T.G. Oskar
2015-11-05, 03:21 AM
Because...why not?
Inspired by Tempest Stormwind and his gaming group (creators of such wonders as the A-Game Paladin, Captain Charisma, and many others; seriously, you guys rock!), I decided to throw my skills into the gauntlet, and refine a build that I worked a few months ago. This build is inspired by yet another character from a famous story, and I hope it's for your entertainment.
As T_S would say, "as usual for the showcase, these builds are intended to spur discussion and perhaps inspire a few people in the spirit of the old CO boards." Ideally, this should also work to inspire others across forums to try their hand at their own builds. The main difference, besides the forum, is that this build was designed on my own, though there might be a chance that I could work with the builds of others.
Now, for a more direct quote:
Unless otherwise noted, showcase builds use 28 point-buy, and have their snapshots evaluated using fractional base attack / saves (because it simplifies the math). None of them actually rely on fractional to be built, though. The format I use showcases their progression at key levels rather than just presenting the build and showing off a few tricks at level 20; most of these are capable of being played 1-20 if you so choose.
I'll try to adhere to those guidelines...or maybe not, because this build is good enough to care little for fractional saves and 28-point buy; as a challenge, the build was done with the elite array. Yes: elite array. You heard that right.
With that out of the way, let's get started. I hope this inspires others.
THE ALLCONVOKER
Gotta summon 'em all!
Required Books: Complete Champion (for the Paragnostic Apostle prestige class), Complete Mage (for the Cloudy Conjuration and Summon Elemental feat), Complete Scoundrel (for the Malconvoker prestige class), Frostburn (for the Beckon the Frozen feat), Heroes of Horror (for the Archivist base class), Lost Empires of Faerun (for the Greenbound Summoning feat and related template), Races of the Wild (for the Magic of the Land feat), Unapproachable East (for the Rashemi Elemental Summoning feat and related templates). The Fiendish Codices I & II, the Spell Compendium and the Book of Exalted Deeds are recommended for creatures to be summoned.
Unearthed Arcana used: None!
Background: A few months ago, I was entranced by Sepulchrave's Tales of Wyre (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?58227-Tales-of-Wyre), a sort of campaign log that became an epic story about high-level characters going to Epic levels and facing incredible challenges. While I would have been inspired by the Ahma, sir Eadric, the character that really interested me the most was Mostin the Metagnostic, a high-level Wizard-turned-Alienist that managed to summon pseudonatural creatures of great power. Reading the story-hour caused the roleplayer side of me to wonder free: "what if you were a player in that world? How would you delve into that world of epic dangers?" Thus, the idea began flowing into mind; a clever scoundrel that fooled Wizards into believing that he was one of them, but instead he stole the secrets of divine magic from the Church, and whose goal was to command the legions of the Adversary against him. Obviously, that led to the first parts of the build, its basis, and then the idea clicked; why not have a character that can pretty much summon everything?
Of course, the optimizer side of me smelled that, and went all "challenge accepted!" Thus, I started a first draft of it, a complete schematic of the build that used Archivist, Malconvoker, Fiendbinder and an early-entry into Paragnostic Apostle to create a summoner build whose main schtick was to summon just about anything. However, while the Fiendbinder entry was full of soft and nice fluff, it lacked the crunch necessary.
Fast forward to yesterday, and the Muse (who would work as the Muse of Gaming, anyway? We need a name for her!) struck me. Amongst what the Muse inspired me with, she decided that it'd be nice to revise the build and consider one class that would work better than the Fiendbinder, as cool as it worked; the Thaumaturgist. Arguably the original "summoner" prestige class, its short length made it fit perfectly with the Malconvoker's 9 levels and allowed for enough Archivist and Paragnostic Apostle to work out a much nicer build. Between yesterday and today, I refined the build well enough to present a working proposal.
End result: a build that should make the author of the Summoning Handbook, the Malconvoker Handbook and other summoning-related handbooks proud that they took hours of their time working on it. This build takes all the tricks of a summoner and sets them on a chassis that allows it to summon pretty much anything that can be summoned. Outsiders? Sure. Elementals? Sure. Animals? Sure, and they can work as plants! Swarms? You got it. Undead? Well, why the heck not? Therefore, it can summon and call just about anything, so why not be pretentious and call it the "Allconvoker", in a clever reference to the Malconvoker? And, here we are.
The Basics
Race: Human, because we want the free skill points and feat (plus free choice of bonus languages, which is crucial). Strongheart Halfling and Illumian are also solid choices, as well as any class with a bonus to Intelligence.
Ability Scores: 8/12/14/15/10/13. As I mentioned, this is going by elite array. With 28-pt. buy, you should go Int>Cha>Con>Dex>Wis>Str, in that order.
Alignment: Neutral Good. This is non-negotiable, if you really want to be an "Allconvoker".
