I've got 6 going at the moment

Not basing them so much off of alignments, but rather different personalities that lean towards exploring different paths in the story arc.
I play with the in-game companions, though one of my main characters managed to alienate so many of the companions that I had to recruit a hireling instead

That's probably a better way of describing my main Tiefling lol
A man after my own heart!
Just one. I don't play multiplayer and like sticking with one playthrough at a time.
And what's odd is I'll play it multiple times but probably won't deviate much in my choices.
I don't think that's odd. I've played the first two games so many times and while I've played almost all of the possibilities possible, most of my playthroughs were pretty consistent with the kind of character I like to play.