Since most compounds relevant for flavour are created during the early stages of fermentation, I doubt the temperature dialed in for a week post-pitch is going to have a noticeable impact.
I'm currently fermenting a saison. Pitched at 22C (the lower end of the strain's recommend temperature range), fermentation kicked off super fast. It started slowing down after only 24 hours, so I increased the temperature by 1 celsius and then again 24 hours later. By that time, the kräusen had already dropped, so this is more about speeding up the super-attenuation than character.
I've never understood just what the heck it's supposed to mean to let it "free rise". You'll always have some ambient temperature, and the wort temperature may be a bit higher, depending on volume.