Skill Notes: You want the following skills at some point of your build: Bluff (to enter Malconvoker), Concentration and Spellcraft (for Magic of the Land, and if you want to, for Epic Spellcasting in the distant future, IF you get Epic levels), Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (the Planes). You want to spend points on other Knowledges, as well. Diplomacy may seem an odd choice, but it's invaluable to save money when casting Planar Ally.
Basic Equipment: You're no warrior, but you're not so squishy either. Wear your best medium armor (breastplate!) and a heavy crossbow and call it a day. Maybe a morningstar if someone gets picky. You'll need a spell component pouch and a holy symbol, to cast your spells of course.
Magical Gear Goals: Besides your Int-booster, you want things that enhance your summoning ability, your spellcasting ability, and your Knowledge skills, often in that order. Anything that grants bonuses to Charisma skill checks is well appreciated. A Ring of the Beast, a Ring of Mighty Summons, a Summoner's Totem and a Metamagic Rod of Extend Spell are well-appreciated. Also a Strand of Prayer Beads and some Pearls of Power.
The Build
Build Stub: Archivist 5/Paragnostic Apostle 2/Thaumaturgist 5/Malconvoker 8
Spell Focus (Conjuration) is to qualify for both Thaumaturgist and Malconvoker. Skill Focus (Bluff) aids on your social skills, but is used for a nifty trick later on; if you're not a human, you can drop SF (Bluff) if you want. If you're a human, place your free skill points on a missing Knowledge skill. Dark Knowledge by now offers a decent boost to attack rolls, which is a nice boon later on as you get more ranks and bonuses in the different Knowledge skills.
You're gonna place Lore Mastery on either Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (the Planes) or Knowledge (religion), so that you get a nifty boost on Dark Knowledge. The bonus on Decipher Script is lost, though.
As levels go, you get your 2nd level spells, meaning Summon Monster II. By now, you probably have also gotten scrolls of Summon Swarm and Summon Nature's Ally II, so you can prepare a few of these spells to suit your needs. Magic of the Land appears a bit too early, but by 2 levels, you'll notice why it's actually real good.
4 - Archivist 4 (Still Mind)
Here you get a very interesting turn of events. By getting 3rd level spells, you start to get your first mass buffs; Mass Shield of Faith, Mass Conviction, and the most important, Haste (from a domain-related scroll or Divine Bard). Now, consider that if you can reliably reach a skill check result of 18 or higher, you can restore 6 HP to all allies getting the benefit from your buffing spells. You can heal and buff at the same time, which is very nice! Do remember that it only works on "natural terrain", so it won't always work, but it's great when it does. 3rd level spells also means SM III and SNA III, but you'll start to notice enemies getting a tad stronger by now.
By now, you have qualified for all necessary requirements for Paragnostic Apostle AND Malconvoker, but we're going for this one first. Call of Worlds grants fast healing to any creature you summon, which increases its duration. Holy Texts is worthless for you, though, and Lore mingles well with the Archivist's focus on knowledge...but that's somewhat irrelevant for you. Greenbound Summoning offers a very solid set of summons from now on, although the fast healing from the template is currently superior to the one from Call of Worlds; it works when you summon other creatures, though.
Here you have two choices. Divine Understanding is easy to get, and mostly grants a +1 to all spells from one domain, but doesn't necessarily requires you to have access to the domain. With its easy requirement of 5 ranks in Know (religion), you can get a +1 to most of your summoning spells by choosing the Summoner Domain, including the bulk of your Summon Monster spells. This will work wonders later on. If you have the ranks in Know (arcana), Penetrating Insight works to bypass spell resistance and boost your dispel checks, which is also very nice. Both are good, so take your pick. The reason you extend your stay for 1 more level is to gain access to Thaumaturgist anyways. Also: 4th level spells, and access to Lesser Planar Ally.
Remember when I mentioned about getting ranks in Diplomacy? This is the reason why.
I feel sad that Augment Summoning cannot be replaced by another feat if you already have it, because otherwise it'd have been a 1st level feat, full stop. Your bread and butter is summoning spells, so anything that boosts it should have been gained first. Anyways, now all your summons (including your Greenbound Summons) gain a +4 enh. bonus to Strength and Constitution, so they're stronger and hardier. Summon Elemental becomes your go-to spell for mundane problems. Need to disarm traps? Summon an Earth Elemental. Need a scout? Air Elemental. Need to build a campfire to rest? Fire Elemental. The possibilities are endless, and at most, you can have them as cannon fodder to have your stronger summons survive for longer. 9th level spells, meaning this is the end of your uses of Summon Undead...which you can't technically use because you're Good-aligned, but what the hey.
Another mighty boost. This version of Extend Spell stacks with Extend Spell, which works wonders, and is applied for free to all summoning spells...possibly including Summon Elemental. With the bonus from the reserve feat and Divine Understanding, you're looking at around 2 minutes and 4 rounds worth of a summoned creature.
