The thing about the Path Companions is, ironically, they were actually a method in the original game to allow Disciples of the Hand and Disciples of the Land to undertake the storyline (in other words, have a Disciple of War or Magic to fight for them) - it was the exact same reason for the Parley minigame which provided a way of actually avoiding combat. Of course Parley was a broken mess and the Path Companions sadly were wasted potential. My desire to see them return though hasn't changed since my earlier post though - I'd love to have them back.