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I've changed the title to include NON-combat optimized, as that was my intent.
At my table, my DM lets me try out different combat optimized builds. Though they do great in combat, I get very bored with it. Winning all the time kinda takes the fun out of it, first of all. And outside combat, he's pretty boring as well, since he has no real skill outside of "winning combat".
Maybe I will try an illusionist build next.. I like playing wizards, and it's not a wizard I've tried yet.
I've always had the most fun with characters whose concepts I found interesting. I played a Suli Summoner who was the party Crafter. Hardly optimized (outside of the racial bonus to CHA, but with a penalty to INT) but I had a very interesting back story and came up with little mannarisms for him. I RPed my responses to PCs and NPCs in and out of combat and had a blast. The DM did the voice of my eidolon which added more color and humor.
Another example from Forgotten Realms was a priest of Kelemvor. Fantastic against the undead - crud against most other things. But he had Brew Potion (or whatever the equivalent was in that edition) so he could still contribute in certain ways.
I guess what I'm saying is, if you have a fun concept you can usually finesse the mechanics to match what you want to play. It sounds like you have a pretty openminded GM (which is awesome) so I'm sure he/she would be excited to see how much interest and thought you're putting in to his/her game. With the Advance Class Guide (and it's Archmage) coming out you should really be able to have some fun. It *is* a game and you should have fun playing it.