Thanks for clarifying. I actually played my first full playthrough as a Swords Bard with a 1 level dip in Wizard to learn spells from scrolls, but never clicked on the Replace Spell button with that character so thought I may have missed something.
Separately, I am a big fan of Rangers. I like starting out with 9 or 10 skills as a Wood Elf Ranger, all of the mobility options, stealth and sleight of hand utility, good perception checks, and ranged attacks making use of high ground mechanics in this game. However, if you want all of this plus spells, a straight Swords Bard 12 or Swords Bard 10 / Fighter 2 just does it better. I still prefer the Gloomstalker plus thief/assassin for a pure rogue type player. But mixing in spells, I prefer the Swords Bard.
