What if I end up finding a member annoying and obnoxious?
I think that's why we get a chapter to explore them. Like many here I am fine with it - I prefer to choose my party as stay with it. Swapping, equipping and managing characters I don't use outside required quests is just detium. Ideally game is about choices and game reacting to it, and hopefully our choice of companions will be impactful as well - in skill and tools at our disposals but story beats NPC reactions and narratives archs as well.
Another question is, if it is necessary. It all depends if they have something cool in mind for characters who won't join you. In D:OS2 they were mostly unexistend outside one story beat - if BG3 would expand on it (like a lot lot) that could be cool.
But it's only a chapter. Is it that the characters don't develop at all after the first chapter? What about the potential of party balance? Does that just not matter and I'm stuck with obnoxious characters because otherwise I'd have 3 rogues and a wizard? It paints the player into a corner. I'm not sure I agree or understand when you say that the game is about choices when this is clearly something that removes a lot of that choice and flexibility. I'm fine with the party size being smaller, but with the fewer companions in general and now we're locked into just 3 of them after the first act... I dunno, that worries me.
And yeah it's potentially a story reason. I suppose it's all a matter of wait and see.
