Feat and build suggestion for epic-ready Wu Jen/JPM

[TauFirewarrior]

Hello, first time poster here.  I'll try to not only check the thread often but update for any info that you guys ask.  I've searched a lot of MinMax and CharOp forums and things for stuff(Not really a minmaxer myself, but I find the loopholes interesting and sometimes hilarious). 

Anyways, to the meat.
I'm playing a female Wu Jen/(likely Crusader)/JPM/Abjurant Champ somewhere in there in a Forgotten Realms pre-fall of Netheril campaign.  That means very high magic setting, lots of magic users running around.  Also, airships, which the party has 3 of now 

I know people will point me to handbooks right off and I've searched through a lot of them.  However, I've seen few JPM or gish handbooks that would apply to the odd Wu Jen/JPM route.  So I'm looking for specific advice on feats and manuever selection.  Spells I'm probably good on but feel free to suggest those too if you have some great ideas.

The party consists of: a 'roguish' type guy that is the Leader(Leadership) and is all sorts of MinMaxery in the interests of making his saves high and Mettle/Evasion so he can take down spellcasters.  Very skill focused.
A dread necromancer who can kinda tank but mostly summons undead and murders things with his touch attacks.  He's the 'medic' of the ship.
Me, a quiet scholarly type who is the navigator.  Early levels I've been disarming people after they use their AoO with my quarterstaff since I wield it two-handed.
We're level 6 as of the last session.

My stats are something like (Don't have my sheet off the top of my head, sorry)
Str 15, Dex 14, Con 12, Wis 12, Int 16, Cha 13  I have one flaw (First time the DM is allowing flaws and I didn't want to go crazy).  Chaotic Good, since I know it affects Devoted Spirit stances.
  IMPORTANT NOTE: This character is NOT minmaxed/optimized.  I'm looking for advice on how to be effective at various levels, not break-the-game-dm-never-plays-with-me broken.
Feats are something like: Mercantile background(regional), Power Attack, Obtain Familiar, Smiting Spell, Vengeful Spirit.  I have not selected a 6th level feat and I don't have my feats planned out which is the major source of my frustration right now.  :/

Right now I have enough money to get a Quarterstaff of Battle since the abilities are kind of cool and make sense for how I'm playing the character so far... HOWEVER, I realize that if we start fighting more monsters that I'm very unlikely to disarm them due to differing BAB and huge Str scores.  So I have a handful of questions for all you helpful people out there:

1) What feats/manuevers from 6-30(we'll say, I don't know the intended epic level cutoff) would you suggest for a good gish build? 
2)  What 'style' do you people think JPM works best with?  Should I go 2-handed and be a charge/murder type?  Reach weapon?(Doesn't look very good considering my manuever choices and gain speed)  TWFing?  Or even just One handed with a free hand to cast.
3) What equipment would you suggest throughout this build?  Some things like Ioun stones aren't allowed because they haven't been invented yet.  Yes, I asked what is disallowed and the DM has not come up with a specific list.

I've never played into epic before so I'm not really sure how well the build will work in Epic.  I also have no clue what levels to take in classes once I hit 21. (So advice on that is appreciated too)

DM is allowing: Stormwrack(for boat stuff), /most/ of FR campaign stuff.  It has to fit the Netherese timeline so Lost Empires, Magic of Faerun, Unapproachable East(since I'm Shao), all the Complete books, DMG1&2, PH1&2, Spell Compendium(I only can pick up 'wu jen' elemental spells, yes I got Combust ), BoED, BoVD... some others.  No third party, he may allow for the WoTC online material like Swiftblade and that kind of stuff.

Thank you all in advance for any advice you have!  I'll try to respond to any questions you have in a timely fashion.

[Kremti]

Well, from the sounds of it, your character is kind of working towards "Lockdown" build, where your character end up disabling opponents using the weapons.   Disarm is somewhat poor choice because, as you said, it starts to work less and less often (Not only strength and size differences, but many monsters don't even carry weapons...). 

There are some staple Crusader-must-have feats, but you might want to look at Crusader Lockdown builds using things like Improved Trip, Knock-Down, and Thicket of Blades, go with the reach weapon (two handed, so you can cast pretty much freely), aim for Giant Size spell (That's a unique Wu Jen spell, isn't it?  And work great with Lockdown using AoO and reach weapons)...might be the direction you might want to consider...

-K

[TauFirewarrior]

Was waiting to see if I got more hits.  Thank you Kremti, though I'm liable to change the 'style' of weapon soon as I said.  The main problem is that from skimming lockdown stuff I believe I don't have access to the manuevers necessarily I'd want for that.  Some, but not the best ones. 

Still hoping for specific feat suggestions (especially ones in regards to Epic progression) and class progression once I hit epic. 

[Kremti]

Was waiting to see if I got more hits.  Thank you Kremti, though I'm liable to change the 'style' of weapon soon as I said.  The main problem is that from skimming lockdown stuff I believe I don't have access to the manuevers necessarily I'd want for that.  Some, but not the best ones. 

Still hoping for specific feat suggestions (especially ones in regards to Epic progression) and class progression once I hit epic.

?  I am not sure what you mean by "The main problem is that from skimming lockdown stuff I believe I don't have access to the manuevers necessarily I'd want for that.  Some, but not the best ones."  The only and most important maneuver you want for a basic lockdown, I believe, is Thicket of Blades.  In fact, most hard-lockdown builds only dips into Crusader 2, just to pick up that stance.  Nothing else really is necesary, I don't think.

Can't help ye too much with Epic progression, since I have no experience whatsoever with it 

-K

[TauFirewarrior]

It would take a bit of searching Krem, but I thought I saw other manuevers suggested.  So you think 'lockdown' is probably the best strategy?  I know that going crit-based since the Desert Wind school includes a falchion was suggested.  I've never played a Tome of Battle character so I really don't know what to expect.

[Kremti]

Well, I was thinking lockdown was more of "What you enjoy" type deal, since you said you were using disarm, and thinking natural extension would be loose lockdown builds.  Not something you go after hard, but more like sprinkles onto your Gish-chasis.

Check out this one, and discussion surrounding the Psiwar version of it:
http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=12764.0

I think you cherry pick the stuff from there and discard the ones you don't need/want, like Mage Slayer tree.  But pick up Improved Trip+Combat Reflex->Knock-Down tree, and maybe Robilar's Gambit.  And any problem you encounter, just power it through with your casting as Wu Jen *laugh*.  You said it doesn't have to be super-optimzed 

-K