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The nature of feat chains and specialization will always make it so that planning out characters is the best choice to make a mechanically strong character. If you want to put in the effort you could adapt a system that doesn't have a lot of features and feats with prerequisites and reveal different options the character can choose as the game progresses, but that's quite a lot of effort to quell such a minor role playing offense.
There are many character personalities that are unwilling to advance down specific paths which are presented in the campaign because "it's not their schtick." Sometimes a player's unwillingness to diverge from their character's predetermined path is a reflection of the DM's inability to entice the player into choosing something different, which means the DM is at fault as well.