So over the last 2 evenings I used the multi-player work around to create a 2 person team and played for a while to see what the experience was like. Along the way I realized as time went on why hirelings are a better choice than multiple Tavs.
You see, as I explored and made choices in the game using the "best" Tav in any particular situation, only the current Tav earned any approval points. As a result both of my Tavs had much worse relationships with the characters around them simply by virtue of only interacting with them half the time.
As an early example, only one Tav could free Shadowheart on the ship and recieve the bonus approval for doing so. After a little more play, she had warmed up to the Tav that rescued her, but was still neutral with the other.
It feels like hirelings are the way to build a team without having to worry about juggling approval scores and having to reload when the wrong Tav took approval points from a convo with a character that another Tav was romancing.
It might be nice if you could hire the mercenaries sooner rather than later, but I understand the logic now.
