I've been hanging around steam and Reddit for the last couple of days, and the one criticism I just can't agree with so far is regarding the companions.
The main things people say about them is that they are too evil. And this claim is super strange to me. There are a total of five party members so far. Let's go over them.
Layzel - Okey layzel is super evil, bitchy and angry. First of all I don't think it's so wrong to have one of those. Aside from that, I don't know what did you expect. I know almost nothing about the forgotten realms and the bit of knowledge I do have comes from bg1 and 2. And based on the githenki in bg2 Layzel is just right, scheming, evil, and follows a rigid code of honour to the letter. So she is not a good character, but she is not badly written.
Shadowheart - the reception for shadowheart is really confusing for me. Now based on her deity I assume she is an evil character, but in the game itself she doesn't really strikes me as particularly evil. She is selfish and secretive, but that's about it. In the part of the game we have she mostly cares about the tadpole, which is fair. Most of all she reminds me of Morrigan from Dragon Age Origins, but she is more subtle, less flirty and less over the top. Most of all, I see a lot of potential for growth with her.
Astorian - aside from the very flashy (and super buggy) introduction, Astorian strikes me as kind of a cool gay guy. The only evil thing he did in my playthrough was to try to feed on me, and afterwards he claimed that he usually only feeds on animals which is Eduard level good. He seems to me like chaotic neutral at the most.
Gail & Wyll - these two are good, not much room for speculation. I'll just say that all the companions are not "Jesus good" or "Lucifer bad", and all of them are more complexed than that, which is a good thing.
So to summarize - we have one evil party member, 2 who are possibly bad but the jury is out right now, and two good party members. and all of the characters are fun and interesting, even though we haven't seen much of them yet.
Just the woman are evil and selfish, as in they disprove every time that you make a decision that shows you are still a human being.
Lae'zel is very well written and she makes sense as a Gith. Shadowheart is in my group because she is handy in battle, but I find her, personality-wise, the most pointless of all characters (unless your evil).
I will replace Shadowheart with a hireling cleric as soon as I find one...hey, I gave her a try.
Lae'zel is an awesome fighter, but she is sitting in camp in favor of Wyll. Even though she makes sense as a character, she doesn't fit in with my party's ideals...she is on the chopping block.
Gale and Wyll are both great characters...Gale does love himself, but surprisingly has room in his heart for others. Wyll is also unselfish and will go to war for others.
Future characters:
My gut says the bard becomes an option.
Guessing one of the druids.
It would be nice to have female cleric that is actual pleasant company. Clerics are so handy to have, so this would make sense for Larian to round things out. The reason being that most people who don't want Shadowheart, but want a cleric, will choose a hireling over a voiced character. Half-elf or wood-elf make sense (stat-wise) for cleric, perhaps a Harper with an Elvin patron.
