Effigy Master?

[skywalker]

I have a friend(if any of you care or remember, the same friend who tried to bring a janni warmage into a level 7 adventure) who is currently nosing around the idea of advancing as a wizard, and then going into effigy master as soon as possible(I think it's level 8.) He's rather enamored of the effigy. Since he dies alot(alot alot) his primary character theme is to hide behind the effigy and a bunch of summons, and buff/repair(the effigy) while they keep baddies away from his squishy body. He's only looking to take 1 level of effigy master, because all the second level does is give you +1 to your caster level, which he could get from being a wizard.


The question is, is this effective, does anyone see any glaring flaws, and, most importantly, wouldn't he be better served by just going straight druid?

[kpenguin]

He's playing a Janni warmage and hoping to disrupt his spell progression into another class that requires spell progression into a prestige class that only gives you a construct friend. Want to question his character's effectiveness?

EDIT: reread your post. He's not actually playing a warmage, right? So.. effigy master would be okay. Area control is the best thing for protecting a caster, though. That, and fly+wind wall.