The default autolevel AI appears to have been written by someone who's never actually played Dragon Age 2. Or possibly by someone who was trying to inflict fake difficulty on the player. Regardless, whatever the reason, the end result is the same: party members start out with idiotic tactics, idiotic attribute distribution, and talent choices that are frequently suboptimal or just not helpful to the build you may be planning.

The availability of Maker's Sigh potions makes this slightly less of a problem than it was in DA:O, but a) not everybody has the Black Emporium DLC, b) some people don't like using Maker's Sigh for lore reasons, c) Sighing every one of your allies on recruitment quickly becomes a tedious hassle, and d) spending gold to fix your own mistakes is one thing, but spending gold to fix the game's mistakes is quite another.

So, following in the footsteps of jwvanderbeck's excellent DA:O mod, this mod prevents your followers from distributing ANY talent or attribute points without your consent. You'll recruit them as completely blank slates, and be able to assign their abilities however you please. As a bonus, Hawke will also start without Mind Blast/Pommel Strike/Miasmic Flask, being free to instead spend that first point on any other available talent.

For DLC users, Sebastian and Tallis are both affected by this mod, but you don't need either of them for it to work.

Do note that Anders, Isabela and Merrill all follow you as guest characters prior to recruitment, and are meant to provide extra support during at least one tough fight. With this mod, they will have no abilities or attributes during their guest stints, and be basically unable to contribute anything whatsoever to your efforts. Personally I find them completely useless anyway, what with their level 1 trash weapons and poor tactics/attribute selection, but if you really rely on Merrill's Hex of Torment to kill that one Shadow Warrior near the altar, or whatever, this isn't the mod for you.

There's also an optional set of files that will still not autolevel your companions' abilities, but will autolevel their stats - but in an intelligent, better-optimized way (roughly 2:1 primary/secondary stat with a few points in Con, essentially). Merrill won't blow points on Willpower, Isabela won't burn them on Strength, etc etc. This makes them a bit more useful as party guests, and saves you a bit of time once you get them, but it takes some of your control back away as a player, so if you're really into super-optimizing people or like no-Con glass cannon builds or whatever, stick with the base mod.