Your thoughts on a utility spellcaster

[Someone]

I´d also go with a pure wizard, generalist or specialist (diviner or conjurer). At that levels, until you get Heal, magical healing in combat heals too little (the best source of concentrated HP recovery is the paladin´s Lay on Hands). Use divinations (Arcane eye, Prying eyes, etc) to help you plan your attacks, buffing and utility spells -few cleric spells can beat Displacement, Improved Invisibility and Haste- and crowd control spells like Evard´s tentacles, Solid fog, Walls of X, etc.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I would suggest a diviner specialist who also learns a lot of transmutation spells (fabricate, major creation, minor creation, shrink item etc etc). As a diviner it is particularly easy for your DM to use him to feed useful expostion to the party if needed.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Straight Cleric. He will not step on anyones toes, he will help keep PCs alive, will not be easily killed, and his spells will not annoy the DM.

A wizard would be the most fun, but at two levels behind he would be in danger of sudden death from stray Fireballs.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I'd say a straight arcane caster with the Arcane Disciple feat for the healing domain would be a good option.

 

[Saeviomagy]

At that levels, until you get Heal, magical healing in combat heals too little (the best source of concentrated HP recovery is the paladin´s Lay on Hands).

Eh? At 2nd level, the paladin might have 8 points of healing a day. The cleric does an average of 6 in a single shot.

At 3rd, the paladin's up to 12. The cleric does an average of 11 in a single shot.

At 8th, the paladin is up to 32 points. The cleric's at 24 points a shot.

I mean sure, for a one-off the paladin has the cleric beat. But if you're needing that sort of healing, you need it more than once, and you probably want the paladin to be smacking the monster to make sure he doesn't do more damage...