I discovered a partial way around the problem. If you have a full party and try to recruit a fifth member you will be able to select their class but they will tell you to remove someone before they can join. Once you dump the Red Prince for being a narcissistic megalomaniac, you can add the person you were trying to recruit. The person you were trying to recruit will only be level one, and you can level up as in the early access.
A little gaming of the game, but better than allocating stats in CON and civil in Bartering at level 2.