Ah, now THIS is an awesome ability. It merits delaying the Malconvoker for SOOO long... With this, you can set up a trigger to summon...or CALL a creature to assist you. Let's say you cleverly set up the trigger for "when I'm halfway through my hit points", and then you summon an Unicorn. Now, you have a pretty meaty creature with free healing spells, while you set up a buff to heal everyone (including yourself) and buffing if you end up in natural terrain. Or, if you die, you can use Planar Ally to conjure a potent outsider in hopes of reviving you. 6th level spells, meaning you get the Mass (Animal) (Ability Score) buffs, as well as Planar Ally.
We take a detour from the final level of Thaumaturgist to get to the core concept of the Allconvoker - summoning very powerful evil creatures. Or rather, beefy evil outsider meatshields. By using your high Bluff check, you can convince most evil outsiders to stay for a bit more...which stacks with the Thaumaturgist's Extended Summoning. Between your CL, Summon Elemental's bonus to CL, Extended Summoning and Deceptive Summons, you have nearly 4 minutes worth of evil outsider meatshields. Add Divine Understanding, and some of them actually exceed the 4 minutes!. Cloudy Conjuration allows you to provide a mild debuff, coupled with a miss chance, when you cast ANY Conjuration spell (including Calling and Summoning spells), which means you add a solid rider effect to your key spells. Note that with Contingent Conjuration, you make your reactive summoning a potential debuff/buff as well (the Unicorn provides a Fog Cloud effect for 1 round, providing valuable concealment while it heals you). Finally, check with your DM if Collector of Stories applies to Dark Knowledge, since that's a very easy way to provide your allies (and your summons) with bonuses to attack rolls or saving throws against the most dangerous opponents you face. You lose your only spell level now, though; not that you mind, though.
Planar Binding cannot be gained by an Archivist...but hey, now you do! And they're added to your prayerbook for free, as well! Planar Binding should be used to summon powerful outsiders of any kind, while Planar Ally should be kept for good outsiders, since they get to benefit from Improved Ally anyways. Social Recovery is there to support you when your Diplomacy check for Planar Ally fails, though note that chances are the result of the Bluff check is even worse are pretty high. You lose nothing with rerolling using your Bluff skill bonuses, tho.
Remember why we chose Skill Focus (Bluff) all the way at level 1? Unlike Augment Summoning, by this level, you essentially get a free feat of your choice. You can get most of your feats ahead, or get Extend Spell or Imbued Summoning if you want to. If you're not human, a strongheart halfling, or lack flaws, you get SF (Bluff) here now, which is a pretty decent boost to a skill you'll use a lot. Swift Concentration is there to provide a chance of casting a spell or moving while keeping concentration on a spell, such as some of the Spell Compendium's new summoning spells. 7th level spells are gained now, as well.
By now, Greenbound Summons have lost a lot of their benefit, while Evil Outsiders suddenly become considerably more powerful. With Fury, you can increase the damage and resilience of these guys. Now, your evil outsiders have a +2 to hit, a +4 to damage with weapons and natural attacks, about 3 hp per HD, fast healing, and the save DC of some of their special attacks also increases by 2. With Dark Knowledge, that's +4 to hit and damage, which isn't that bad. Not bad at all. But, in case it's NOT enough, Beckon the Frozen adds 1d6 cold damage to all attacks, and the cold subtype, meaning immunity to cold. Vulnerability to fire sucks, but that's why you invested on Energy Immunity, no?
You know ALL of the benefits you can provide to one creature just by summoning them? How about two? Two sickening fog clouds, plus two very beefy creatures. Couple that with 8th level spells, and now your summons are a force to be reckoned. Oh yeah, and you get both Greater Planar Ally and Greater Planar Binding by this level. So you can summon the real powerhouses now.
With Improved Ally, you get a boost to Planar Ally spells. With Deceitful Bargaining, you get a boost to Planar Binding spells. No matter what you call, you are the best at doing so.
Now, your evil outsider meatshields have better Will saves and are harder to dispel. That's not the big deal. The big deal is that you FINALLY get 9th level spells - that means Gate (which you can cast at +1 CL if you chose Divine Understanding!), Summon Monster IX and Summon Nature's Ally IX, the most powerful calling and summoning spells at your disposal. Finally, Rashemi Elemental Summoning allows you to replace some of your early elemental creatures with two very powerful elementals - note that Summon Elemental works like Summon Monster, so it's a clever way to summon those creatures with your reserve feats, so you're ALSO improving your bread-and-butter summons. Check with your DM if it allows it...which might imply that you have to be a female. And Rashemi, as well. Well worth it, IMO.
