Goodness gracious, I just played literally all through the night. oÔ

@Eldonauran:
I also noticed today that technically you can run a party of 6 with 6 Full Animal Companions and not use a class twice. :p
It's also funny how the Ranger doesn't have an AT that gives it a full pet progression without Boon Companion.
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I fiddled around with a new game, then wasn't quite happy with that character and went back to the old one. I missed out on some goodies that were bugged in the release version, but CBA to replay everything just to pick up those trinkets. Either way, I finally got around to hiring two Mercs for my party. So now I use a mix of standard and custom companions:

Main: Aasimar (Angelkin) Paladin of Irori. There's not really much going on with Paladin feats, so no need to take Human. Fights with a big fat Greatsword now (which btw looks awesome) but eventually I'll have her switch to Falchion around level 9 (when I can take Improved Crit).

Mercs:
- Human Fighter skilled as Archer. Once she has picked up Weapon Training I'm probably gonna switch to Rogue for Sneak Attack. Note that Dueling Gloves are in the game, so together with Weapon Training that's an extra +3 To Hit and Damage.

- Human Inquisitor of Erastil (Monster Tactician) with Animal Domain, and 1 level of Mad Dog Barbarian to bring the Pet (Leopard of course) online and up to par at level 3, and also to pick up Martial Weapons. I'm either gonna skill him tanky with Sword & Board, or give him a Polearm and Combat Reflexes. The latter probably will make sense once multiple Summons come online. Has replaced Amiri in my party.

Companions:
I now have all Comps you can find in the first chapter, but I think the ones I'm gonna stick with in party are Linzi, Octavia and Tristian. As I said before, a Merc Bard would certainly be more effective, but I kinda like the little bug. Octavia for Wizard / Arcane Trickster. As for Tristian, he has a lot of healing so that's nice; honestly I didn't even try to figure out his Ecclesi.. Escleti... his AT abilities. Pushed a crossbow in his hands to he doesn't charge into battle and have him keep an eye out for HP status. Maybe I'll kick him out later if I don't need his Channels anymore.

BTW I had been misinformed and also passed on faulty information in this thread: Mercs are PB20, not 25. Sorry about that.

It's a party of 6 so I am not getting an XP boost, but wouldn't really know who to leave behind. Currently no problems with PnP difficulty settings.