Build me a Summoner for FR

[Abaddon87]

As the title states, I will be playing in Forgotten Realms and I would like to play a character who specializes in summoning "pets" to do the heavy lifting. The group Im playing with is made up of:

Druid (first time druid and new player so no optimization)
Mind Reading Diplomatic Psion
Rouge
Fey type pyro caster (who is also a pixie or some other +2 LA creature)

Now the party is pretty lacking in the tank department and we have no true healer so I was thinking of bringing in a caster who summons in a tank (maybe an elemental or demon etc). With no need to worry about healing the pet and always able to get more, I think it should work out well. Now the GM is rather new (he let a ECL 3 into a lvl 1 starting game) so I should be able to get away with lots of opimization.

So have at it playgrounders! Give me race, class, feats, items... Anything you can think of to make the most amazing character who never has to lift a finger thanks to friends from another plane!

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Just read this and have some fun.

[tyckspoon]

An Astral Construct focused psion is probably the best bet for tanky summons, especially if you want one that is combat-useful from low levels (although still not especially worthwhile- a level 1 character using a 1 round action to summon something for 1 round.. may as well have used a different power, because he's not getting any actual action advantage from the summon.)

Conjuration specialist wizards can make pretty good summoners with the Conjuration ACFs from Unearthed Arcana; you get standard-action summon spells from giving up your familiar and can trade Scribe Scroll for Augmented Summoning (plus some other stuff for your other bonus feats, but you should start PrCing before they become especially relevant.) Get familiar with the special abilities available to the creatures and outsiders on the higher-level Summon Monster lists and you can make very efficient use of your spell slots.

If you're allowed to back-port it, Pathfinder's Summoner class does exactly what you're asking for.

If you're starting at low level, make sure you select something that can function well without summoning (thankfully pretty much every good summoner is also a full caster, so that's not hard.) Summons don't become really efficient options until level 5ish or so, when you can summon beefier and/or multiple creatures and they stay around long enough to really affect the course of the fight.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Go with a Human Druid, take two flaws, start out with Spell Focus: Conjuration, Augment Summoning, Companion Spellbond (PH2), and Greenbound Summoning from Lost Empires of Faerun. Get Natural Bond (CV) at 3rd, Natural Spell at 6th, Rashemi Elemental Summoning (UE) at 9th, and whatever else you want after that.

Greenbound Summoning gives all of your Summon Nature's Ally animals the greenbound template. Most importantly this gives them spell-like abilities, including Entangle at will and Wall of Thorns 1/day. A 1st level SNAI gets a Greenbound Dire Rat that can drop a 5th level Wall of Thorns on your opponents, which is one of the most brutal obstacles in the game considering how hard it is to push through or clear away. Later on you'll be able to summon Orglash or Thormil elementals with Rashemi Elemental Summoning, which with Augment Summoning will make some pretty beefy combatants. Try to get a Ring of the Beast from Complete Champion so you'll either use lower level slots to summon the same creatures, or get 1d3 instead of one or 1d4+1 instead of 1d3 from the same level spell slot.

Start with a Wolf companion, make it Magebred (ECS) if possible, and it should also have the Warbeast template (MM2) as you could have made the Handle Animal checks yourself to train it. At 4th level trade it out for a Fleshraker dinosaur (MM3), the +3 you get from Natural Bond will negate the 'level -3' for it being a more powerful companion. It can also be Magebred and again you can apply Warbeast once you get a break between adventures. Cast Venomfire from Serpent Kingdoms on it every day and it will be doing tons of damage. Be sure to pick up some Lesser Rods of Extend for buffs like that, and they're also great for casting Creeping Cold.

Get a Wand of Lesser Vigor (SC) for healing up between encounters and a Rod of Bodily Restoration (MIC) and you should be fine on healing. Keep a few cures prepared in case you need them in combat, since you can trade them out for summons anyway.