but I am saying that you cannot ropleplay a talented bard with 4 perform, a skilled duelist with BAB 3 or a dedicated arcanist who can only cast cantrips. That would be cheesing.
Please know that I am not criticizing the poster, but rather criticizing the sentiment in this particular part of the post. This sentiment bothers me to no end, because I see it echoed in so many other posts in so many other threads.
Of course you can roleplay these, no cheese required. You roleplay them in any level-appropriate scenario. Your second level bard (who should have a perform of a minimum of 5 at that level, before modifiers), will be an astounding guitar player to a bunch of other level 2s who have never picked up a lute, let alone played one. You can sing, dance, rhyme, or do hand puppets -- whatever floats your boat. And everyone around you will play along, like we do with everyone else. If you are a level 2 trying to RP a talent contest against a level 20, you will likely lose just based on skill roles, but RP is more than 2 players rolling [perform] and comparing numbers, then declaring victory. RP would be damn boring if it was just roll-playing and not role-playing. Put on your best RP talent show, and let the other player put on theirs. At the end of it all, you can roll your perform scores and the crowd can decide on a winner based on whatever criteria they choose, whether that be in accordance with your roll or not.
Your skilled arcanist can still do more at level 2 than any local peasant. If you are trying to pretend to be Gandalf the Grey or Merlin right out of the starting gate, then nobody will take you seriously (not even the peasants), but perhaps starting out as Schmendrick from "The Last Unicorn" may be more believable at level 2, and offer a wealth of creative RP opportunities. Even Merlin had to start somewhere (think of Mickey Mouse in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" from "Fantasia").
Quite honestly, I don't understand the preoccupation with needing great equipment or needing to level up to increase your skill rolls, ability scores, feats, or whatever -- when it comes to RP, most of that is blindingly irrelevant. Those things certainly matter in PvE, but not for RP.