Literally the entire point of Rowan is that he is smart and cunning.
Perhaps we are from parallel universes, as he just saw Werden he surrendered to the idea of getting help too fast he went to Bloodmeen location without knowing what to expect, no less entered inside in complete ignorance without plan, attacked Da Sista when his intention is rescuing his wife (even if the player take the choice of not going after Da Twins). When he's put to work at the castle, his presence doesn't change too much the dynamic in there on how things must be done (except for the event in which Rowan can choose to comply with the mercenary over the Rights of an Orc over a conquered town). He isn't seen planning, supervising the trainings nor naming commanders under his orders to comply with formations necessary for the success of a former plan of his doing. That's the SoC version of Rowan i had to play.
Off the top of my head I can consider him to be; Brave, Humble, Intelligent, Skilled, Resilient in the face of torture, and emotionally stable enough to not crack under the weight of everything he's dealing with.
Honestly, that's nice. In the game is possible to choose for him very humble options, but there are dialogs that hint that he don't have much trust in the nobility and moreover that he expected a better treat for him. I think he's brave when he's necessary to be, otherwise he just give orders. Skilled, yes, after being under attack against orcs, goblins, elves and humans and in many occasions survived without sweat, definitely is his better trait as much of this happened without the influence of random dice. About his intelligence, you can read my passed paragraph. Resilient... Well, Da Twins could be soft with him because they had planned to capture him in the first place. Emotionally stable... I don't know what to say, as the Hero of Solansia lose the chance to refuse to work for them and he did it for the sake of his wife, a wife that may be corrupted while Rowan isn't there to protect her, a woman who can be molded as a fuck toy for the entire Bloodmeen, so, he doom Solansia for the sake of his wife, doesn't sound too much emotionally stable knowing what Da Twins wanted from him under their service.
First of all, Gary Stu........second He downplays them because he has humility, you know a heroic trait. Thats not saying he some all powerful hero, but that does not mean he doesnt have heroic qualities. Even a regular joe can be humble. A lot of actual war veterans are like that.
How he can be a Gary Stu? his actions rescuing his wife surpasses that test, in the end of this Act whatever his actions he just have half of Rastedel and he take allies with just one side, the commoners or the knights instead of having both togueter is (scripted) that decision that could may have worked better maintaining the safety of the city.
You realize that this all started with a conservative screeching about him wanting to be a manly man man, right?
A real conservative would have written the word sexes instead of gender, that would be more accurate. But the thing is that this isn't the thread for discussions about that, is cosidered offtopic, just make use of the reaction button and choose something accurate to disaprove his post or ignore to let it die there. Otherwise you are calling the unwanted attention of modders who will gladly nuke several pages if necessary.