Jamoid

There's a new option to reset newly recruited companions to level 1 (without losing the experience). This will allow you to level up companions to your liking. Awesome. Thanks!

I think many people just prefer the middle ages and early medieval periods, long before gunpowder. Having full plate in a setting like that may technically make as little (or as much) sense as guns, but to someone who doesn't know history it's far less of a stretch. Guns change everything, slightly thicker armour doesn't. Personally though any setting works for me depending on how well it's done. The mechanics may not be perfect in Pillars of Eternity but they nailed the overall feel, including the guns. It's just incredibly satisfying to play a stealth character that sneaks up behind folk and shoots them in the back of the head to initiate combat. The sounds and animations are fantastic.

Barbarian and monk are viable options too. Slightly less durable than a paladin I think, but with far better crown control and damage respectively. They're also far more interesting mechanically than paladins in my opinion. Check out this guy's channel, he has some great builds if you need some inspiration - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGSnd6gOXMgFuKvNXXFXZsw

Yeah it's a very minor bug for folk like me who are completely addicted to the game and know exactly what each of the voices are like after playing 24/7 since release.

No audio plays when I try to preview voices in character creation after updating to the beta patch. I've tried downgrading/verifying etc. No mods installed.