The limit for Planar Ally and Planar Binding spells is 6 HD for Lesser, 12 HD for the normal version, and 18 HD for Greater. Now, the limits are 8, 14 and 20. You can summon more powerful creatures and save uses of Gate that way. However, the reason why this is more important is because of what comes on the next level. Your summons are already insanely strong; the build was complete by the time you got Beckon the Frozen 4 levels ago, so all you're doing is padding now.
You're already THE Allconvoker...so what does the Allconvoker need? How about having its own cohort! The limitations are somewhat ridiculous, but you can end up with a very nice creature following you permanently. My recommendation? Ursinal Guardinal (BoED), as it is beefy as a bear but casts Wizard spells, so you're hanging with the equivalent of a 12th level Wizard. Now, later on, by the time you get to Epic levels, there's the slight chance you can end up with a 20 HD creature, because of the newly increased limit of Greater Planar Ally...but for now, Ursinal Guardinal is your best bet.
Snapshot: While you're not a physical attacker, at level 20, and with the characteristic +6 stat-boosters and munching on +5 tomes of Intelligence and Charisma, you end up with stats of 8/12/14/30/10/25. You end up with around 88 HP (or higher, if you get a Con booster), an attack bonus of +8/+10, and saving throws of +9/+6/+17 without save boosters (or +14/+11/+22 with them). You end up with a caster level of 19th, with enough spell slots that you'll never have to worry about running out, a solid save DC for most of your spells (and Cloudy Conjuration), and your summoning spells last for around 4 minutes, with evil outsiders lasting almost for 7 minutes.
Your summons are as varied and flexible as you need them. Your main summoned minions are your reserve-summoned Elementals, which have a respectable +4 to Strength and Constitution and fast healing 5, and are Large-sized. Next are your Greenbound Summons, which have the resilience of plants, are tough to kill, get the Cold subtype alongside the fast healing and +4 to Strength and Constitution, and happen to also get SLAs just in case. Then, you get to your hard-hitters: evil outsider meatshields, which if correctly Bluffed have 3 times their HD worth of extra HP, fast healing 5, a +4 to Strength and Constitution, a +2 to damage rolls and Will saves, and are more numerous thanks to Fiendish Legion. If you need even MORE oomph, then it's time to use Planar Ally or Planar Binding; you can make Planar Allies cost cheaper and Planar-bound creatures more easy to dupe. You'll rarely be without creatures to summon.
However, what will YOU do? Well, you're a full spellcaster, with access to the Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Divine Bard, Shugenja, Sohei, Runescarred Berserker, Hunter of the Dead, Knight of the Chalice...in short, EVERY Divine spell list in existence, including Domains. Your focus will be to have many AoE buffs, alongside one or two Words of Recall, and maybe a Divine Power/Righteous Might combo in case you need to go up close and personal on the enemy.
By 20th level, you also get a cohort. That cohort, which most likely will be an Ursinal Guardinal, is a Large, biped, 75 hp, intelligent bear that counts as a 12th level Wizard, so that means up to 6th level arcane spells. Because it's your cohort now, you have full control over its spellcasting; therefore, you're also a very effective Mystic Theurge now, with full access to divine spells and more than half access to arcane ones. It can be a pretty effective tank as well, in case someone gets funky with him (or her). You can also inspire your cohort, as it gains levels, to be another summoner, so you can fill the battlefield with summons.
Overall Strengths: Ever heard of BMX Bandit and Angel Summoner? You make Angel Summoner cry in a corner. Angel Summoner might say "or, I can summon an angel to solve the problem!", and you retort "I could chain-gate a Solar, but I'll summon my trusty Thrumil to do the same with even less effort." Your power lies on the insane flexibility of summoning, and that you can pull off a good lot of them for just about everything, without necessarily having to exhaust your magical supply. Your summons can be good healers, solid meatshields and decent blasters, and with the remaining set of spell slots, you can buff your summons to be even stronger. You're also a full caster with access to 9th level spells from the largest list possible: again, you have access to Cleric, Druid AND Shugenja, and you can expand your spell list even further.
Overall Weaknesses: Your strength is also your weakness. Anything that can overcome your summons will overcome you, no need to question it. While you can eventually end up summoning insanely powerful creatures and chain-gating Solars, anything designed to banish summons will effectively lock you out of combat. And, without your summons to protect you, you're a squishy caster; granted, not as squishy as a Wizard, but you're pretty squishy nonetheless owing to having most of your career saddled with a d4 HD and poor Fortitude saves.
Variants: The easiest thing to change is the race. If you're not Human, you'll be out of some skill points, which ends up with one less skill overall. Without Human or Strongheart Halfling, you're also out a feat, meaning you can't do the feat delay trick later on. However, as with many other caster builds, Illumian can make for an interesting Strength- or Dexterity-based caster build. Just choose the Krau sigil and go to town.
There you have it. With access to pretty much every summoning (and calling) spell, the Allconvoker has the right tool for the toughest task. Here's hoping that the build is fun, effective, and most importantly, worthy of being part of the true Optimization Showcase.
