So I gave this a lot of thought, and I think the Shadow Magic sorcerer could be modified a little bit to be a pretty interesting take on the gish concept.  It would keep all the same flavor but change a few key features to make it actually useful.

Eyes of the Dark

Starting at 1st level, you have darkvision with a range of 120 feet.  While in dim light or darkness you gain armor class equal to your charisma modifier.

When you reach 3rd level in this class, you learn the darkness spell, which doesn’t count against your number of sorcerer spells known. In addition, you can cast it by spending 2 sorcery points or by expending a spell slot. If you cast it with sorcery points, you can see through the darkness created by the spell.

When you reach 3rd level in this class, you learn the Shadow Blade spell, which doesn’t count against your number of sorcerer spells known.  In addition, spending 1 sorcery points as part of the bonus action used to cast the spell causes this spell to not require concentration.  At the start of your turn in which you are concentrating on another spell while a shadow blade is summoned in this way, you must either spend 1 additional sorcerery point to maintain both spells or cancel the effects of one of them.

 

Strength of the Grave

Starting at 1st level, your existence in a twilight state between life and death makes you difficult to defeat. When damage reduces you to 0 hit points, you can make a Charisma saving throw (DC 5 + the damage taken). On a success, you instead drop to 1 hit point. You can’t use this feature if you are reduced to 0 hit points by radiant damage or by a critical hit.

After the saving throw succeeds, you can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest.

 

Hound Mark of Ill Omen

At 6th level, you gain the ability to call forth a howling creature of darkness to harass your foes. As a bonus action, you can spend 3 sorcery points to magically summon a hound of ill omen to target one creature you can see within 120 feet of you. The hound uses the dire wolf statistics (see the Monster Manual or appendix C in the Player’s Handbook), with the following changes:

• The hound is size Medium, not Large, and it counts as a monstrosity, not a beast.
• It appears with a number of temporary hit points equal to half your sorcerer level.
• It can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. The hound takes 5 force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
• At the start of its turn, the hound automatically knows its target’s location. If the target was hidden, it is no longer hidden from the hound.

The hound appears in an unoccupied space of your choice within 30 feet of the target. Roll initiative for the hound. On its turn, it can move only toward its target by the most direct route, and it can use its action only to attack its target. The hound can make opportunity attacks, but only against its target. Additionally, while the hound is within 5 feet of the target, the target has disadvantage on saving throws against any spell you cast. The hound disappears if it is reduced to 0 hit points, if its target is reduced to 0 hit points, or after 5 minutes.

At 6th level, you can call upon the shadows to assault the senses of your foes. As a bonus action, you can magically summon flame-like shadows around a target creature of your choice within 60 feet.  The shadows turn dim light within 10 feet of the target into darkness, and bright light in the same area to dim light.   Any magical light from a level 1 or higher spell or a magical object cancels this effect.

 

Shadow Walk

At 14th level, you gain the ability to step from one shadow into another. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action, you can magically teleport up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness.

 

Umbral Form

Starting at 18th level, you can spend 6 sorcery points as a bonus action to magically transform yourself into a shadowy form. In this form, you have resistance to all damage except force and radiant damage, and you can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 5 force damage if you end your turn inside an object.

You remain in this form for 1 minute. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action.

So I've changed it a bit to make it a melee oriented subclass built around the idea you'll be using shadow blade a lot.  The build encourages you to fight in dim light.  Doing so increases your AC as well as your damage because of shadow blade getting advantage in dim light. 

The darkness/devils sight thing was kinda pointless and too similar to a major draw of the hexblade.  So I scrapped it and gave it something unique.  I decided against giving the sorcerer a second attack but instead gave a way to cast shadow blade without needing concentration.  This opens up a ton of options and may very well be too good.  Might need to cap it at a level 2 spell but at first thought, I don't think it's any more OP as giving a second attack with a shadow blade.  It is way more versatile though.  Haste could give the second attack, or any number of interesting options that would make it more interesting than just attacking twice.  It has a steep sorcerery point cost though, especially at lower levels. Therefore it can't be done at will the way a second attack could.  It might even be too steep but it is very strong so who knows.

I removed some of the crappiness of the strength of the grave mechanic.  It will actually work now.  Removing the save DC and the Crit restriction made this much less annoying.

Hound of Ill Omen was kinda bad, didn't scale, and didn't seem terribly thematic so I've swapped out a new level 6 ability that feels more useful and thematic.  The level 6 ability gives you a way to create dim light or possibly darkness.  This synergizes with the other mechanics super well. 

The level 14 ability is unchanged however you can create dim light on demand now which gives this a huge buff in utility.  This might need to have some charges added because of how much more useful it is.  But I like the idea of a sorcerer teleporting around the battlefield often so maybe charisma mod / short rest? 

The level 18 ability is also unchanged.

