I am not that far that I know much of the backstories.
First impression is that most of them are allright.
The porn-dwarf is pretty funny.
Pic of him:
Still not as brilliant as Alistair/Morrigan/Orlean assasin whatsherface, but not too bad.
I think there will be backgroundstory quests, but the info around the charactes is still thin.
They interact like in Origins with some dialogues and sometimes you can ask their oppinion on quests but there isn't any Alistair/Morrigan-like rivalry.
The main char and his family is a good story, but I won't spoil it.
Archers are far more useful now. I play as rogue and have one tank, one mage and one archer/another mage. Works pretty good. Haven't figured out how cross-class-combos work, but maybe I'll find out soon.