Just wondering what the best build is? Obviously for melee ghoulish head is the option, which which is better for long range, goblin or dragon elf?

I would assume early on goblin would be better as fireball is the best spell, but later on it would be closer? The wiki lists way of the ranger as a skill for the goblin head, but how does that work given it's skill is fireball and it doesn't use a bow (I wouldn't think)?

And which of the three heads is overall the best damage dealer (assuming the rest of the build fits similarly)

Not sure which is the best but I was happy with the dragon elf. Early in the game magic blast and magic missile seems to take out any enemy with one shot. I made sure I would get the head and arms first though (save before chests). Anywhere from clean-cut to perfect suit me fine.

In D2:ED with my warrior, trying to take out some tough, higher level opponents by the depleted ore mine in the fjords, I found the mage head much better than the ranger head, which in turn was better than the warrior head.

In DKS I tried the warrior head with my ranger (a couple people playing necromancer / summoner type builds highly recommended that), but found that if the creature wasn't being less aggressive attacking opponents, it was running around drawing more opponents into the fight that I otherwise could have taken on separately. I ended up going back to the mage head.

I think there's an additional kind of head that grants no skills, but extra hit points. I'm not sure it's worth the trade-off, though, even with the low damage all summons do. They're not really good at damage, just taking it. The Ranger's fireballs can do up to 150 sometimes (EDIT: That is, I remember it doing 150 in the Maxos Temple, which was very good at the time, although I don't remember the head quality), but the Dragon Elf can probably do more damage per second.

Ok thanks. Believe it or not I don't have any really good body parts (preserved remains of torso, and infested goblin arms, with default legs), but Ive managed a perfect goblin head and perfect dragon elf head. There was reloading on those ones but only 5-10 times each.

Goblin heads L10 fireball says 527 damage in 5 metre radius which is more like L9 fireball with less radius. Same with dragon elf head, the L10 spells are closer to L6/7 equivalents. I suppose getting arms that increase the damage helps.

Ok got some half decent legs, they really carry no importance do they? My creature is at level 20 like me but the body, reflex and will are like 6-7%, so even with perfect legs they would only be at around 14-15%. Or is there some other benefit?

Not really, but the bonus is better than nothing. On level 21, perfect dragon elf legs (+100% CB/HR/IW) could get those values up to 22%. On level 45 that would go up to about 46% (I got to level 47 just before the end of the game).

Does anyone know what the goblin ranger head throws out besides fireball? He throws a fireball about every 4 or so rounds but in between he throws this ball of light at them that does not much damage. No other spells are specified in creature creation area.

It's his standard attack, that does his standard (weak) attack damage, but because of the goblin head, his attack is ranged.