@Dark Cloud That's actually not a bad idea, on the Phoenix thing. There are two items in the game (maybe more, it's been a while since I played) that resurrect your character when you die (or bump you back up to x% hp on killing blow, but same difference). Those are pretty strong, and I think to start off with that for the RP would be really strong. So to counter that in a sense, the cardinal could just be a baby Phoenix that requires some boxes to be checked for it to fully form into a grown Phoenix, allowing a one-time rebirth.
Could be something simple like: kill x enemies with the cardinal (very difficult as it is a regular bird), feed cardinal x potion x times, or feed it x fruit.
Or rather than rebirth, it can passively give a boost in a small aura like fire resistance or extra movement speed.
But that's all just if you go with a Phoenix. If you want to stick with a cardinal of courage, I think that's good too. Maybe it can have long-term effects. Maybe it can warn the next ? room will have enemies.