Martial Sorcery

The blood of war flows through you, a potent legacy passed down from generations of warriors touched by arcane energies. Unlike the subtle manipulations of other sorcerous origins, your magic manifests as raw, martial power. You are a living conduit of arcane force, channeling spells through the strike of a blade and weaving magic into the very fabric of combat. This lineage breeds sorcerers who are as comfortable wielding a sword and shield as they are casting spells, blurring the lines between arcane and martial prowess.

Those who manifest this War Mage bloodline find their bodies changing, adapting to the rigors of combat. Their skin might harden, their reflexes sharpen, and the very air around them crackles with latent power. They learn to summon arcane energy through their weapons, imbuing them with elemental force, and master techniques that weave sorcery into the heart of battle.

This subclass is for sorcerers who wish to stand on the front lines, a terrifying blend of spellcaster and warrior. They are not mere mages who can wield a weapon, but true combat sorcerers, capable of unleashing devastating barrages of magical strikes, manipulating the battlefield with arcane illusions, and weathering the harshest blows with their innate sorcerous resilience. They are the embodiment of war magic, a force to be reckoned with on any battlefield.

Thoughts on balance.
Unarmored Defense. is unusual because it doesn't rely on Dex. The subclass is MAD because you still partially rely on either Dex or Str for the martial power fantasy for your non-Spellstrike attacks. Dex overall is a strong ability and it comes with an opportunity cost to drop it. I choose this to open a pathway to choose Str instead of Dex as your attacking ability.
Surge of Tenacity. is an alternative to straight up adding hit points like a draconic sorcerer. It's inspired by the Fiend Warlocks Dark One's Blessing but weaker and a bit more situational.
Imbued Weapon. One weapon plus the new cool weapon mastery and some flexibility to change it.
Spellstrike. This is the most powerful feature of the subclass. It allows for a significant action economy advantage and deals a lot of damage. The sorcery point cost helps to balance it, but it is still very strong. Due to the sorcery point cost it makes the spell effectively cost a bit more than normal, also you have to be in melee range to use it. For certain spells like i.e. Fireball you would need to also spend sorcery points on Metamagic to not blow yourself up, increasing the cost even more.
Empowered Spellstrike. Opens the way to focus on Cha over Str/Dex if you want to rely more an Saving Throw heavy spells. Opportunity cost is that your additional attacks are less effective.
Martial Spells. More or less thematically fitting spells. Would have like to include Zephyr Strike and Steel Wind Strike but didn't work.
Barrage of Blows. Attack additional times with your martial ability - not Cha! (Using this with a Hexblade multiclass is not considered)
Heightened Focus. To give at least a bit that helps out of combat and helps with the MADness of the subclass.
Sorcerous Defense. Gives a lot of flexibility and survivability to escape from bad situations. Expensive but potentially very strong.
Spellforged Counter. Something the increase the reliance on a martial ability. Also reaction is split between this, Surge of Tenacity and Shield and other reaction spells.
Purity of Soul. Strong feature along the lines of a weaker Indomitable with more uses. Gives more late game survivability to compensate for the low hit point pool.
Blade & Sorcery. I just love to not care about resources and just blow everything out. It's a bit lame though tbh. Remember there is only one Bonus Action, so you need a couple of turns to make it worth it.

Overall I think there is a point to be made, that you could still use the class as a ranged sorcerer with increased survivability. You would then have a subclass basically only consisting of the Unarmored Defense and Purity of Soul features. I tried to maximize the motivation to get into melee. It relys heavily on high cost and medium survivability with high flexibility to hopefully balance itself. The whole subclass is completely combat orientated.

Level 3: Martial Resilience

As war magic flows through your body, it causes new physical traits to emerge.

Unarmored Defense.
While you aren’t wearing armor, your base Armor Class equals 10 plus your Constitution and Charisma modifiers.

Surge of Tenacity.
When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee weapon attack or your Spellstrike, you can use your reaction to gain temporary hit points equal to 1d6 plus your Charisma modifier. The die increases to 1d8 at 11th level and 1d10 at 17th level.

Level 3: Imbued Weapon

Spellforged Conduit.
You gain proficiency with one Melee Weapon of your choice and can use their mastery property. This weapon can be used as a spell focus for your Sorcerer Spells. During a long rest you can change your weapon of choice.

Spellstrike.
Once per turn, you can spend Sorcery Points to imbue your Spellforged Conduit with a spell. The Spellstrike table shows the cost of imbueing a spell of a certain level. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and target a single creature or an area. The spell's effects are triggered by your next melee weapon attack with your Spellforged Conduit this turn. If your Innate Sorcery is active you gain Advantage on your Spellstrike attack.

• On a hit, the target suffers the weapon's normal damage and the spell's damage as if the spell had hit.
• If the spell requires a saving throw, affected creatures must make the saving throw as normal.
• Area of effect spells originate from the creature you hit with the melee weapon attack.

Empowered Spellstrike.
You can expend 1 sorcery point to use your Charisma modifier in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls of the imbued weapon's attack.

SPELLSTRIKE

Class Level	Spell Points	Min. sorcerer level
Cantrip	1	2
1	2	2
2	3	3
3	5	5
4	6	7
5	7	9
6	8	11
7	9	13
8	11	15
9	13	17

Level 3: Martial Spells

When you reach a Sorcerer level specified in the Martial Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared.

Martial Spells

Sorcerer Level	Spells
3	Blur, Hunter's Mark, Magic Weapon, Shield
5	Fly, Haste
7	Freedom of Movement, Stoneskin
9	Bigby's Hand, Flame Strike

Level 6: Arcane Prowess

You learn to perform impressive displays of martial prowess and speed. You can spend your sorcery points to fuel various Arcane Prowess features.

Barrage of Blows.
Immediately after you make a Melee Attack on your turn, you can use a Bonus Action to spend up to 2 Sorcery Points to make a number of additional Melee Weapon Attacks equal to the Sorcery Points spent.

Heightened Focus.
You can spend 2 Sorcery Points to gain Advantage on your next Strength, Dexterity, or Perception check. This Advantage lasts until the end of your next turn.

Sorcerous Defense.
You can spend up to 3 Sorcery Points to use a Bonus Action to perform additional actions. For each Sorcery Point spent, you can use the Dash, Disengage or Dodge action. You can not use any of these twice on the same turn as part of this Bonus Action.

Spellforged Counter.
When a creature within 5 feet of you hits you with a Melee Weapon Attack, you can use your Reaction and spend 2 Sorcery Points to attempt to parry the attack. You make a Melee Weapon Attack roll using your Spellforged Conduit. If your attack roll is higher than the attacker's attack roll, the attack misses you. If the attack misses, you can immediately make one melee weapon attack against the attacking creature as part of the same Reaction. You can only use this feature if you are wielding your Spellforged Conduit.

Level 14: Purity of Soul

If you fail a Saving Throw, you can spend 2 Sorcery Points to reroll it with a bonus equal to your Charisma modifier. You must use the new roll and can't use this feature for the same roll again.

Level 18: Blade & Sorcery

You have achieved perfect harmony between sword and spell. When you activate your Innate Sorcery you can spend 10 Sorcery Points to grant you the ability to use your Barrage of Blows, Sorcerous Defense and Spellforged Counter features without spending any Sorcery Points while your Innate Sorcery is active. You can then immediately use your Barrage of Blows feature.