So that's my take on the melee sorcerer.  Any thoughts?

Just as a concept idea (don’t have time to try and figure out features right now.$

Quote from luigrein >>

Just as a concept idea (don’t have time to try and figure out features right now.$

Warsoul: 

Great battles leave their mark on the world. That much magic and pain concentrated in one area can have unexpected echoes. Maybe you were born in a fort that was once under seige for months. Perhaps your magic awakened in a desperate last stand. Regardless of how it happened, the memory of battle is in your blood.

I would probably model the starting features after hexblade, medium armor + shields, attack with CHA. Rather than a pact weapon maybe have a floating weapon proficiency that you can change with a short rest, maybe spend a sorcery point to do it in battle. Less “this is my weapon” and more *picks something up* “I can use this.”

 That would be cool. I would also add a minimum +1 HP/Level, Sorcerers only get a d6 for their Hit Die.

I've been trying to find the right fit for an Elementalist melee subclass that can manifest weapons and/or armor based on elemental themes. So maybe in one battle they can manifest some fire blades to kill a troll, and in a later encounter they can summon their earth armor to fend off a swarm of stirges. Could be interesting as a Sorcerer subclass.

Wasn't the Stone Sorcerer from the UA a while back somewhat gish-like? I remember a couple of things I liked about that one (Unarmored Defense = 13+Con mod, shield proficiency for a max AC of 20). Anything we could take from that?

Quote from EddyJ >>

Wasn't the Stone Sorcerer from the UA a while back somewhat gish-like? I remember a couple of things I liked about that one (Unarmored Defense = 13+Con mod, shield proficiency for a max AC of 20). Anything we could take from that?

It was kind of a gish, but IIRC, it was fairly bad at it. 

Quote from scatterbraind >>

I've been trying to find the right fit for an Elementalist melee subclass that can manifest weapons and/or armor based on elemental themes. So maybe in one battle they can manifest some fire blades to kill a troll, and in a later encounter they can summon their earth armor to fend off a swarm of stirges. Could be interesting as a Sorcerer subclass.

 I like the concept but 2 potential conflicts I see.

Not my best work, but rough draft.  I used sorcery points to fuel most of it's abilities because I felt if you are making heavy use of the weapons it means you aren't casting many spells so you can afford to burn a few for more points as needed.

The warsoul sorcerer channels the memories of battle to add martial prowess to it's repertoire.

Channeled Memories (level 1)

You gain proficiency in light and medium armors and shields. 

Additionally during a short or long rest you can channel the memories of a single weapon or set of armor.  You become proficient with the item if you weren't already.  Additionally when attacking with a weapon you are channeling you can use your charisma score for attack and damage rolls instead of it's normal ability score.  If you are channeling a set of armor you can ignore it's strength requirement.  You can only channel one piece of gear at a time.

I feel like by the flavor of the class you can only channel equipment that has been used before, but for game play purposes that feels way too fiddly to track

Attack Mastery (level 6)

When you take an attack action with a weapon you are channeling you make a second attack.  Additionally you can spend a sorcery point to change your the piece of gear you are channeling as a bonus action.

A level later than usual, but our fake martial class gets multiattack like a real weapon swinger, and the ability to swap weapons if needed.

Hold the Line (level 14)

When you are hit by an attack you may use your reaction and spend 2 sorcery points to gain resistance to any damage suffered from the attack.  Using this ability ends any fear effects on you and makes you immune to fear until the end of your next turn.

I wanted to fit in a defensive feature (beyond possibly wearing heavy armor) and since I didn't do the extra HP thing figured a way to stretch their small HP pool would help.  Sure shield is better if it will work, but sometimes you need to soak a fireball.

Comrades in Arms (level 18)

As a free action you can spend a sorcery point to form a bond with an ally for 10 minutes.  You may be bonded with up to your charisma modifier allies at once.  Bonded allies may automatically succeed on any saving throws against your spells and are unaffected by your spells that they save against.  When you make a weapon attack you may make it as if you were in your space or the space of any bonded ally.

Originally I was toying with an ability called ceaseless conflict but it felt to similar to the lv 14 ability in purpose, serving primarily as a way to stay in the fight.  So instead I went with making your positioning easier.  The improved careful spell is the real meat of the ability, although if you are only casting one friendly fire AoE save or suck spell it may not compare favorably.

2- awfully close in concept to the 4 elements monk subclass.

Kind of, but that monk subclass is just really kind of devoid of any concept at all outside of "Monk that can cast spells." The flavor pretty much stops at the name. They could have done something really cool with different stances/forms equating to different elements like in Avatar: the Last Airbender, but they literally just said "you can spend ki to cast spells, and when you get higher level you can... spend more ki to cast more spells" and that was it. I guess what I'm looking for was born out of the frustration I feel about that subclass.