I've recently made this Swordmage sorcerer subclass to get that sorcerer gish-fix. I know that the original 4e Swordmages were int based, but the int caster has bladesinger and potentially psion gish subclass, so I thought sorcerer might need some love in that department. Additionally, the Innate Sorcery mechanic seemed to work well with both giving strong abilities while limiting them to during Innate Sorcerery.
The wording needs a lot of work, and there are a few balance issues, as well as a bit of weirdness with how it works.
Getting medium armor is a lot for a sorcerer, and not getting Light armor is strange. Most martial subclasses only up armor proficiency by one tier, not two.
The wording of the 3rd level Spiritual Weapon feature needs to be cleaned up. What's the action cost? Is it part of the bonus action used for Innate Sorcery? I think so, but it's not clear.
The 14th level feature is very rough. For the teleporting part, is it teleporting 60 feet, swapping places with your weapon, or both?
Shielding is HORRIFYINGLY powerful. Hunter Rangers only get resistance to ONE damage type with a similar feature, making this one 5+ times as good.
The 18th level feature is pretty bad too. I'll cover its issues in separate bullet points
Do you choose when to use this, or is it the first time each day you use Innate Sorcery?
The regaining a sorcery point thing is VERY unreliable, and not very impactful at this tier, since you'll be getting basically unlimited metamagic in two levels.
The new version is much better, although the concept of a martial sorcerer has one fundamental problem that I don't know how to fix: True Strike. With True Strike, your attacks do more damage (starting at level 5) than your weapons, and you get advantage on true strike attacks, but not normal attacks from Innate Sorcery. To help with this problem, you could move the advantage on attacks thing to third level, but only for your bonded weapon. Maybe allow two bonded weapons so you can dual wield.
If you want, you could lean into True Strike, but that is NOT a good option.
I think that this idea could get a lot more interesting if the melee combat is more tightly integrated with the sorcerer subclass, so I have a VERY rough draft of a revision. Ignore the boring names, I'd rather focus on decent features than flashy names. I make no promises about balance.
Combat Magic
At third level, your innate magic can be used for defense and offense, warding your body from blows and forging weapons of solid magic. While you aren't wearing armor or wielding a shield, you can calculate your AC as 10 + DEX mod + CHA mod.
Also, as a bonus action, you can conjure or dismiss a weapon formed out of magic. The weapon can be any melee weapon. If you conjure a weapon with the Light property, you can conjure a second Light weapon as part of the same bonus action. You are proficient in the weapon, and you use your Charisma bonus for its attack and damage rolls. You can use the weapon mastery of your bonded weapon(s).
While your Innate Sorcery is active, the magic of your weapon intensifies, and you can choose for it do any of the following damage types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Radiant, Thunder (If I missed an element, let me know). You can choose which damage type for your weapon to do whenever you make an attack with it.
Starting at 6th level, you can make two attacks with your bonded weapon whenever you take the Attack action.
Sword Tricks
Starting at 6th level, you can channel your magic more precisely into your blade, enabling you to perform a variety of flashy maneuvers. You can only use one Sword Trick on each of your turns. If a Sword Trick deals damage, you can choose for it do BPS damage or any type your weapon can do while Innate Sorcery is active.
Arcing Slash
When you take the Attack action, you can spend two Sorcery Points to cause an arc of energy to leap from your blade. Instead of making normal attacks, each creature in a 15 foot cone must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, a creature takes damage equal to 2d6 + your Charisma modifier.
Elemental Parry
When you are hit by an attack that deals Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage, you can expend 1 sorcery point as a reaction to reduce the damage taken by 1d8 + your Charisma modifier.
Whirlwind Strike
When you take the Attack action, you can spend two Sorcery Points to make a third attack, although this attack must have a different target than the first two.
Magical Flurry
Starting at 14th level, when you take the Attack action and both of your attacks hit, you can channel a burst of magic to make a third attack. This attack uses a d6 damage die, or the base weapon's, whichever is smaller.
Sword Mastery
At 18th level, you perfect your magical combat. While your Innate Sorcery is active, you gain the following benefits.
