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Power is one of the most important damage boosters for this char, be sure to utilize it liberally. Divine Shell is needed for the ultimate AC boost but otherwise it is not THAT great of a spell. Use it if you feel like you have more Heal spells than you need. Use the 7th level divine spell Greater
Shield of Lathander in boss fights for extra protection. Holy Aura boosts spell resistances through the roof, use prior to whenever you're going to do some serious area bombardment. Symbol of Hopelessness will stun almost everyone in sight, so follow up with brute force & steel with ALL your characters. The decision between Gate and Summon Monster IX is whether you want more potent killers (Gate) or the ability to control your summons (IX).
I'd choose Summon Monster IX as the Gelugons start fighting each other (if you summoned more than one) and create a huge danger area around them by blasting away with Cone of Colds and Ice Storms once the enemies have been killed. If you get bored at just whacking enemies to death, feel free to switch 8th level spells in favor of Fire Storm.

Alternate Character Choices:
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None, really. That is, unless we're ready to do sacrifices into this character's Armor Class, which would make the selection of a high-AC build as the main tank rather pointless and enemies would hit us easily in HOF mode.
In that case I would scrap the AC completely and concentrate on maximizing damage output with a build that has maxed STR instead. That kind of a character just can't function as a tank. Okay, to be nitpicking, an AC of, say, 69 would still force those Slayer Knights to roll 17+ in order to hit, but since the emphasis on these characters is not to get hit in the first place, this would equal to being four times worse protected than before.
A natural 20 happens only with 5% frequency, whereas a roll of 17-20 is already a whopping 20% chance to get hit.

Of course we could drop a bit from DEX & STR to raise INT to 13 in order to get the Expertise Feat and maybe even up to 3rd level arcane spells by trading Dreadmaster levels for levels as a Wizard, preferably Illusionist since it is Svirf's favored class. With 11-12 levels as Illusionist, we could also raise the INT all the way to 16, allowing us to cast Tenser's
Transformation and access the hefty +4 generic AC bonus from it, while at the same time gaining the loss in STR and DEX back from the Tenser's bonus. Even after we consider the fact that DUHM spell will lose some of it's power when we trade off Dreadmaster levels and thus lower the maximal DEX a bit, we could gain maybe a point or two of AC in the trade. BUT : We'd also lose the
VERY important ability to cast various spells mid-combat, since Tenser's doesn't allow spell casting when active! Why would we have those spells at all, then, and even more importantly, isn't it much more convenient to have high damage and high AC for more than just a few rounds at a time?

One thing we CAN do, however, is to trade four levels of Dreadmaster for
a Fighter, gaining access to Weapon Specialization plus one extra feat on top of the ones we've selected. This doesn't even hurt AC as the DUHM spell gives an useless odd number (+9) at level 28, and we'd get the same amount of extra HPs with +8 as well. However, since we already have so many classes, and Fighter isn't DG's favored class either, we'd make the situation with multiclassing penalties even worse. We could, however, level squat for four levels once we've received 24 Dreadmaster levels (plus the one in Monk and one in Rogue), and take all the 4 fighter levels in one go. Who cares if we have a 60% EXP penalty when we're not going to gain any more levels anyway?
This build was NOT selected, as such a lousy boost to the melee damage doesn't really matter much at the very end of the game with this character, as we should concentrate a bit more on spell casting anyway. Besides, squatting for four levels between 26-30 would take an eternity with the
40% EXP penalty.

Since this character doesn't use the Expertise feat, it might also be possible to utilize a (female) Drow instead. This would remove the rather agonizing multiclass EXP penalty. However, the problem with needing the INT for the Expertise feat still remains. With the requirement for maxed DEX and
WIS plus decent STR and CON doesn't leave much room for INT and CHA. A drow would have starting stats like this:

STR 10
DEX 19 (22 after buffs & two potions of Holy Transference)
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 18 (38 after all items, level-ups, quests and potions)
CHA 5

This doesn't look like much of a melee warrior to me, in my not so humble opinion. This character would also have to trade the Power Attack feat for
Expertise, further decreasing damage output and reducing chances to hit. This character would pretty much have to take the role of a decoy, removing the most important aspect of this party - having a strong melee warrior that is also almost invulnerable. No thank you.

Once we note that we're already using the best possible equipment found in the game, it must be noted that we've already found the balance that gives us both very good melee capability AND the possibility of reaching the critical AC level of 72. Case closed.

Duo option:
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By tossing out the third and fourth character from the party, it would be possible to play the "Untouchable Duo". Having only two characters in the party would net so much experience that taking the Monk level early, together with the 20% EXP penalty, would hardly be noticed. This would give the
Monk AC bonus very early and making it almost impossible for Normal mode monsters to hit this character.

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3.2 - Decoy & utility infielder & buffer

Deep Gnome Rogue(1)/
Druid(12)/
Illusionist(17)
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This character is the team's Decoy with high AC and should therefore be played as such, otherwise the whole point of this character is lost. This character utilizes ultra-high DEX to achieve high AC, so this character makes an excellent archer, but even more importantly, the high AC allows this character to toss spells right in the middle of enemies without too much fear of being hit. So, don't be scared to charge into the battle with the tank to use spells like Sunfire, and you might even consider playing a decoy for the tank and especially the berserker, drawing the attention of the enemies onto yourself and letting them do the beating.

