There is a respec mod on nexus and the game has respec on normal and below nowadays too. There is no reason to be stuck with something you don't have fun with.
As to role-playing vs optimization... Playing something that's interesting should always take precedent. Even unfair is beatable if the builds just make sense. Depends on what you personally find fun. I usually don't take roleplay into consideration when making builds as it's not measurable. Given some mental gymnastics most anything can be justified and there is no DM to slap you on the wrist.
WotR... I'm not sure I'll buy it given I don't like their community management. Will see.

Any tips on how to play this early? I took the heirloom weapon trait from the mod and thus have a scimitar early, would it be better to do unarmed and just use spells or use the blade? also whats the combat priority for this class? Was interested in this build bc I wanted to play blind with little worry the buidl would suck late game. Just wanted some more guidance on what to prioritize early and how to play the class in combat.

Thanks,

Super early it's the same as every melee ever. Use whatever weapon that gives you the most AB. Use support spells from your spellcasters liberally. Fight defensively from the moment you get crane style and keep mirror image up at all times. Spell strike is either very good with touch of fatigue early on or awful depending on how high of a difficulty you are going to play as it gives an extra attack, but adds -2 penalty.
Alchemist is there to get a bit of extra damage and AB/AC, which would be welcome for some hard fights. If you are going to play challenging and below you can safely skip it for another magus level.
Early-game can be pretty brutal in this one. Don't get discouraged and don't be shy to blow everything on one encounter - you have enough time for everything and A1 always skips to a set date after you're done. And don't expect to be able to do everything the moment you encounter it. Use inspect feature to evaluate your chances as the game doesn't scale to your level and keep an eye to environmental clues and what NPC's say as it can give you a good guess at the challenges ahead. In a lot of ways it's closer to tabletop than any other cRPG out there and PNP mindset will greatly help you along the way.
Tankiness will come with time mostly. Early you will survive with mirror image and improved invis(once you get there) and as you will stack AC more and more the game will get easier.

I hate DDs and not a big fan of Bards, so I might have to think of a few adjustments here :)

If I understand correctly you're saying that a Slayer/Ranger is better off picking "Menacing" instead of "TWF" at 2/6/10 and then pick the TWF/ITWF/GTWF feats separately?

Also, I noticed you haven't made any archery-based build. Are they just not good enough compared to melee and casters?

There is an alternative of playing vivisectionist. Not sure what would be more cancer of the bunch. I generally come from an unfair perspective, so every few points do count and DD gets you all of the above. Plus archaeologist2/DD4 gets mirror image and uncanny on top of other stuff, so it's easy to justify on most anything.

what I say is any melee is really only interested in shatter. Dazzling is kinda meh as it can be substituted by dirge or frightful aspect and those don't need to roll and don't take an action.
Menacing gets intimidating prowess, cause intimidation checks are the most exp in the game and shatter and can get dreadful with no power attack if you want to. So you skip at least dazzling that way and then you can also toss out focus as nothing crucial is left behind it.
If you take TWF feats you are trading fairly 1/1 and don't get added benefit of skipping feats.
Also stat items are nuts in this game. You will likely end the game with +8 STR/DEX/CON belt, so even with 11 starting dex you'd be able to take and sustain TWF feats. I wouldn't recommend that as +4 dex items come kinda late, but one could do that.

It's mostly cause there is no reason for it. Only role that is not covered at all by companions would be frontline tank/DD, so that's reasonable to focus on. Mercs just don't have enough stats for it(at least not for unfair). Affirmative action hero Ekun covers it alright if you want to try bows with his insane stats even though he has a bit of favored enemy slots wasted.

There just isn't much you can do with a bow, except for bog standard ra or slayer 15/EA2/V3, which is not exactly an interesting build. Pretty much take ekun build and swap sacred for Vivi. Can be a booter instead of ranger for more team support or can take sacred (abadar nobility) 16/Booter4 for a lot of utility... I, personally, like archer cleric merc just cause they stay out of combat automatically that way and extra 100-ish damage when he's not casting is fine. 'Best' archer is probably Scoundrel8/EA2/EK10 with spell focus hellfire ray If only cause he can one-shot the end boss and most other things much like AT/Sorc does. And that's pretty much it for the bow usage. And most if it is essentially either the same build or is an archer incidentally.

To sum it up, archers are awesome and not at the same time, paradoxically enough. They get loads of gear to boost AB. Cool. They don't do as much damage or utility that AT sorc would. Eh. They do ok consistent damage. Cool. But they don't participate in melee line's AoO synergy. Meh. Bow usage just doesn't provide anything unique that you can't get elsewhere. I probably would get around to filling it out if I didn't stop investing unreasonable amounts of time into making guides for this game. Good party pretty much has to have 2 tanks, a cleric, and a control+damage sorc. 2 slots left for any meme thing you'd want. Bows will always kinda suck compared to melee with their 20/x3 in a straight damage race. So that leaves mirror bow sneak stacking... Now problem with ranged sneak is you will move a lot to enable it as you need 30ft range, thus negating the main advantage of not moving much... and also the fact that you can just use AT/Sorc merc for late-game and just one-shot everything instead of using a bow.

I think I see your point: beyond being a reasonable build, they have to work well in a party scenario, and some builds/roles are just more adequate to that.

So let's say I take the following NPCs and your builds as per the first page:

Amiri - Barb8/Ran10/Vivi1/Stalwart1
Jaethal - Inq3/Cle17
Kanerah - Kin19/Rog1
Octavia - Wiz7/Rog1/ArcT10/Vivi2
Valerie - F11/Vivi3/Mo1/Rog4/Stalwart1

What do you see as the role my PC should take to best benefit this group? Another caster? An off tank? Melee damage dealer?

I think I'll just play normal. :) So I may relax a bit and pick something I really want to try, as long as I don't make a terribly useless character I guess? :)

Any advice for a Sword Saint weapon? Might mix it with Eldritch Knight.

Heck might even try a Divine Guardian (10)/Deliverer(10), I have a thing for paladins in plate armor dual wielding swords since the IWD2 days... :D

For normal. so llong as it even vaguely makes sense it will be perfectly fine. Just no 7 int wizards.

With varn DLC done and lion's claw falcata found there - I'd say falcatas. No DLC - fauchard for serpent prince, although there is a chance you will not luck out into it. Next best thing is longswords for redeemer.

Hello wanted to know why Stalwart Def 1 instead of getting 1 more feat in Fighter?

Doesn't need more feats. She's even taken crit effect feat. While stalwart at least gives a stance. Plus 1 AC on top of it. Decent deal, overall.

I see Thanks so much! ;)

Thanks so much for your guides!
No half an hour videos with mumbling. No walls of text about nothing.
Just pure info.

Your guides helped me understand game better, than any of the "Basic guides" out there.
I went from "Wow, this is much harder than Deadfire, Lionheart and Neverwinter Nights 2", to "Wow, this is easy, just not really balanced for CRPG"

Your Kineticist's helped me fix my first character :)

RIght now im thinking to play as pure Grenadier and use your Jubilost build as base. But i wanted to play as Human or Asimar, any suggestions what i should change\pick?
Also, how much it would hurt to drop Infusion or push it way later? Especially since i plan to use Jubilost as a second DD and buffer.

Infusion is something you can even skip wholesale. You kinda need it on someone to give out echolocation, but that's that.
As to grenadier - just pick something with int bonus, so human is actually better than most other things. Pretty much only race that cant be swapped for something else is motherless tiefling.

Thanks for the answer :)
Guess human is basically "when in doubt, pick human" option.

Btw, any chances of seen your guides on Wrath of the righteous, when it comes out?