Straight human oracle of life (elan, if psionic races are in).
Or if it should be something roguelike, have a look at the investigator and slayer from the ACG.
My two favorite classes I've played as are magus and alchemist. both times I played as an elf. Magus was awesome because... well, it's really fun to fight a monster with a CR of your level, kill it in two rounds, and not even lose one of your mirror images. For alchemist I actually have a decent reason for why I like it so much besides "being OP is fun" Alchemist is one of the most versatile classes out there. Alchemist can take on any of the four party roles, or ALL OF THEM. Seriously, once you get beyond 2nd-3rd level, if you take lost of extra discovery and take the right discoveries, you can easily bounce between healer/buffer, blow stuff up person, tank, and skill monkey. (I recommend infusion, precise bombs, feral mutagen, explosive bombs, healing bombs, and maybe an alternate damage type bomb if you fight a lot of things with resistance to fire.)
2. Former pirate that was blackmailed into the role in order for his family to live etc etc not going through the whole story.
^ This one would be a large weapon/cleave based character but I would need assistance on what is optimal as well as what direction I can take in order to make the character unique via archetypes, feats, etc.
ooh, this can line up nicely with an inquisitor (my favorite class) of the pirate goddess besmara. if you want to take this route then i suggest a half orc so you get proficiency with falchions and take chaos, trickery, or war for your domain depending on which option you like better. the judgment and bane class features from inquisitor go great with 2 hander builds, they get a good pool for skills, and solo tactics lets you use the teamwork feats without the other party members needing them.