My suggestion, would be to just give half-elves some other boost to circumvent the whole 'being a better spellcaster than humans is badwrongfun!' problem in 3E, largely a problem created by Wizards of the Coast. Of course, there are still Grey Elves and whatnot. :\
Give 'em something like free Weapon Finesse and +2 on whatever Charisma-based social skills they don't already have a bonus with, and Perform as a class skill as you mentioned. That should do it. And provide enough of the swashbucklery feel. Since they'll still be less flexible than humans and less powerful than dwarves, it should be acceptable.
Generally, the whole '+2 to a mental stat at LA+0' thing is just taboo in 3.x because the designers wanted all the core races to be relatively equal in their capacity to fulfill the basic class roles.
Except, y'know, the dwarf is more equal than everyone else, the half-elf is less equal than most everyone else, and the half-orc is less equal than everyone except the kobold (which isn't even a PHB race).
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I mean really, who plays half-orc bards? Who has ever considered half-orc bards to be just as effective and suitable combo as human bards? They suffer in their two most important stats as a bard, in exchange for a small boost to melee power. Then on top of that they lack the human feat and skill points, instead just getting darkvision, which they could probably get with a spell anyway after a few levels if they didn't have it already.
Just an example. I actually do play wierd race-class combos most of the time, but the point is, that's purely a roleplaying choice, a conscious decision to play something odd and probably less effective than normal, just because it's different. No one chooses to be a half-orc bard while expecting to be just as good a bard as the human, half-elf, or gnome would be. The supposed balance of races in 3E is a fallacy. They're certainly close to one another in general effectiveness and power, but barely, and typically just when they're filling the roles they are best-suited to.
Really, it's just a wierd taboo that sticks around for no good reason. The only advantage to keeping that taboo is it makes things marginally more difficult for munchkin powergamers to abuse to the max. Except, y'know, there are all kinds of
other races, classes, and feats in official D&D products these days that can easily be broken in much the same manner by anyone halfway-determined. :\
Which, again, is why it's a stupid and useless taboo. Unless a DM bans a whole lotta stuff outright, his or her game will still be quite break-able and abuse-able by munchkins and powergamers, so why bother with useless, arbitrary restrictions? If the DM doesn't want X type of advantage to be available in his or her game, then he'll ban it.
There's no need to arbitrarily gimp your design decisions when those restrictions have already been bent, twisted, and outright broken sometimes by the officials at Wizards of the Coast. Even if they do rabidly insist that you follow the guidelines they sometimes ignore.
And powergaming isn't always a bad thing, it's just bad in
some groups, anyhow. Cutting loose with a crazy-strong combo can be fun, especially since you're in the DM's sandbox, and he can play that way too, only the DM has all the cool toys.
As long as you keep your rules material
objectively balanced, it shouldn't be a problem.
Frex, in my Aurelia homebrew, all the races (except dwarves) are more powerful (yes, even kobolds are a very effective LA+0 in Aurelia), and several of them have mental ability score boosts, uneven ability scores, or racial boosts to spellcasting in one way or another. Humans get a bonus feat at 1st and every 9 levels after that, plus their extra skill points and a racial bonus to any one skill of their choice. Most flexible race in Aurelia.
Elves have +2 Dex and Cha, -2 Str and Con, along with a handful of nice racial traits, and Sorcerer is their favored class in Aurelia (Elves ARE magic, duh!).
But then, Aurelian Gnomes have a racial bonus with all spellcasting, and get +2 Int but -2 Str and Wis, among other racial traits. While Celestri have +2 to Wis and Cha, but -2 to Str and Con, and other stuff. Orcs have +4 Str and +2 Con, with -2 Int, Wis, and Cha, plus a few lesser racial traits. Some of the other races have a Level Adjustment and/or a few racial hit dice, but most of the Aurelian standard races are LA+0 with no racial HD.
But generally, since there are so many races, and several of them have spellcasting boosts from greater mental stats or other stuff, no one race is definitively 'the best'. Gnomes are certainly quite good at spellcasting, particularly wizardry, but only mediocre divine casters, and they're physically disadvantageous, though they do get a few racial traits that kinda help gnomish warriors (so there is some reason to play a gnomish fighter or whatnot, just not as good a reason to play a human fighter). Yet the races have obvious advantages and disadvantages, and that's perfectly fine.
Of course a smart race is going to make the best wizards, and of course strong races are going to make the best melee warriors, but that doesn't mean having such races in the game is badwrongfun and should be banzzored. The core rules already have dwarves and half-orcs as the best melee folks, humans a close third, and everyone else a distant fourth. And they have elves and halflings as they best ranged combatants, humans a close third, everyone else a distant fourth. And humans as the best spellcasters in the core rules. Even though, y'know, elves and gnomes are supposed to be rather magical and smart and stuff. But they're not. :\
You wanna play the best wizard around in Aurelia, you'll probably be playing a Gnome, but you'll still have a few less feats and less multiclassing flexibility than a Human, and lower Will saves, less melee strength, much lower carrying capacity, and the drawback of being easily grappled; at least until you learn Freedom of Movement, but you might have to cast it a lot to stay safe. Doesn't help you that Aurelian Ogres have springy legs and are good jumpers, so you may have to Fly or Levitate higher than usual to stay out of melee/aerial-snatch-and-bodyslam reach. But hey, your spells will be slightly harder to resist, and you'll have maybe 1-3 extra spell slots eventually.
