I'd guess it may work like the oldie Dungeon Master, where you indeed choose 3 characters to go along with you in a "prologue" kind of map, and you have time to review your choices.
A way to make a better experience out of it would be to be left rotting in the cell and have enough time to befriend the other potential characters. This "befriending" would be a kind of choice in disguise, but it would feel more natural and less "jerk" to make your daring escape with them. "Befriending" is obviously a wild term, since you may end up fighting one another.
Anyway it would seem like a slightly more elegant solution in order to be able to choose your companions calmly, and avoid the ludonarrative dissonance ( I placed it! 10 points! ) of having to choose during a time-critical moment. "aaand what do you do ? Oh you cook? alright, you're in. You? You're a ventriloquist? hm. Let me check that guy, be right back." "Guys, huh, the guards are coming..." "yeah just a sec."
Another, sneaky system would be to actually have to choose them quickly because you don't have time enough. While you wouldn't be able to precisely choose the characters coming with you, the pseudo-randomness of the process sounds interesting, as you'd end up with a rag-tag team of people who do not trust each other. This may yield some surprises. Still I reckon most people wouldn't like that, especially in a tactical RPG. Forcing your players to do something quickly in real time wouldn't be a smart choice.
The Brotherhood of norD is love, the Brotherhood of norD is life.
