Making a conjurer, need help

[qwertyu63]

The title says it all. Here's what I have so far:

Name: Mathew Hesser
Alignment: N? (Left vague, as this character will see use as good and evil.)
Class: Wizard 7 (conjurer)
Race: Human
Ability Scores (Point buy 26+1 point from leveling): Str:8 Dex:8 Con:14 Int:19 Wis:8 Cha:12
HP: 33
AC: 9 (10-1(Dex))
Saves: Saves: Fort: +2, Ref:+1, Will: +6
Skills (60 points): ???
Feats (4+1 wizard bonus): Spell Focus (Conjuration), Extend Spell, ???, ???, ???.
Equipment (saving this for last, 19000 to spend): ???
Barred Schools: Necromacy, Evocation, Enchantment (Focused Specialist)
Spells/day: 4/4+3/3+3/2+3/1+3
Spellbook (Incomplete, haven't gone book diving yet): All Non-barred cantrips, Summon Monster I-IV, Grease, Mage Armor, Unseen Servant, Feather Fall, Disguise Self, Silent Image, Shield, Acid Arrow, Glitterdust, Invisiblity, Minor Image, Sepia Snake Sigil, Sleet Storm, Major Image, Displacment, Alter Self, Dispel Magic, Explosive Runes, Dimension Door, Minor Creation, Secure Shelter, Hallucinatory Terrain, Illusory Wall, Stoneskin.

Any advice?

[Spuddles]

Get web and black tentacles. I would skip all those summon monsters, they're pretty useless IMO. They don't get good until level 11.

With 25pb, you may want to drop to 15 or 16 int and buy yourself some constitution. You are one AoE from death. I would consider picking up
Improved Invisibility.

What do you plan on putting in all those conjuration slots? What's your party's composition? Why do you want to conjure? Most of your spells look like illusions.

Check out complete mage for heart of ... Spells. Those should help keep you alive. Benign transposition is a real useful level 1 conjuration spell. Summon Elementite Swarm, from planar handbook, is a pretty solid spell. Fire elementites have good DPS, water elementites force drowning checks. Drowning checks are raw con checks, not fort saves, and the dc increases each round. Summon Elementite Swarm requires concentration, though.

One thing that can dramatically increase your survivability- abrupt jaunt. Trade in that liability we call a familiar, get a bunch of immediate action short range teleports. In PHB2 I believe.

[Pilo]

You can go to Master Specialist PrC at level 4. it is a nice prestige class.

I would pick this array for your stats instead of yours : Str:8, Dex:8, Con:14, Int:18+1, Wis:8, Cha:12.
I think 8 str is enough, if not, cast mount or unseen servant to transport your things.
You need more hit points.
Diguise self(Lvl 1) is useless, use alter self(lvl 2) instead, at least you will get natural armor.
Replace Summon monster I by Summon Frozen monster (or something like it from Frostburn, invoked creature can make 1d6 cold damages in a small zone at the start of its turn).

Rashemi Elemental Summoning (Unapproachable East) is a good feat as it give you many cone of cold from one summon monster spell.
Summon-elemental (Complete mage) may be a good feat for later.

Note: if what you want is to summon minions, druids are better with the Greenbound summoning feat.

[qwertyu63]

Spuddles:

Get web and black tentacles. I would skip all those summon monsters, they're pretty useless IMO. They don't get good until level 11.

Summon Monster (number) is the point of the character. He's meant to be a mook master, summoning monsters to fight his enemies while hiding under the veil of Invisibility.


With 25pb, you may want to drop to 15 or 16 int and buy yourself some constitution. You are one AoE from death. I would consider picking up Improved Invisibility.

Perhaps...


What do you plan on putting in all those conjuration slots? What's your party's composition? Why do you want to conjure? Most of your spells look like illusions.

The spell list is, as I said, incomplete. I am currently not with my books. As to the party, I have no idea... They haven't told me yet, but as one in my group with the most knowledge of D&D, I'll likely have to help them soon enough.


