Originally Posted by Ranxerox
Your character starts alone on the Nautiloid so a custom party "from the start" was never really likely. You can respec the heirlings (not sure about race) so eventually you can at least have a party customized by class. Perhaps there will be a Mod to allow full customization of your heirlings but you will still always start on the Nautiloid alone.

The Community Update said you can have a party full of badgers. And since there's one hireling per class, I'd guess that you can even change their class in order to accomplish the "full badger" party.