All sounds good.
How about the option of just creating all of your party members from level 1. Obviously optional.
Better crafting (heaps of options for magical and non magical. And quicker to create).
Interesting environs to use in combat.
And I've said before allow friends to bring their characters into your game (it's possible to sort out balance, quest etc issues)
I think the optimal would be written companions but with fully customizable stats. And like I said before, you being able to recruit them very early in the campaign in any order you want.
I personally really like doing companions' storylines, so I would rather not create robotic companions because the story ones suck (like in PoE).