Inspired by Tempest Stormwind and his gaming group (creators of such wonders as the A-Game Paladin, Captain Charisma, and many others; seriously, you guys rock!), I decided to throw my skills into the gauntlet, and refine a build that I worked a few months ago. This build is inspired by yet another character from a famous story, and I hope it's for your entertainment.
As T_S would say, "as usual for the showcase, these builds are intended to spur discussion and perhaps inspire a few people in the spirit of the old CO boards." Ideally, this should also work to inspire others across forums to try their hand at their own builds. The main difference, besides the forum, is that this build was designed on my own, though there might be a chance that I could work with the builds of others.
Now, for a more direct quote:
Unless otherwise noted, showcase builds use 28 point-buy, and have their snapshots evaluated using fractional base attack / saves (because it simplifies the math). None of them actually rely on fractional to be built, though. The format I use showcases their progression at key levels rather than just presenting the build and showing off a few tricks at level 20; most of these are capable of being played 1-20 if you so choose.
I'll try to adhere to those guidelines...or maybe not, because this build is good enough to care little for fractional saves and 28-point buy; as a challenge, the build was done with the elite array. Yes: elite array. You heard that right.
With that out of the way, let's get started. I hope this inspires others.
THE ALLCONVOKER
Gotta summon 'em all!
Required Books: Complete Champion (for the Paragnostic Apostle prestige class), Complete Mage (for the Cloudy Conjuration and Summon Elemental feat), Complete Scoundrel (for the Malconvoker prestige class), Frostburn (for the Beckon the Frozen feat), Heroes of Horror (for the Archivist base class), Lost Empires of Faerun (for the Greenbound Summoning feat and related template), Races of the Wild (for the Magic of the Land feat), Unapproachable East (for the Rashemi Elemental Summoning feat and related templates). The Fiendish Codices I & II, the Spell Compendium and the Book of Exalted Deeds are recommended for creatures to be summoned.
Unearthed Arcana used: None!
Background: A few months ago, I was entranced by Sepulchrave's Tales of Wyre (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?58227-Tales-of-Wyre), a sort of campaign log that became an epic story about high-level characters going to Epic levels and facing incredible challenges. While I would have been inspired by the Ahma, sir Eadric, the character that really interested me the most was Mostin the Metagnostic, a high-level Wizard-turned-Alienist that managed to summon pseudonatural creatures of great power. Reading the story-hour caused the roleplayer side of me to wonder free: "what if you were a player in that world? How would you delve into that world of epic dangers?" Thus, the idea began flowing into mind; a clever scoundrel that fooled Wizards into believing that he was one of them, but instead he stole the secrets of divine magic from the Church, and whose goal was to command the legions of the Adversary against him. Obviously, that led to the first parts of the build, its basis, and then the idea clicked; why not have a character that can pretty much summon everything?
Of course, the optimizer side of me smelled that, and went all "challenge accepted!" Thus, I started a first draft of it, a complete schematic of the build that used Archivist, Malconvoker, Fiendbinder and an early-entry into Paragnostic Apostle to create a summoner build whose main schtick was to summon just about anything. However, while the Fiendbinder entry was full of soft and nice fluff, it lacked the crunch necessary.
Fast forward to yesterday, and the Muse (who would work as the Muse of Gaming, anyway? We need a name for her!) struck me. Amongst what the Muse inspired me with, she decided that it'd be nice to revise the build and consider one class that would work better than the Fiendbinder, as cool as it worked; the Thaumaturgist. Arguably the original "summoner" prestige class, its short length made it fit perfectly with the Malconvoker's 9 levels and allowed for enough Archivist and Paragnostic Apostle to work out a much nicer build. Between yesterday and today, I refined the build well enough to present a working proposal.
End result: a build that should make the author of the Summoning Handbook, the Malconvoker Handbook and other summoning-related handbooks proud that they took hours of their time working on it. This build takes all the tricks of a summoner and sets them on a chassis that allows it to summon pretty much anything that can be summoned. Outsiders? Sure. Elementals? Sure. Animals? Sure, and they can work as plants! Swarms? You got it. Undead? Well, why the heck not? Therefore, it can summon and call just about anything, so why not be pretentious and call it the "Allconvoker", in a clever reference to the Malconvoker? And, here we are.
The Basics
Race: Human, because we want the free skill points and feat (plus free choice of bonus languages, which is crucial). Strongheart Halfling and Illumian are also solid choices, as well as any class with a bonus to Intelligence.
Ability Scores: 8/12/14/15/10/13. As I mentioned, this is going by elite array. With 28-pt. buy, you should go Int>Cha>Con>Dex>Wis>Str, in that order.
Alignment: Neutral Good. This is non-negotiable, if you really want to be an "Allconvoker".
