Psychonaut

Why shouldn't we have more options than such stale companions? I've yet to see a single reason why such a character would hurt the game. They would hurt the game because they reflect the same shallow mode of thought as the alignment system that they were originally created for. No one is arguing against variety in the companions, but new characters should be thought of as actual people with freedom of choice and complex, evolving motivations and characteristics. They shouldn't be made to fit a static template based on some arbitrary moral scale.

...So what you're basically asking for are more insipid, mustache-twirling caricatures who are amoral for the sake of amorality. This is something that PoE stridently and rightly avoids. Other posters in this thread have shown how the existing companions each are willing to do or abide questionable actions for their own reasons, which is exactly how it should be. The D&D alignment paradigm has no place here.

So now that we know for sure that expansions are in the works, the biggest question I have is how will it/they relate to the existing story? Will it be a continuation of the original plot like Throne of Bhaal for Baldur's Gate 2, or a tangential kind that doesn't impact that original story at all like the BG1 and Icewind Dale expansions? Personally, I think a continuation would be more rewarding, but there would have to be some fairly intricate narrative gymnastics to account for player choices. And of course, just invalidating or ignoring those choices to facilitate expansion, as some games do, is a pretty cheap copout that I hope Obsidian avoids. The tangential path is certainly a lot easier to accomplish under the circumstances, but there is kind of the same issue there too. Do player choices in expansion land exist in a vacuum? Does the main quest continue on exactly as it would if you had never interacted with the new content? That too can take away from the experience in a significant way. Reactivity is a heavy burden to carry for a game developer, but I'm sure if anyone's up to the task it's Obsidian.