Grimrock

So you can make the game start with fewer than four characters, right?
Is there any way, do you think to make npcs within the dungeon with ways to interact with them?
Such as give them a dialogue, the option to join party (and if the current party is full, kick one existing member out to have them join)
Or if interaction ends poorly, they become an enemy?
Or what if they were barter-able?

For example, lets say you begin play as one character thrown in an expansive dungeon.
In the depths you encounter other prisoners, you can team up with them.
Depending on the depth you find them, they could be higher level or specially trained or something.

What do you think?

changing party members etc is possible and not that hard to make, but I don't know about interact with them.
You could save/load all the equipment/stats etc. in arrays and make it basically like in "dungeon master" (with the potraits)
but display all the stats could be a little hard except you want it fully textbased.

I don't think the player should have access to a new party member's stats until they join.