing on Concentration-duration spells, the Swift Concentration skill trick from Complete Scoundrel can replace ExCon for a couple skill points.

[Wings of Peace]

Things like Improved Initiative are always good on some level for a caster. In general though as a caster you have three kinds of feats:

-Metamagic feats,

-Feats you take because they interact interestingly with a particular metamagic feat (Tomb Tainted Soul and Lord of the Uttercold or Arcane Thesis and everything).

-Feats that qualify you for a prestige class that in some way enhances your spell casting (typically by enhancing your metamagic feats, reducing their cost, or letting you alter the spell in a way metamagic can't).

-Feats you gain so that you can Shun/Embrace them into a better feat later (we don't talk about this category).