Skill Notes: You want the following skills at some point of your build: Bluff (to enter Malconvoker), Concentration and Spellcraft (for Magic of the Land, and if you want to, for Epic Spellcasting in the distant future, IF you get Epic levels), Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (the Planes). You want to spend points on other Knowledges, as well. Diplomacy may seem an odd choice, but it's invaluable to save money when casting Planar Ally.
Basic Equipment: You're no warrior, but you're not so squishy either. Wear your best medium armor (breastplate!) and a heavy crossbow and call it a day. Maybe a morningstar if someone gets picky. You'll need a spell component pouch and a holy symbol, to cast your spells of course.
Magical Gear Goals: Besides your Int-booster, you want things that enhance your summoning ability, your spellcasting ability, and your Knowledge skills, often in that order. Anything that grants bonuses to Charisma skill checks is well appreciated. A Ring of the Beast, a Ring of Mighty Summons, a Summoner's Totem and a Metamagic Rod of Extend Spell are well-appreciated. Also a Strand of Prayer Beads and some Pearls of Power.
The Build
Build Stub: Archivist 5/Paragnostic Apostle 2/Thaumaturgist 5/Malconvoker 8
Spell Focus (Conjuration) is to qualify for both Thaumaturgist and Malconvoker. Skill Focus (Bluff) aids on your social skills, but is used for a nifty trick later on; if you're not a human, you can drop SF (Bluff) if you want. If you're a human, place your free skill points on a missing Knowledge skill. Dark Knowledge by now offers a decent boost to attack rolls, which is a nice boon later on as you get more ranks and bonuses in the different Knowledge skills.
You're gonna place Lore Mastery on either Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (the Planes) or Knowledge (religion), so that you get a nifty boost on Dark Knowledge. The bonus on Decipher Script is lost, though.
As levels go, you get your 2nd level spells, meaning Summon Monster II. By now, you probably have also gotten scrolls of Summon Swarm and Summon Nature's Ally II, so you can prepare a few of these spells to suit your needs. Magic of the Land appears a bit too early, but by 2 levels, you'll notice why it's actually real good.
4 - Archivist 4 (Still Mind)
Here you get a very interesting turn of events. By getting 3rd level spells, you start to get your first mass buffs; Mass Shield of Faith, Mass Conviction, and the most important, Haste (from a domain-related scroll or Divine Bard). Now, consider that if you can reliably reach a skill check result of 18 or higher, you can restore 6 HP to all allies getting the benefit from your buffing spells. You can heal and buff at the same time, which is very nice! Do remember that it only works on "natural terrain", so it won't always work, but it's great when it does. 3rd level spells also means SM III and SNA III, but you'll start to notice enemies getting a tad stronger by now.
By now, you have qualified for all necessary requirements for Paragnostic Apostle AND Malconvoker, but we're going for this one first. Call of Worlds grants fast healing to any creature you summon, which increases its duration. Holy Texts is worthless for you, though, and Lore mingles well with the Archivist's focus on knowledge...but that's somewhat irrelevant for you. Greenbound Summoning offers a very solid set of summons from now on, although the fast healing from the template is currently superior to the one from Call of Worlds; it works when you summon other creatures, though.
Here you have two choices. Divine Understanding is easy to get, and mostly grants a +1 to all spells from one domain, but doesn't necessarily requires you to have access to the domain. With its easy requirement of 5 ranks in Know (religion), you can get a +1 to most of your summoning spells by choosing the Summoner Domain, including the bulk of your Summon Monster spells. This will work wonders later on. If you have the ranks in Know (arcana), Penetrating Insight works to bypass spell resistance and boost your dispel checks, which is also very nice. Both are good, so take your pick. The reason you extend your stay for 1 more level is to gain access to Thaumaturgist anyways. Also: 4th level spells, and access to Lesser Planar Ally.
Remember when I mentioned about getting ranks in Diplomacy? This is the reason why.
I feel sad that Augment Summoning cannot be replaced by another feat if you already have it, because otherwise it'd have been a 1st level feat, full stop. Your bread and butter is summoning spells, so anything that boosts it should have been gained first. Anyways, now all your summons (including your Greenbound Summons) gain a +4 enh. bonus to Strength and Constitution, so they're stronger and hardier. Summon Elemental becomes your go-to spell for mundane problems. Need to disarm traps? Summon an Earth Elemental. Need a scout? Air Elemental. Need to build a campfire to rest? Fire Elemental. The possibilities are endless, and at most, you can have them as cannon fodder to have your stronger summons survive for longer. 9th level spells, meaning this is the end of your uses of Summon Undead...which you can't technically use because you're Good-aligned, but what the hey.
Another mighty boost. This version of Extend Spell stacks with Extend Spell, which works wonders, and is applied for free to all summoning spells...possibly including Summon Elemental. With the bonus from the reserve feat and Divine Understanding, you're looking at around 2 minutes and 4 rounds worth of a summoned creature.