You have advantage on all attack rolls you make with your conjured weapons.
Whenever you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can prevent it from taking Reactions until the start of your next turn.
Hey all,
I've recently made this Swordmage sorcerer subclass to get that sorcerer gish-fix. I know that the original 4e Swordmages were int based, but the int caster has bladesinger and potentially psion gish subclass, so I thought sorcerer might need some love in that department. Additionally, the Innate Sorcery mechanic seemed to work well with both giving strong abilities while limiting them to during Innate Sorcerery.
Here's the link:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2685937-swordmage
The wording needs a lot of work, and there are a few balance issues, as well as a bit of weirdness with how it works.
Thanks for the input. Yeah, it was a first draft, so some wording got left behind. Here's the second draft
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2686308-swordmage
The new version is much better, although the concept of a martial sorcerer has one fundamental problem that I don't know how to fix: True Strike. With True Strike, your attacks do more damage (starting at level 5) than your weapons, and you get advantage on true strike attacks, but not normal attacks from Innate Sorcery. To help with this problem, you could move the advantage on attacks thing to third level, but only for your bonded weapon. Maybe allow two bonded weapons so you can dual wield.
If you want, you could lean into True Strike, but that is NOT a good option.
True strike already gets advantage from innate sorcery. I'm already leaning into spiritual weapon. The extra attack is non-negotiable
I think that this idea could get a lot more interesting if the melee combat is more tightly integrated with the sorcerer subclass, so I have a VERY rough draft of a revision. Ignore the boring names, I'd rather focus on decent features than flashy names. I make no promises about balance.
Combat Magic
At third level, your innate magic can be used for defense and offense, warding your body from blows and forging weapons of solid magic. While you aren't wearing armor or wielding a shield, you can calculate your AC as 10 + DEX mod + CHA mod.
Also, as a bonus action, you can conjure or dismiss a weapon formed out of magic. The weapon can be any melee weapon. If you conjure a weapon with the Light property, you can conjure a second Light weapon as part of the same bonus action. You are proficient in the weapon, and you use your Charisma bonus for its attack and damage rolls. You can use the weapon mastery of your bonded weapon(s).
While your Innate Sorcery is active, the magic of your weapon intensifies, and you can choose for it do any of the following damage types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Radiant, Thunder (If I missed an element, let me know). You can choose which damage type for your weapon to do whenever you make an attack with it.
Starting at 6th level, you can make two attacks with your bonded weapon whenever you take the Attack action.
Sword Tricks
Starting at 6th level, you can channel your magic more precisely into your blade, enabling you to perform a variety of flashy maneuvers. You can only use one Sword Trick on each of your turns. If a Sword Trick deals damage, you can choose for it do BPS damage or any type your weapon can do while Innate Sorcery is active.
Arcing Slash
When you take the Attack action, you can spend two Sorcery Points to cause an arc of energy to leap from your blade. Instead of making normal attacks, each creature in a 15 foot cone must make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, a creature takes damage equal to 2d6 + your Charisma modifier.
Elemental Parry
When you are hit by an attack that deals Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage, you can expend 1 sorcery point as a reaction to reduce the damage taken by 1d8 + your Charisma modifier.
Whirlwind Strike
When you take the Attack action, you can spend two Sorcery Points to make a third attack, although this attack must have a different target than the first two.
Magical Flurry
Starting at 14th level, when you take the Attack action and both of your attacks hit, you can channel a burst of magic to make a third attack. This attack uses a d6 damage die, or the base weapon's, whichever is smaller.
Sword Mastery
At 18th level, you perfect your magical combat. While your Innate Sorcery is active, you gain the following benefits.
Your version is way too complicated. Not in spirit of 5e. I'm keeping my version and pretty happy with it. Good luck making your own though
Are you familiar with the battlemaster? The UA Psion? This is neither to complicated nor violating the spirit of 5e.
Good luck making your own subclass!
This is awesome. It takes everything I love about the Swords Bard and Bladesinger.
The original or my version? I'm assuming mine since you mentioned the Swords bard.