thanks to the story, you dont really want to pass up any help you can get.
So far, so good.
I suppose we disagree here, I don't think that's necessarily a good thing, I think you SHOULD have less reason to have these people tag along with you,
Why? If the world and the story provides a valid reason to team up with someone, rather than it being a completely arbitrary choice made for a player's intuitive reaction to them, then I think that is good. From an out-of-world, storytelling point of view, you should want them all on your team because they all have interesting stories to play through. An in-world reason to take them on is most welcome.
It is, in fact, the other way round IMO: it's bad if there is no story reason. For instance, there is a gameplay reason to take Astarion along, but *no* convincing story reason. I most often take him along because I want a rogue in my party, and I need to make up in-world reasons for having him after our initial less-than-friendly encounter. I would really like a better story reason to take him along, but the game does not oblige. If I played strictly in-character, most of my characters would not take Astarion along. And that would be bad.
