So i recruited the druid down in th gorge, I had to dismiss Aloth to open up a character slot. When I returned to the game from the party management screen the druid is not in my party. If I go back to my castle I cannot add or remove characters.

 

if I call up the party management screen and add a character it will show the character is in my party on that screen. It wll even show the party I am supposed to have on the save file information - as in, there will be six character portraits there.

 

But when I close that screen I will only have my other five characters and cannot add or remove party members. Now I have no control spellcaster.

Recruiting Hirvais is buggy right now; it's a known problem.

 

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/88124-game-breaking-bug-cannot-change-party-303/

 

I got around it by disabling auto-leveling, having him join the team (though failing to join the party), and going back to the inn to force him in.  Note that I had to try several times before the party management screen in the Copperlane tavern finally decided to cooperate.