i think i know what you're after. how about an innate ability, similar to jan's create bruiser mates, that creates sort of a more powerful and longer lasting goodberries, but only when he's in the wilderness. you'll need an item, two spells, and a script.
the first spell would be applied at level 1 and would simply give him innate spell 2. this is also a good place to put in any other kit effects.
when the innate is cast, it sets a local variable to 1. that sets off the script which checks to make sure he's in the wilderness and not in a city or dungeon etc and no enemies nearby. if he's not, the script can display "doesn't work here" or whatever. if he is, it sets the variable back to 0 and creates ATHELAS.itm in his inventory.
you can make more than one item (and corresponding additions to the innate according to min level required) so that early on it only heals hp's, but later can cure disease, blindness, level drain, etc.
the rest of this post are just some ideas; ignore them at your leisure:
he's definitely a ranger, but disable his spellcasting entirely.
use stalker for unusables as i never recall him wearing any type of heavy armor.
give him an innate like "Inspire Party" that casts a combination of chant and remove fear.
he should be immune to panic/fear, and possibly to charm/domination as well, though that could come at later levels.
at higher levels, he should gain some powers over undead, maybe summon zombie warriors.