One thing I liked doing in POE1 was overlapping as many group buffs as possible.  I was curious what the best combo of using only Companion Characters and the player character to stack as many overlapping group buffs as possible. No custom made side kicks. At minimum, I'm assuming that this should include a Chanter, Paladin and Priest. I'd be willing to sacrifice individual damage from my character in order to fill any gaps left by the companions.

Xoti and Pallegina are pretty obvious, since they're the only companions (or kicksides) that can even be priest or pally. Pallegina can also do the chanter thing too, which seems useful with the smaller party size.

 

That seems sufficient to me. Personally, while I get why they only have one ranger (effectively two characters), one priest and one paladin was a weird decision, especially given how differently the variations can play.

If you want to stack buffs, you'd probably want to have all the chanters in your party.

 

Pallegina, Tekehu, Fassina, Konstanten.

 

If each of them have 2 phrases going constantly you would have permenant resistance to resolve, con, dex and strength afflictions, bonus deflection will and fort, damage barriers, lash damage, and two more of your choice (or you could forego the two extra and take xoti for priest buffs).