Almost all of the companions are easy to recruit in the starter town so you don't really need to balance your classes around when you find them.
What you should do is create at least 1 mage, as there's only 1 mage party member, and 2 mages is a good combo for first time players. The recruit mage is Water and Air oriented so don't get those types of spells on your created character.
You will want one fighter type, which there is one of the recruits too. Rogue types are less essential, and are the other party members (one stabbing oriented, the other arrow)
So basically, create a mage with fire and earth skills, your second created character, just go with what seems fun, and then take the NPCs that aren't that character type with you.
But even if you don't do that, you'll be able to supplement most classes with skills. For instance, an arrow focused rogue gets lots of elemental arrows and so can sort of replace a mage if you want, though not quite as easily.
Or create two mages that compliment each other and say sod off to the NPC mage. As long as you don't do something obvious like make two melee rogues for your avatars, you'll find a party setup that works for you in the first town.
