DamionSparhawk

I know this has been said already, but really. All you had to do was respec Gale. Make hima a Bard, hardly even changes his storyline but adds some liberal support value. None of the recruit characters are a bard so it's an easy slot to fill with whomever yout Tav replaces that you want to play with. You can pick anything of course, but bard as a secondary character is very helpful.