Picking traits [Pathfinder]

[Luckanan]

Between splats and third-party material, there's a lot of traits on the srd over there. Anyone done a breakdown of the best/most useful traits?

[Ed-Zero]

Anatomist - +1 to confirm crits
Reactionary - +2 to initiative
History of Heresy - +1 to all saves vs divine spells if you dont take a divine class
Diabolical Dabbler - +1 HP to all your fiendish summoned creatures
Gifted Adept - +1 to caster level of 1 spell
Magical Lineage - -1 to 1 metamagic level of 1 spell
Adopted - Pick a race trait from your adopted parents race. Just make sure to pick a ridiculous race like yeti, everyone knows yeti's just take care of the kids they find in the snow and raise them as their own
Westcrown Firebrand - +1 to initiative and +1 to attack in suprise rounds
Sword Scion - +1 to attacks with a longsword or Aldori dueling sword
Heirloom Weapon - +1 to attacks with a certain weapon you have proficiency for
Child of Zolurket - +1 damage vs undead
Ekujae Reflexes - +2 to initiative
Failed Apprentice - +1 to saves vs arcane spells
Infernal Influence - +1 fire resistance and +1 to save vs poison
Ruthless - +1 to confirm crits
Warrior of Old - +2 to initiative
Zest for Battle - +1 to damage rolls when you have a morale bonus
Alchemical Prodigy - Choose one 1st-level spell from the bard, cleric, druid, or sorcerer/wizard spell list. If you have the Brew Potion feat, you may create potions of this spell as if it were on your spell list.
- +2 weapon damage against demons, evil fey, and plants and animals corrupted by evil.
Genie-Caller - Once per day, you may cast one conjuration (summoning) spell as if your caster level were 2 higher than normal.
River Rat - +1 damage with a dagger
Watching Taldor (the Empire) - +1 to initiative and gain the effects of a quickdraw feat in a surprise round
Blooded (Mindspin Mountains) - +1 weapon damage rolls against giants, goblins, and orcs.
Divine Warrior - Your divine spells gain a +1 trait bonus to melee weapon damage.
Sacred Avenger - When a creature damages you with a weapon, on your next turn you gain a +1 trait bonus on weapon damage against that creature. If this creature is your ilduliel (see page 8), this bonus increases to +2.
Noble Born (Orlovsky) Noble Born (Surtova) - You deal +2 damage when attacking a flat-footed opponent while wielding a light or one-handed weapon.

[Nanshork]

Ed, I disagree with your analysis of the Adopted trait.  Some traits have race requirements, and Adopted lets you pick a trait that has the requirement of your adoptive race.

[Agita]

Heirloom Weapon is pretty much universally useful, giving you free proficiency in a weapon of your choice and a +1 bonus to hit with that weapon. It has to be one specific weapon, but who cares?
Accelerated Drinker is pretty cool if you get potions among the loot, and downright awesome if you have an Alchemist in the party.

[X-Codes]

Accelerated Drinker is the only reason Potions might even be worthwhile.  Even in PF they're just way too expensive to be practical.

[veekie]

Accelerated Drinker + Party Alchemist means you see everyone hitting the booze the instant theres anything threatening.
Alchemical Prodigy is a bit of a waste though, since theres a feat to allow you to use Craft skills to create magic items in place of CL and once you have THAT, you can put in any spells you like.

[Agita]

Accelerated Drinker is the only reason Potions might even be worthwhile.  Even in PF they're just way too expensive to be practical.

Yeah, I still wouldn't recommend going out of your way and buying them, but if you happen to get a lot of potions in your loot, it's a good way to make them worth using.
And if you have an Alchemist, their extracts count as potions, so suddenly you have move-action buffs for the whole party.

[Luckanan]

Magical Lineage is awesome (quicken spells one level earlier).

Any Traits out there for natural weapons?

[vthings]

Heirloom Weapon is pretty much universally useful, giving you free proficiency in a weapon of your choice and a +1 bonus to hit with that weapon. It has to be one specific weapon, but who cares?
Accelerated Drinker is pretty cool if you get potions among the loot, and downright awesome if you have an Alchemist in the party.

Its also a great way to get around the exotic weapon feat or to use a weapon outside of a class restriction.  I would warn against it if your GM is kind of a jerk though as you'll lose the weapon faster than he can make your paladin fall.  Some traits let some skills become class skills, which can be very useful.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Anyone have a handy list compiled of all the traits that give you a class skill.  I just remember the most important one, Dangerously Curious (Use Magic Device ).

Some of the ones I think are cool that haven't been mentioned yet:

Blade of Mercy: Do nonlethal with any slashing melee weapon without penalty, and get a +1 damage bonus when doing so.  Works wonders with the Enforcer feat, IMO.

Magic is Life: As long as you're under the effect of a spell (pretty much always after a few levels); get +2 saves vs. death effects and auto-stabilize when put into the negatives.

Defensive Strategist: You're never flatfooted.  Yes, a trait's basically giving you Uncanny Dodge.

Wisdom in the Flesh: Get any one str, dex, or con (are there any?) skill as a class skill AND make it wisdom-based.

Glory of Old: Dwarf-only; +1 saves vs. spells, SLAs, and poison

EDIT: Blade of Mercy doesn't need to be a melee weapon.

[Fadier]

I really like Lessons of Chaldira. Dunno who Chaldira is but I can see this trait saving you more than almost any other trait, heck more than most class features/feats/spells.

[X-Codes]

Anyone have a handy list compiled of all the traits that give you a class skill.  I just remember the most important one, Dangerously Curious (Use Magic Device ).

If a skill exists, there is a trait that gives you a +1 bonus to that skill and makes it a class skill for you.  If I wanted a trait like that, I'd just as soon blow off all the published ones and just explain in my background why it would be reasonable that I have X skill as a class skill.