Fully or semi customizable companions based on your background choices. Some of them you should be able to name yourself and set their own attribute points. Kind of like forming your own party to work together.
Or maybe there are 16 or so in the game, but based on your background only eight of them are available to you and a set of quests helps you locate them. So something happens and you all got separated blah, blah <creative people insert here>. That would give the companions more of a purpose and help people become invested in them. My 2 cents.