Thus far, devs have stated that you can make one character and then get joinable NPCs. They have also stated that NPCs will NOT be required. If this is so, I would like to put forward this question:

 

Since NPCs are not required, why not allow us to craft the entire party?

 

I know I really enjoyed doing this in BG2. I would go into multi-mode, make a party, save and then drag the save file to the single player save folder.

 

I mean, sure, the first couple times you play the game, its fun to get the NPCs, do their quests, etc. You see them fight eachother, hit on you, you learn about their past, talk to them, etc. That's all quite engrossing, no doubt. However, once in a while, its munchkin time. Sometimes, I wanna craft the ultimate band of heroes myself in order to achieve the best orc village killing time.

 

ToEE let you do this right off the bat. You could make a whole bunch of party members AND get NPCs. Can't Obsidian do something similar here? Maybe the first guy you make is the "main" PC for story purposes and the others are just his friends or something.

 

I know many folks my disagree with me here and that's ok. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this.

A thread exists that discusses this -

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60149-1-pc-plus-companions-or-create-multiple-characters-plus-companions/?do=findComment&comment=1189259

Doh, apologies, I will copy/paste my musings there.