Elf friendly? I'd say stick with an elven wizard.
It's about as 2e/1e as you can get. You get to ignore all of the multiplie attacks, attack of opportunity, five foot steps, and the other new 3e things that take a little getting used to, and just do good ol' spellcasting with individual descriptions for the way every spell works, not to mention, a lot of them work very similar to the way they always have.
19th level simple wizard, 32 pt buy.
20 starting intelligence (be a sun elf from the Forgotten Realms or a Grey Elf from the Monster Manual)
+4 from levels 4, 8, 12, and 16
(+2 from the spellcasting prodigy feat, again, if you have access to the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting)
+6 from a circlet of intellect +6
----
30 (32) intelligence wizard, this means you'll have a lot more spells to cast per day, and they'll be harder to resist.
Spell Focus in Transmutation for Slow, Polymorph Other, Disintegrate, etc
and Spell Focus in Evocation for getting the most bang for your area of effect spells not to mention a fun occasional Otiluke's Resilent Sphere that works beautifully on heavily armored types (too slow to get out the way)
Skill Focus in spellcraft is a waste but allows you to qualify for the Archmage prestige class which with the number of levels you have, can give you +6 total to your spell DC's, and caster level checks to penetrate spell resistance. Highest possible reccomendation.
Keep going with archmage and pick up mastery of shaping for point blank non-friendly-fire horrid wiltings or the ranged ability for no-saving-throw vampiric touches at range.
This is really all you need for a truly shining high level character, that and a lot of forethought into what you will do in what situation with what spell.
There are more details to add, but putting them in yourself will help you know the character better.