Now, having a character that just stands in the middle of enemies wouldn't be much fun, would it? That's why this character has various spells at his disposal, to sow destruction amidst enemies. A single casting of
Mordenkainen's Sword would turn this char into a killing machine, if other spells seem lacking, and this character also makes sure that the various crucial buffing skills stay up. So, even if this character all by itself isn't the enemy's worst nightmare, the effect this character has on the others most certainly is. An army without the commanding general would seem rather pointless, and the Melee party without this character would have quite a bit harder time as well.

Later on, especially when the player (that is, YOU) gets bored at picking monsters to death for eternities in melee, this character can work as a forward scout, drawing the attention of enemies unto himself and "calling air strikes" from the party's bombardier as they're gathered around him. Once the monsters have been softened enough it's time to call in the melee groups for mop-up job. This character has plenty of Mirror Image spells to be safe from such bombardment anyway. As this party is a melee-oriented one, the missing Evasion skill isn't such a big minus, but make sure to add a second Rogue level if you're adapting this character to more blaster-happy teams.

On top of the functions above, this character is also the party's thief and utility infielder, taking care of all the various miscellaneous skills that would be cumbersome to take with one of the other characters.

As for leveling strategy, I would take the level in Rogue first to get the starting skill point bonus. Then take a single level in Druid to gain access to Wilderness Lore. If you know the way through Fell Wood already or just map it, take Druid later. After that I would go for Illusionist levels, as this makes the various buffs come up as fast as possible. Finally, after all the 17 levels have been acquired, start leveling up as Druid, gaining the Barkskin spell as the final buff. Alternatively, taking 3-4 Druid levels after Rogue would allow the Barkskin spell to be cast sooner into the game, but this would also bring the 20% EXP penalty fairly much right from the start.

Starting statistics:
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STR 7
DEX 20
CON 16
INT 18
WIS 12
CHA 1

Maxed DEX is a given as this is going to be a high-AC character, and high
INT is needed since this character is a wizard. Fairly high CON insures that a lucky strike by any enemy doesn't require a Resurrection spell right away.
WIS 12 is enough to cast Barkskin but it will be boosted to 17 when the second Every God's Ring has been bought to access the rest of the Druid's spells. This leaves only 7 points for STR but no need to despair - the
Dreadmaster learns Bull's Strength already at 3rd level and it lasts for very long. Besides, we're not interested in meleeing with this character anyway - others can do that.

If you don't want to min-max, use 7/20/12/18/11/6 instead.

All level-up points should go to DEX to boost AC. Together with the
Chimandrae's Slippers and a lucky draw from Tenser's Transformation, it's possible to reach DEX 40 with this character!

Here are the skills and Feats you should take for this character. Please note that Open Locks can be handled by Berserker forcing those locks open, so it's not really required. If you already know the route through Fell Wood
Maze, you can ignore the Wilderness Lore skill, though. As you don't have quite enough points to keep up with all of your skills, you have to alternate between thieving skills. I'd suggest focusing a bit on Search as the DEX bonus makes Disarming rather easy. Use Knock to replace Open Locks if the berserker doesn't manage to open the most stubborn chests.

Skills : Concentration
Alchemy (only up to 16)
Spellcraft
Disable Device
Search
Wilderness Lore (use points for previous two if you know the way)
Hide & Move silently (initial points only!)

Feats  : 1 - Weapon Proficiency: Bow
3 - Rapid Shot
3 - Combat Casting (Wiz extra feat)
6 - Subvocal Casting
7 - Shield Proficiency (Wiz extra feat)
9 - Spirit of Flame
12 - Expertise (keep maximized)
12 - Armored Arcana (Wiz extra feat)
15 - Armored Arcana (2)
17 - Armored Arcana (3) (Wiz extra feat)
18 - Dodge
21 - Discipline
24 - Lightning Reflexes
27 - Great Fortitude
30 - Iron Will

As the early levels don't have many good blasting spells, taking the feats for Bow and Rapid Shot makes this character a great archer. Combat casting and Subvocal casting are good feats to pick early as we're going to be in the middle of the enemies quite a bit. Shield is needed against tougher monsters.
Spirit of Flame boosts the damage from our blasting spells quite a bit.
Expertise greatly helps to keep the AC up. Armored Arcana is needed since we're going to be using a shield - three stars is enough for large shields.
Dodge is needed in HOF mode anyway. The remaining feats are more or less fillers - feel free to take GSF: Evocation if you feel like it instead.

Comments, strategies & notes:
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The introduction for this character already has many of the key strategies this character is built around. Just keep in mind that even if the character is a capable archer, sometimes getting an extra decoy to distract the enemies might be more useful than plucking away with arrows.

To reach the ultimate levels of AC, this character requires five items:
Chain of Drakka's Fury (HOF mode, but the Chain of Drakkas is found in normal mode for 1 less AC, and before that Mage Armor can be used), Chimandrae's
Warded Slippers (HOF mode, until then we'll have to use Cat's Grace), Swing from the Masts (bought from Underdark Merchants in Normal mode), Fire Dance
Talisman (bought from Kuldahar, normal mode) and a shield with a good
AC value (of which there are plenty of different ones). If you find that the
AC on the main tank isn't quite enough to avoid being hit, borrow the Fire
Dance Talisman for his use until later. Other needed boosts include Cat's
Grace (self), Barkskin (self), Haste (Sorc), Spirit Armor (Sorc) or Mage
Armor (self) at lower levels, Ghost Armor (Sorc) and War Chant of Sith (bard song). For the final step, cast Tenser's Transformation - this will make you unable to cast spells, but will give substantial AC boost and make you a workable killing machine on top of it. Just note that you can't recast your
Mirror Images in case situation gets hairy!

Spell selection:
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Number in parentheses denotes take only up to this many, otherwise you can mix'n'match as much as you like.