Well i would find gnomes etc rather unwanted companions, i never like them in any games so from that point of view companions are more interesting however... i think they made companions for wide audience of players which is the reason why im struggling to find more than 1-2 interesting ones for myself, none of them are interesting when romancing is considered and only very few has interesting story.
[SPOILERS] A lot of their stories ending plots i could predict from almost the first lines the characters tells about themselves "oh that one's story is about deal with devil and its about breaking that deal and getting punishments" very very predictable clichees and therefore boring... or shadowhearts story, i could so fast guess all about her being manipulated by shar people and that i could make her see it and make her turn good.. so very clichee and predictable.. no surprises at all unless you count the nightsongs transformation but thats not solely shadowhearts story.
But gales ability came as a surprise, didnt expect the devs let us finish the game on act2. And Astarion is very entertaining and the fact that he goes evil all the way made him interesting.
