Well in THAT case, you should be pleased to hear that Larian confrimmed (long time ago) that this game will contain Mercenaries. smile
Wich (as far as i understand it) should be some kind of random NPCs that will fill role of your teammates, but will provide no sidequests, or stories ... not sure about conversations, or romances, but most likely also no.

I still dont understand why cant we change Race for our hirelings. frown
Lets us play Githyanki as racist as they trully are! frown