My Ymira is a machine. I went around recruiting companions until I had seven of them (I just picked the ones I liked and ignored the others, and I got away with no personality clashes at all). They've all got very similar equipment and have had their skills geared towards fighting (after being trained in my party for very similar lengths of time), and Ymira almost always gets the most kills. That's with people like Nizar and Bunduk in my party too x.x
I've managed to get away with my party members' sympathy for peasants too, because I've been targetting mostly lords, bandits and merchants (as an independant). If I gave the money away I'd almost be Robin Hood, but instead I've been spending it all on insanely expensive armour for my companions XD
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if a companion will actually leave your party because of personality conflicts? Just wondering, because I had one briefly between Nizar and Firentis (i think) in my previous save file, but whenever I asked them how happy they were they told me everything was great =|