It doesn't matter too much in Fort Joy, just make sure you have a balanced team of whichever 4 you decide on.
Reason is because apparently (I'm close, but not there yet) that once you traverse the marshes outside of Fort Joy and prepare to leave the island you can respec your team and make them into a completely different class if you want.
If a respec in this game is like a respec in the 1st game, you lose all your skills - so its actually a good idea to put all civil points for every character in thievery while in Ft Joy, plus pick the "all skilled up" talent for an additional point in it. That way, because each member can only pickpocket a vendor once, that vendor can get pickpocketed up to six different times. And wait til level 4 when the next tier of skill books appear in their inventory, don't use any unless you get multiples of the same (they restock all books pretty quickly) so that after your respec you can learn the skills you want.
My main rogue had thievery 3 and I had only one other character with thievery before I realized this - he was at 2. There is a big difference ... 3, you can steal a lot of good stuff; 2, you can only take a few good things.
My party in Ft Joy and plan on keeping:
Beast - my main character - Rogue, because of the free point in sneak from "Dwarven Guile".
Ifan - Fighter, because shields are better in this game (the "captain america" shield throw skill is based on shield strength). Though I was torn for a bit - I usually went 2-handed fighter in the 1st game.
Fane - Archer - because archers are boss now with their bonus from higher attack spots; can't imagine a party without one.
Lohse - Mage - has high aerothurge right now due to Fane having high "lucky charm" and finding some awesome loot in chests that came with +1 aerothurge ... because of that, she wears the Gloves of Teleportation you get early on - her aerothurge (7 I think?) level causes MUCH more damage to an enemy when you use it on them. And usually I use it to help my archer so he can keep the high ground when they are getting close to him.
With the armor system in this game, because there is both physical and magic, it is really better to have your party focused on one of the 2. I went with a mostly physical damage route. Lohse is my buffer/controller with aerothurge and hydro being her main s right now, shes a stunner and teleporter mostly.
Fane, Lohse, and Ifan I picked because I think they have the best backstory/quests, and Beast as my main because of the free point towards a rogue.
Later, I'll likely have some points in Necro, Poly, and Summon for my physical characters as many of those skills don't have anything to do with INT, and Lohse, my mage, will get more of the classic mage schools that do scale with INT.
Hope this helps.
