You can walk right out of a gate at any time. Picking up the companions takes a minute at most.
IMO this is something we do learn from playing it a few times over. But the first time I played and I suspect many people are like this. We don't know what to expect. What we fall into is "Talk to everybody" because if I don't I might miss a key part. Then you have 10 quests going at once... to be honest I'm not a big fan of that, to me stories get lost. But since I didn't know how the game worked being new to it, that is the safest way to roll.
So with that mindset, you can spend a lot of time in town before you get into a run of fair sized battles.
Now knowing how it all works, yes you can get to town, go grab the 2 Hirelings and head out the West Gate and fight level 2 and 3's to have some fighting fun and level. All within 5-10 mins of arriving.
I go back to the Bartender in the Crab should be the TIP guy. "Hey if you want to have some fun knocking heads when you get into town, head out the West Gate. Great way to toughen up!"
Good News: There will be Walkthrough's coming...
