Earth, Horses, and Monkies

The earth domain gives warpriests a third option that emphasizes protecting allies and applying your Constitution modifier to kicker effects, such as bonus damage and forced movement. It runs the entire thirty level stretch, but seems somewhat limited in scope, since there aren't a lot of gods that involve themselves with stone except for like, well, Moradin. I suppose I could see Erathis being loosely involved with stone, what with the focus on civilization and by association buildings. Like an order of masons or something? Melora could also work, since she's all about the wilderness.

The other article adds horses and apes to the retinue of animal companions for beastmaster rangers. Horses are unique in that you can choose to have a Medium or Large one, allowing you to ride it, along with some clarifications as to what happens if you're riding it when it gets to move or shift. This would be great for a Valenar elf. Monkies are also really cool because they can manipulate something for free once per round, such as drinking a potion, open/close something, pick something up, etc. There's also a sidebar that reminds you to let your players be creative with their companions. For example, if someone wants to get their Ashitaka on, let them have a red elk instead of a horse for their companion. I could also see someone using the horse as a template for a Large wolf if someone wants to have a ridable wolf.

The rest of the article is a page of level 2 exploits that all require a specific animal companion to use. Slither's stride requires a snake, and is a daily that lets you shift 2 squares for the rest of the encounter and ignore difficult terrain, or 3 if you already ignore difficult terrain. Web trick lets your spider try to save you by granting you a bonus to saves to avoid falling off a cliff, or to Athletics checks made when you take damage while climbing.