Ah, now THIS is an awesome ability. It merits delaying the Malconvoker for SOOO long... With this, you can set up a trigger to summon...or CALL a creature to assist you. Let's say you cleverly set up the trigger for "when I'm halfway through my hit points", and then you summon an Unicorn. Now, you have a pretty meaty creature with free healing spells, while you set up a buff to heal everyone (including yourself) and buffing if you end up in natural terrain. Or, if you die, you can use Planar Ally to conjure a potent outsider in hopes of reviving you. 6th level spells, meaning you get the Mass (Animal) (Ability Score) buffs, as well as Planar Ally.
We take a detour from the final level of Thaumaturgist to get to the core concept of the Allconvoker - summoning very powerful evil creatures. Or rather, beefy evil outsider meatshields. By using your high Bluff check, you can convince most evil outsiders to stay for a bit more...which stacks with the Thaumaturgist's Extended Summoning. Between your CL, Summon Elemental's bonus to CL, Extended Summoning and Deceptive Summons, you have nearly 4 minutes worth of evil outsider meatshields. Add Divine Understanding, and some of them actually exceed the 4 minutes!. Cloudy Conjuration allows you to provide a mild debuff, coupled with a miss chance, when you cast ANY Conjuration spell (including Calling and Summoning spells), which means you add a solid rider effect to your key spells. Note that with Contingent Conjuration, you make your reactive summoning a potential debuff/buff as well (the Unicorn provides a Fog Cloud effect for 1 round, providing valuable concealment while it heals you). Finally, check with your DM if Collector of Stories applies to Dark Knowledge, since that's a very easy way to provide your allies (and your summons) with bonuses to attack rolls or saving throws against the most dangerous opponents you face. You lose your only spell level now, though; not that you mind, though.
Planar Binding cannot be gained by an Archivist...but hey, now you do! And they're added to your prayerbook for free, as well! Planar Binding should be used to summon powerful outsiders of any kind, while Planar Ally should be kept for good outsiders, since they get to benefit from Improved Ally anyways. Social Recovery is there to support you when your Diplomacy check for Planar Ally fails, though note that chances are the result of the Bluff check is even worse are pretty high. You lose nothing with rerolling using your Bluff skill bonuses, tho.
Remember why we chose Skill Focus (Bluff) all the way at level 1? Unlike Augment Summoning, by this level, you essentially get a free feat of your choice. You can get most of your feats ahead, or get Extend Spell or Imbued Summoning if you want to. If you're not human, a strongheart halfling, or lack flaws, you get SF (Bluff) here now, which is a pretty decent boost to a skill you'll use a lot. Swift Concentration is there to provide a chance of casting a spell or moving while keeping concentration on a spell, such as some of the Spell Compendium's new summoning spells. 7th level spells are gained now, as well.
By now, Greenbound Summons have lost a lot of their benefit, while Evil Outsiders suddenly become considerably more powerful. With Fury, you can increase the damage and resilience of these guys. Now, your evil outsiders have a +2 to hit, a +4 to damage with weapons and natural attacks, about 3 hp per HD, fast healing, and the save DC of some of their special attacks also increases by 2. With Dark Knowledge, that's +4 to hit and damage, which isn't that bad. Not bad at all. But, in case it's NOT enough, Beckon the Frozen adds 1d6 cold damage to all attacks, and the cold subtype, meaning immunity to cold. Vulnerability to fire sucks, but that's why you invested on Energy Immunity, no?
You know ALL of the benefits you can provide to one creature just by summoning them? How about two? Two sickening fog clouds, plus two very beefy creatures. Couple that with 8th level spells, and now your summons are a force to be reckoned. Oh yeah, and you get both Greater Planar Ally and Greater Planar Binding by this level. So you can summon the real powerhouses now.
With Improved Ally, you get a boost to Planar Ally spells. With Deceitful Bargaining, you get a boost to Planar Binding spells. No matter what you call, you are the best at doing so.
Now, your evil outsider meatshields have better Will saves and are harder to dispel. That's not the big deal. The big deal is that you FINALLY get 9th level spells - that means Gate (which you can cast at +1 CL if you chose Divine Understanding!), Summon Monster IX and Summon Nature's Ally IX, the most powerful calling and summoning spells at your disposal. Finally, Rashemi Elemental Summoning allows you to replace some of your early elemental creatures with two very powerful elementals - note that Summon Elemental works like Summon Monster, so it's a clever way to summon those creatures with your reserve feats, so you're ALSO improving your bread-and-butter summons. Check with your DM if it allows it...which might imply that you have to be a female. And Rashemi, as well. Well worth it, IMO.
The limit for Planar Ally and Planar Binding spells is 6 HD for Lesser, 12 HD for the normal version, and 18 HD for Greater. Now, the limits are 8, 14 and 20. You can summon more powerful creatures and save uses of Gate that way. However, the reason why this is more important is because of what comes on the next level. Your summons are already insanely strong; the build was complete by the time you got Beckon the Frozen 4 levels ago, so all you're doing is padding now.
