Too much choice! Too few... *gasp* I can't... I can't... *breathes in a bag*

Mage, Ranger, Rogue and Kinght to be precise. Good thing is, after you recruit them you can re-join others later and they will be scalled to your level so nothing is lost even if not chosen to your party.

Choosing within the group is one of the foundations of the game...;) If you want to play a game which relieves you of all responsibility save pressing the LMB, Original Sin is not it...;) The game is chock full of decisions and choices of all kinds. True, I guess, that this might be a problem for indecisive people...(?) Perhaps they'd be better of in a game of Crazy 8's or Go-Fish.

I purchased divinity recently, but havn't tried playing it yet because i have been playing spellforce 2 instead..... which coincidentally disappointed me with the LACK of choices with companions and character builds and hence my post here, just to say Spellforce 2 might be more to the liking of the OP for that reason.

But don't think i don't actually like spellforce 2 overall, i have been playing it for the last couple of weeks and i am very much addicted!

Where do you find the new thief? I really would like to all in my party at the same time, but no... :(.

I just dismissed Madora and she did not go to the Hall of Heroes, but to The bar. I thought after You had the Hall of Heroes dismissed party member were to go there.

Down the well outside the NW gate, accessible from a tunnel with a couple entrances within Cyseal.

When you opened the hall of heroes, did you enter, talk to an NPC there (sitting at the dining table, half way down) and then take the portal back to the main section of the homestead? Until you do that the portal isn't officially open, and dismissed companions will go to the King Crab tavern.
If you left the hall of heroes using Rift travel, return to the End of Time, enter and leave via the portal (that will give a message about the hall being opened and Zixzax will run over beside the weaver, or the next portal if you've found another star stone).