3.5 summoning advice

[JeenLeen]

I'm an arcane caster using the Vest of Mysterious Conjuration, which gives 3/day the ability to burn a spell to cast Summon Monster x of the same level.

I have level 9 spells, so all levels of Summon Monster are open to me. What's considered the best monsters to summon. Ideally, I'd like some idea of meat-shield, distractor, etc.

I think avoral guardinals are good for healing the party (Lay on Hands ability). Are there any 'utility' monsters worth summoning of 6th level or lower? Healing or things that can cast 'Solid Fog' or other crowd control spells.

[Cyclocone]

Nice guide is nice.

[Blackjackg]

...I once summoned celestial badgers to dig out a party member who had been smacked down by an entomber... Elementals are useful for being elementals. You know, fire elementals if you want to burn a place down, water elementals if you change your mind. Something large and flying would be useful if you want to get from point A to point B in (CL) rounds or less. For the most part, however, Summon Monster spells are not great.

[Keld Denar]

I'll agree with elementals, but unfortuantely Fire and Water are the worst 2. Fire are just plane weak compared to Earth in shear power, and Water can't exist outside of a body of water, which limits their usefulness. Air are really the best, especially when they go into Whirlwind mode. You can use them for transportation or for combat. The WW is a reflex save, which is the best save to target on most bigger enemies, and anything melee oriented is pretty much completely disabled while stuck in the whirlwind.

Other good summoning advice is to know your outsiders (Eladrin are fun) and highly magical creatures (like Cuatls). Most of them have spell-like and spellcasting abilities, so summoning them expands your own magical repetoir of spells 4-5 times. Thats verstitility, but requires a bit of homework.

[Optimystik]

I'll agree with elementals, but unfortuantely Fire and Water are the worst 2. Fire are just plane weak compared to Earth in shear power, and Water can't exist outside of a body of water, which limits their usefulness. Air are really the best, especially when they go into Whirlwind mode. You can use them for transportation or for combat. The WW is a reflex save, which is the best save to target on most bigger enemies, and anything melee oriented is pretty much completely disabled while stuck in the whirlwind.

Seconding this. Air and Earth are the best two. Earth wins in dungeons due to being able to walk through walls, come back to party and report what it sees. Summon a specific one and you can have it set off traps and tell you what happened to it after it dies.

Speaking of traps, Celestial Monkey can open chests and turn latches.

[Keld Denar]

Speaking of traps, Celestial Monkey can open chests and turn latches.

Man, that adds a whole new meaning to the expression "trapmonkey"...

[derfenrirwolv]

Thoqua are sick. They're game breakingly good at tunneling through walls.

Don't overlook the much maligned lantern arcon. If you have something with a lot of damage reduction, spell resistance, or spell immunity a hoard of these suckers can spread out around it and whittle it down to size.

Celestial lions are your main damage and combat

Learn celestial, terran, ignan, and the language of anything you summon regularly so you can give them orders. They all have an intelligence score of at least 3, meaning you can give them more commands than attack stay and defend