I want shovel to be made into a true companion actually, a party member with a class and all that. A demon bound by magic and forced to follow orders could be an interesting perspective, especially as you don't know how to, or don't want to, send him back to the abyss. So now you are stuck with a quasit slowly growing in power and who might become some greater evil.
Bernard would be an awesome Warforged anything really. Could be a barbarian, rogue, fighter, even something like a clockwork soul sorcerer or a wizard or artificer. Essentially he has great potential, could even leave him blank til you give him a class designation via orders? (I have not encountered him in recent patch so going mostly off your description.)
Personally, I think they should avoid repeating classes for companions. So barbarian for Bernard. He is a big, huge, robot dude wielding a glaive... When he malfunctions = Raging, simple enough.
Shovel... god IDK, he could work as a sorcerer, he is not really a warrior type?
Bard XD give him a little magic flute?
IDK, I prefer shovel to be a camp-based NPC personally, maybe he can provide some trading or something?!
