Often players come up with backstories that seem antithetical to the story of the campaign and traveling with a group. Why does my character want to travel with others while going on these adventures? Ask yourself this key question to help integrate your character into the group: Once you have a good idea what the themes of the campaign are and start to build your character around it, consider how you can build a character that fits in well with the group from both a story and mechanics standpoint. Help the DM steer the other players towards building characters that fit well with the story. Ask them how they plan to build their characters around the theme of the campaign as well. Once you have a handle on the theme of the campaign, spread that information around. Suggest they run a session zero if they're not already planning one and don't build your character fully until you're in that session zero. Ask them what skills will be most relevant. If your DM hasn't told you about the adventure or campaign yet, ask them. This leads to ham-fisted attempts to draw the character into the story and into the adventuring group.
They plan out a bunch of levels ahead of time and never consider whether the themes of that character fit well with the themes of the campaign. They get excited about a particular class or a race and class combination and run with it. Many players dive right into character creation without considering the story or the theme of the campaign. Just as DMs can review the characters first while preparing their D&D games, the players can digest the theme of the adventure and campaign before building their characters both in story and in mechanics.
You're not going to find optimal feats for any given build. This is, however, advice for player from the perspective of a dungeon master. Today I'm breaking away and offer some advice for players. Here at Sly Flourish I focus on advice for D&D dungeon masters. New to Sly Flourish? Start Here! Building a Great D&D Character