Must-have feats

[Rastamage]

I rolled a drow wizard who took a 1 level dip into bard at first level. I'm trying to plan out how to spend feats. I'm level 3 now. So far I have Mental Toughness and Extend Spell. Feats I think are probably must have later would be Improved Mental Toughness, the Spell Penetration feats, Heighten Spell and probably Skill Focus: UMD. What would you say are other "must-have" feats?

[Drekisen]

I don't know if these are things u know already and don't mind or if they are things u overlooked...

If u want a better UMD, and are only taking one level of bard, u are better off waiting until later to take it because you can put the matching amount of full skill points into your UMD instead of only getting four at first level and then getting half points the rest of the way as wizard because it is a cross class skill. If ur base intel is say 22 at level 8 from level ups, then at level 9 (I am using this level because I don't know if at level 8 ur 2nd intel level up would apply your new skill point modifier or it would apply at next level) take bard and u will be able to put the full 12 points of umd you are missing to that point. If u take bard at first level. then u will have a little boost to a lot of skills, but by level 9 you will only have an 8 UMD. 4 points is a big difference.
Also, if u do stick with the level of bard and DDO keeps doing level ups in increments of 2, you will have to wait an extra module release to get ur fifth free metamagic feat granted to the wizard class every five levels, the one level of bard will offset that from happening at 20th level.
One more note, you will lose spell slots and one point of spell penetration from taking the one level bard.
I have a 15CLR/1SRC, and overall am happy with the splash, however those few little things I miss out on do leave me wondering sometimes what it would have been like if I didn't splash.
Just so u know, otherwise quicken would be something to consider for a metamagic feat, and also maybe one of the spell focus schools so at least one of your types of spells has some extra power to it.

[Wu_Jen]

I rolled a drow wizard who took a 1 level dip into bard at first level. I'm trying to plan out how to spend feats. I'm level 3 now. So far I have Mental Toughness and Extend Spell. Feats I think are probably must have later would be Improved Mental Toughness, the Spell Penetration feats, Heighten Spell and probably Skill Focus: UMD. What would you say are other "must-have" feats?

You have Extend and MT.
Bonus Feats:
2. Maximize
3. Empower or Enlarge - Your choice more dmg or being able to zap mobs at a greater distance.

Regular Feats:
May want to pick up force of personality if your CHA is super high compared to your Wisdom. Insightful Reflex's can be nice as well. Toughness is 18 extra HP at lvl 16...your call on that one. Spell Penetration is a must for later, as is Greater Spell Penetration. You can actually probably skip SF:UMD, tbh.

Worst Case Scenario:
8 CHA = -1
With your bard lvls 19 Ranks @ lvl 16
Golden Cartouche 3 UMD
Greater Heroism (Self Cast) 4
Command Item 2
Eagles Splendor (Self Cast) 2
= 29 UMD @ lvl 16

[Rastamage]

First off, in reply to Aiayn, I'm putting two points every level into UMD and Haggle to keep the ranks maxed. I have lots of skill points as a wizard and never know what to spend them on anyway.

To Wu Jen, I hadn't seriously considered the defensive feats of Toughness, Force of Personality, and Insightful Reflexes. I suppose I should rethink my feat scheme to make room for those. I took Spell Penetration as my 3rd level feat to give me time to think while I level up to 6.

As to the UMD issue, is a 29 good enough? I have a 16 cha naked so I should do better than your worst case scenario. I was also thinking of getting a cha item later to give me a boost to UMD and spell points. If I can safely skip Skill Focus: UMD then that gives me at least one more feat to spend on a defensive boost. Anybody have an opinion on the order of importance for Toughness, Force of Personality, and Insightful Reflexes? My wisdom is 8 and my dexterity is 10. My con is 12.

[winsom]

bonus feats (at level) : Maximize (1st), Extend (5th), Heighten (10th)

Spell Penetration (12th), Greater Spell Penetration (15th)

I picked Enlarge Spell as my bonus feat at 15th. I could have picked Empower if I was interested in dealing more damage, or Quicken if I wanted uninterruptable spells at a high SP cost. I think my wizard does useful damage with Maximize and without Empower, and with +35 on concentration checks, it is rare that she would benefit from Quicken Spell feat. These choices are not "required" as much as the ones I listed above.

It is pretty easy these days to get Dragonshards to re-pick your feats. You might want to get Maximize and Empower and Spell Focus feats early on and then change them later. You also might want to get Mental Toughness and Improved Mental Toughness and then later get rid of one of those if not both of those, if there is a feat you want more.

You may wish to consider Weapon Finesse feat at level 3, since you are a drow and can use rapier and shortsword. Don't neglect how melee combat can be a useful way to kill and save spell points at the same time. Melee combat is very powerful in DDO, if you can hit the high ACs that monsters have. Dealing damage with weapons works very well for quite a few levels. Later on you can get specialized weapons. You can always swap that feat later when you have many more useful spell options. My wizard 16th will still use weapons on occasion. A Divine Power clicky, Haste, and a Vorpal weapon is cheap way to kill things stuck in a Web or Solid Fog. She also has banishing, disrupting, curespewing and paralyzing weapons to use when she wants to conserve her spell points and the battles are not too dangerous as to require her magical spells.

I personally prefer Spell Focus feats more than a feat that gives an extra 80 Spell points. When my wizard has 1400 spell points another 80 SP is not critical. I think having an extra +1 to enchantment or necromancy spell DC is more critical. Nightshayde does have Mental Toughness, but not Improved.