My conception of the Bard as a caster is not that of studious reseracher but that of a widely learned artist who has picked up tricks and bit and pieces from everywhere on his travels. Every bit of his knowedge and magic has a story behind it. Where he picked it up from who and how they met.
You are a PF2 Bard with some changes.
You gain abilities normally however you have Hit Point and Spell slots like a Psychic. All your spells are adapted into music. Your Muse is the Polymath. Modify the Esoteric Polymath feat. Your Spell Repertoire is recorded in a book of spells (though you refer to them as songs) These spells can be of any tradition of magic and don’t all have to be the same tradition but they must have a verbal component. During your daily preparations, choose any one spell from your book of spells. If it isn't in your repertoire, treat it as though it were until your next daily preparations. If you have too many spells in your repertoire then choose which ones to forget. You can expand your collection of spells by recording it in your book.
From level 2 you gain skill feats and skills at the same rate as a Rogue.
I'm sure someone will be able to break this. But this is the other character that is a bard to me.
What about focus spells and refocusing progression?
And the weapon proficiency ( a 1-10 spellcaster with a martial proficiency? )?
Same goes with saves.
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Everything as per bard. Just changing what I said above.ps: I always felt the minstrel name as somebody not tied to magic ( just a rogue, for example, with compositions ).
I like the Bard as a hodge podge caster. They just know certain things because of the breath of their experience.
So this is how I prefer to see the Bard. I am not a fan of the way WoTC and Paizo hace gone in the last editions. It doessn't fit the main concepts of it we have in fiction. I prefer it as 4 different things.
1) the warrior bard with little to no magic outside the compositions. Example the Skald in previous thread. If you want a PF1 style Skald then multiclass into barbarian.
2) the wandering minstrel with tricks and magic from everywhere. In this thread.
3) the scoundrel rogue. Which is just a rogue with maybe a bard multiclass archetype. So it doesn't need anything custom.
4) the occult caster. Which is not really a bard at all just a wizard with the occult spell list. This is not what I think of a bard but it is needed to cover the range of what the current PF2 bard does. A custom school and thesis would be prefered, but Universalist and Spell Substitution will work for now.