Nice job on getting some good solid argument and discussion going here, Elfsbane. It's what I like to see. It's also what I seemingly failed to do with my impressions thread.
(What's going on there people, I don't bite!
)
That said, I find it difficult to really reduce character's morality outside of the AD&D universe to a generalised alignment and kind of question its usefulness. I guess it's fun to theorise personalities. But regarding Sten - I find it hard to really accept that someone who commits murder as he did can be seen as Lawful Neutral. Though there are certainly aspects to his character that might fall into this category.
I'm in the same boat as you in a way, in that I never really used too many NPC's from my first playthrough, essentially because I was attempting to roleplay a dwarf with noble intentions. This seemed to translate into an inability to trust alot of the characters encountered (Zevran, Morrigan and Sten being the most obvious examples of this.)
From a positive side, I ended up really liking Wynne. She's a mature, fully developed and intelligent woman, with a big heart, a nice bright spark of wisdom, of which really becomes evident in camp. She also doesn't come saddled with the neurotic issues that comes with a Leliana or a Morrigan or for that matter most of the female PC's from Bioware games that tend to treat you as their psychologist.
Shame you couldn't romance her to be honest. It's kind of ironic that BioWare allowed a same-sex romance, but not with someone who might be considered much older than the PC.
I'm trying out other NPCs in my current playthrough as a more darker intentioned Blood Mage. Perhaps I'll try out some of the other npcs and see what they have to offer. (Shale for one!)
Good post, keep up the discussion.