Check out complete mage for heart of ... Spells. Those should help keep you alive. Benign transposition is a real useful level 1 conjuration spell. Summon Elementite Swarm, from planar handbook, is a pretty solid spell. Fire elementites have good DPS, water elementites force drowning checks. Drowning checks are raw con checks, not fort saves, and the dc increases each round. Summon Elementite Swarm requires concentration, though.

Ooh... those sound useful.


One thing that can dramatically increase your survivability- abrupt jaunt. Trade in that liability we call a familiar, get a bunch of immediate action short range teleports. In PHB2 I believe.

Ah, yes... This is... perfect. I'll look that up once I can.


Pilo:

You can go to Master Specialist PrC at level 4. it is a nice prestige class.

That sounds familiar... What book was that?


I would pick this array for your stats instead of yours : Str:8, Dex:8, Con:14, Int:18+1, Wis:8, Cha:12.
I think 8 str is enough, if not, cast mount or unseen servant to transport your things.

True... I don't need str.


You need more hit points.
Diguise self(Lvl 1) is useless, use alter self(lvl 2) instead, at least you will get natural armor.
Replace Summon monster I by Summon Frozen monster (or something like it from Frostburn, invoked creature can make 1d6 cold damages in a small zone at the start of its turn).

Alter self will be added. I will look at Summon Frozen when I can.


Rashemi Elemental Summoning (Unapproachable East) is a good feat as it give you many cone of cold from one summon monster spell.
Summon-elemental (Complete mage) may be a good feat for later.

I don't think I have UE, but I'll look into it. Summon elemental will be looked at too.


Note: if what you want is to summon minions, druids are better with the Greenbound summoning feat.

I have fluff reasons for wanting a wizard.

[Spuddles]

Ah, a summoner. Rashemi elemental summoning and storm elementals (monster manual 3) pair so well. First round they show up, free action shock damage and a full action sonic & electricity attack. Then the next 3 rounds, cones of cold at HD = CL.

You may also want to trade in your familiar and scribe scroll for augment summoning and the ability to summon monster as a standard action. These can be found in unearthed arcana/srd.

[eggs]

As a general rule, I try to have area save-or-suck targeting every save. All I'm seeing in this is Will. I'm not seeing anything hitting Fortitude, and Grease is usually effectively single-target - I'd look at Wall of Smoke and Web.

Also, since I don't see it on the list, Benign Transposition is one of the best level 1 spells there is.

I'd seriously stick some PrCs in there. It's hard for any wizard build not to get more out of Master Specialist, Archmage or Paragnostic Apostle than they invest - even with just a dip. And if making longer investments, things like Thaumaturgist (through Arcane Disciple - Summoner) and Mage of the Arcane Order are solid improvements, if not overwhelming. And if you're willing to lose CL, Malconvoker can be worth it if you want to place heavy investment on evil summons/planar binds, and Wild Soul can at least be interesting for a Conjurer (but it doesn't do the awesome job covering its lost CL).

And just linking these because the question is vague and very likely answered in greater depth in an existing handbook:
Conjurer's Handbook (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19863086/The_Conjurers_Handbook), Summoner's Guide (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11186), Treantmonk's Wizard Handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394) (Conjuration breakdown (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.msg8086#msg8086)), The Logic Ninja's Wizard Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2716), Dictum Mortuum's Wizard Handbook (http://dictummortuum.blogspot.com/2011/09/wizards-handbook-part-one-attributes.html) (older, more complete, version here (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Wizards%27_Handbook_by_Dictum_Mortuum_%283.5e_Opti mized_Character_Build%29)), and to shamelessly self-promote, the Summoner link in my sig goes through all the summon monster options (core and noncore) to highlight which are worth using or tracking down.

EDIT:
I'm not sure what makes low-level summons anything less than awesome. Spider webs can either sap a lot of the enemies' actions, or act as nasty mass-debuffs. Some of the SLA-packing low-level summons like Kaorti, Bacche and Musteval are just good action economy, and the spells have strong utility at just about any level (get scouts with abilities like burrow, tremorsense and earthglide to check out rooms before entering.