If you buy starter packs before doing any SP dungeons, you can add those chars to your party when you're in the tavern. But you can't remove them, and you can't equip items (inventory isn't available). EDIT: No "Remove from Party" button in MP Keep either; I guess that only shows up once you unlock the Keep on the Hinterlands?
Yup, the button should come back once you progress a little way through the campaign. Not many people went straight to MP during beta, so unfortunately that path didn't get much of a workout. Bug is logged, we'll probably look at it early next week.
The best solution would probably be to also disable the "Add to Party" button until the keep is unlocked, so we also avoid this situation.