I would love to see orcs, imps, dwarves, lizards and undead as companions.
But going by BG3 we'd probably get 5 elves and a human.
Jaheira and Minsc dont really count because they arent romances.
Why do you equate someone being romancable with being a companion?
Jahiera was one of the best companions in BG3. An Imp companion not being a romance option meaning it's less likely as a companion is a really weird take. (Especially given they let you fool around with mind flayer in BG3.)
Hopefully the half baked Halsin companion addition - as well as all the stuff with Minthara as well as Karlach's endings - will remind Larian to stick to their companion choices a bit earlier and make sure they're all properly fleshed out, rather than scrambling right up to release.
I expect with their extra hiring of writers they will hopefully tie things down a bit more, and sooner, and not get big changes to scope and story that hamstrung the writing this time around.
As to the comments about "what do you expect us to say, how can we know" from my original post. Well it's s a speculative question based on a comment from a writer. I think that gives grounds to speculate as well as talk about how people might feel about the suggestion, as well as other ways people might expect or want to see diversity in companions in the new game.
Diversity in companions can come from a lot of directions, race, background, gender, motivations, etc. The comment that they think they have room to get away from the saminiess of many of the BG3 cast - who had similar backgrounds and motivations, and a bit too much overlap in race representation - is a positive one as far as I'm concerned.
I think BG3 did a decent job with a number of the companions escaping the trap some games fall into, which is that they just have minor level interactions with each other and then a rather straightforward "personal quest" which is a almost a standalone experience. I think they can do better though, with the variation in how companions react to the world being tied more directly into any area the party might go, rather than being siloed, as well as more reactive to the other companions. I'm excited to see what they can deliver on this goal.
