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In a few months, we will be starting a new campaign and I had been considering playing a Druid or a Magus.

However, I downloaded the Super Genius New Magus Arcana PDF and was intrigued by the Cabalist archetype since I generally prefer spontaneous casters. The Cabalist gains a Sorcerer's bloodline arcana and powers at 7th level using his Magus level as his Sorcerer level. And then I remembered the Sylvan bloodline from UM which grants you an animal companion.

So now I'm thinking I get the best of all three worlds: I get a spontaneous-casting Gish with an animal companion. Possibly not what the Super Geniuses were intending, but it seems fun and workable.

I'm picturing a whip Magus being a controller (tripping someone repeatedly with Calcific Touch channeled through a whip just seems... mean) while a Tiger companion does the actual damage or helps keep foes at bay. I could trip guys and have the Tiger pounce on them, do whip/ray combos on multiple enemies, maybe pick up Spiked Pit for trip/pit combo, etc, etc.

I also really like the Dervish Magus concept, but I'm completely at a loss as to what animal would compliment this build.

Any suggestions for a companion for either build? Any strategies pop into your head?

I have a player who wanted a Stigmata curse for his Oracle. This is what we came up with:

1st level - Every time the PC casts a spell, he bleeds 1 HP per round for as many rounds as he has Oracle levels. This can be stopped with a healing spell or heal check. This does not stack with itself. Each time a new spell is cast, the bleed duration restarts.

5th level - The Oracle is immune to any other form of bleed damage.

10th level - The Oracle automatically stabilizes after going below 0 HP.

15th level - While bleeding from the Stigmata, any creature of opposite alignment that touches, grapples, or strikes the Oracle with a natural attack takes D3 damage from the holy blood.

Any ideas, variations, criticisms, insults, or threats?

For the past six months or so I've run a story where the PCs are LE thieves/assassins that take over a city and usher in all kinds of evil. In about a month, I'll be stepping down from DMing and need to build a character. We'll be LG religious types trying to clean up said city and have a showdown with our former characters. We are all going to be religious classes (cross/prestige classing is allowed, but at least one level has to be Cleric, Paladin, Inquisitor, Oracle, or Monk). I decided to be rather... flavorful (possibly stupid).

I'm going to play a LG Goblin Paladin (worshiping Sarenrae) because the only way a Paladin could appeal to me is if the character is woefully inadequate in almost every way, but somehow Don Quixotes his way to victory. However, I don't want to be a completely useless drain on the rest of the team, so I thought I would make him a mounted crossbowman since a Goblin gets bonuses to Dex and Ride.

We roll our scores, so I can only prioritize and pray. I'm thinking: Dex, Cha, Con, Wis, Str, Int. However, the Goblin's +4 to Dex might cause me to change things based on my rolls. I figure with my high Dex, I'll stick with Light Armor.

Since my Cha is most likely going to be "sub-optimal", my spells will mainly be focused on buffs. Pretty much everyone will have spells, so I don't think this will be a problem. I'm really only putting anything into Cha so my Smite won't suck.

I'm thinking of using a Boar for a mount for the flavor (and ferocity doesn't hurt). Otherwise, I think my mount should be medium (so I can fit indoors), have good speed, and be OK in a fight if I can't keep my distance. I like the idea of my Goblin being carried by a giant bat, but that might be a little overpowered. Maybe if I fail a Ride Check I get dropped? Any ideas?

Feats priority: W Focus, Point Blank, Rapid Shot, Rapid Reload, Crossbow Mastery, Imp Crit

Maybe I should just enchant my crossbow to make up for some of these feats. If I do, I need suggestions for what to name the crossbow. Paladins sure don't have a lot of feats to spare.

Any ideas? I'm not really concerned with optimizing so much as not sucking too hard.