You're already THE Allconvoker...so what does the Allconvoker need? How about having its own cohort! The limitations are somewhat ridiculous, but you can end up with a very nice creature following you permanently. My recommendation? Ursinal Guardinal (BoED), as it is beefy as a bear but casts Wizard spells, so you're hanging with the equivalent of a 12th level Wizard. Now, later on, by the time you get to Epic levels, there's the slight chance you can end up with a 20 HD creature, because of the newly increased limit of Greater Planar Ally...but for now, Ursinal Guardinal is your best bet.
Snapshot: While you're not a physical attacker, at level 20, and with the characteristic +6 stat-boosters and munching on +5 tomes of Intelligence and Charisma, you end up with stats of 8/12/14/30/10/25. You end up with around 88 HP (or higher, if you get a Con booster), an attack bonus of +8/+10, and saving throws of +9/+6/+17 without save boosters (or +14/+11/+22 with them). You end up with a caster level of 19th, with enough spell slots that you'll never have to worry about running out, a solid save DC for most of your spells (and Cloudy Conjuration), and your summoning spells last for around 4 minutes, with evil outsiders lasting almost for 7 minutes.
Your summons are as varied and flexible as you need them. Your main summoned minions are your reserve-summoned Elementals, which have a respectable +4 to Strength and Constitution and fast healing 5, and are Large-sized. Next are your Greenbound Summons, which have the resilience of plants, are tough to kill, get the Cold subtype alongside the fast healing and +4 to Strength and Constitution, and happen to also get SLAs just in case. Then, you get to your hard-hitters: evil outsider meatshields, which if correctly Bluffed have 3 times their HD worth of extra HP, fast healing 5, a +4 to Strength and Constitution, a +2 to damage rolls and Will saves, and are more numerous thanks to Fiendish Legion. If you need even MORE oomph, then it's time to use Planar Ally or Planar Binding; you can make Planar Allies cost cheaper and Planar-bound creatures more easy to dupe. You'll rarely be without creatures to summon.
However, what will YOU do? Well, you're a full spellcaster, with access to the Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Divine Bard, Shugenja, Sohei, Runescarred Berserker, Hunter of the Dead, Knight of the Chalice...in short, EVERY Divine spell list in existence, including Domains. Your focus will be to have many AoE buffs, alongside one or two Words of Recall, and maybe a Divine Power/Righteous Might combo in case you need to go up close and personal on the enemy.
By 20th level, you also get a cohort. That cohort, which most likely will be an Ursinal Guardinal, is a Large, biped, 75 hp, intelligent bear that counts as a 12th level Wizard, so that means up to 6th level arcane spells. Because it's your cohort now, you have full control over its spellcasting; therefore, you're also a very effective Mystic Theurge now, with full access to divine spells and more than half access to arcane ones. It can be a pretty effective tank as well, in case someone gets funky with him (or her). You can also inspire your cohort, as it gains levels, to be another summoner, so you can fill the battlefield with summons.
Overall Strengths: Ever heard of BMX Bandit and Angel Summoner? You make Angel Summoner cry in a corner. Angel Summoner might say "or, I can summon an angel to solve the problem!", and you retort "I could chain-gate a Solar, but I'll summon my trusty Thrumil to do the same with even less effort." Your power lies on the insane flexibility of summoning, and that you can pull off a good lot of them for just about everything, without necessarily having to exhaust your magical supply. Your summons can be good healers, solid meatshields and decent blasters, and with the remaining set of spell slots, you can buff your summons to be even stronger. You're also a full caster with access to 9th level spells from the largest list possible: again, you have access to Cleric, Druid AND Shugenja, and you can expand your spell list even further.
Overall Weaknesses: Your strength is also your weakness. Anything that can overcome your summons will overcome you, no need to question it. While you can eventually end up summoning insanely powerful creatures and chain-gating Solars, anything designed to banish summons will effectively lock you out of combat. And, without your summons to protect you, you're a squishy caster; granted, not as squishy as a Wizard, but you're pretty squishy nonetheless owing to having most of your career saddled with a d4 HD and poor Fortitude saves.
Variants: The easiest thing to change is the race. If you're not Human, you'll be out of some skill points, which ends up with one less skill overall. Without Human or Strongheart Halfling, you're also out a feat, meaning you can't do the feat delay trick later on. However, as with many other caster builds, Illumian can make for an interesting Strength- or Dexterity-based caster build. Just choose the Krau sigil and go to town.
There you have it. With access to pretty much every summoning (and calling) spell, the Allconvoker has the right tool for the toughest task. Here's hoping that the build is fun, effective, and most importantly, worthy of being part of the true Optimization Showcase.