I was helping someone with balancing of their class when i got some inspiration of my own and decided to try and bring back the Duskblade from 3.5 to 5E. please let me know what you guys think about if you like it balancing and spell selection. 

Duskblade

duskblade 3.5

  “My sword and spells are one” -Unknown Duskblade-

 Arcane spells allow characters to accomplish dramatic things on the battlefield -- wizards are justly feared. Still, there's something deeply satisfying about defeating a powerful enemy with naked steel. A Duskblade is a swordsman with magic blood who harnesses their spellpower and channels it through their sword. Duskblades meld arcane power with straight-up fighting ability.

 Class features

As a Duskblade you gain the following class features.

 Hit Dice: 1d8 per Duskblade level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 + your Constitution modifier per Duskblade level after 1st

 Proficiencies

Armor: light, medium, heavy, shields

Weapons: Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons

Tools: None

Saving Throws: Strength, Intelligence

Skills: Choose three from Arcana, Athletics, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth, and Survival

 Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• Chainmail or (b) leather armor, and a simple weapon
• A martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
• A dungeoneer’s pack or (b) and explorer’s pack or (c) a scholar’s pack

Attuned Weapon
starting at first level when you use a weapon in which you are proficient you can use it as a spellcasting focus. Spells cast while holding your weapon no longer require somatic components.

Spellcasting

The magic coming from your blood and study to help fuel your spells, mind and body. Like a wizard you learn new spells, but decide to remember them for speeder casting. Due to this you do not need to ready a new spell list every day, but have less spells memorized and ready to cast. Whenever you gain a level in duskblade you can replace the spells you know from the duskblade spell list as long as you have slots for the spell levels.

Spell casting ability

Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your Duskblade spells. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your Spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a Duskblade spell you cast and when making an Attack Roll with one.

Cantrips

At 1st level, you know three Cantrips of your choice from the Duskblade spell list. You learn an additional cantrip from the duskblade spell list of your choice at 4th and 10 level.

 Spells Known of 1 Level and Higher
Starting when you reach 2nd level you learn two 1st-level spells of your choice from the Duskblade spell list. The Spells Known Column of the Duskblade table shows when you learn more spells of your choice and how many total spells you know. You may also replace any spell you know when gaining a level as a Duskblade.

 Blade Origin

At 1st level choose a blade Origin that helps explain about the fountain of magic that fuels your Duskblade, choose from; Dragon Blade, Ancients Blade, or Shadow Blade.

 Mana Pool
Mana Points are a Duskblade’s source of power. You start with 2 Mana Points at level two and gain more at higher levels, as shown in the Mana Points table. You can never have more Mana Points than shown on the table for your level.  A Duskblade uses Mana Points to bolster their attacks, reflexes, and other abilities with magical energy. You regain all your mana points after a long rest.

 Combat Casting

At 2nd level, you gain the ability to enhance your body, and reflexes with magical energies. You gain two of the following Battle Casting options of your choice. You gain another one at 10 and 17 level.

 Magic Burst

After hitting a target with a melee weapon attack you may spend 1 Mana Point and add additional magic damage to the damage roll, this extra damage equals your Intelligence modifier.

Haste

You draw on your mana pool for supernatural agility. During your turn you may spend 1 mana point to add 5 feet to your movement. You may spend multiple points on this ability to move farther, your speed can never exceed double your normal movement speed. This boost in movement lasts until the end of your turn or reaction.

 Riposte

When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use you reaction and spend 1 Mana Point to make a melee weapon attack against the creature.

 Fancy Footwork

You can spend 1 mana point to take the Disengage or Dash action as a bonus action on your turn.

 Arcane Channeling

At 3rd level, A Duskblade can cast a spell into their weapon for devastating effect. You can choose to cast a spell, from the Duskblade spell list and that has a casting time of one action, bonus action or reaction, into your weapon and either hold it in the weapon or cast it immediately by making a weapon attack. As part of the action used to cast a spell, you may make a melee attack with a weapon against one creature within the weapons range. On a hit, the target suffers the attack's normal weapons damage and then the spells effect. If the attack misses make a concentration check, on a success the spell stays in the blade, on a failure the spell is lost. You can choose to cast a duskblade spell into your weapon and hold in inside the blade and wait to strike your target. To do so cast the spell as normal and you must maintain concentration on the spell. Spells being held inside the weapon last for 1minute. If you take damage while the spell is being held inside a weapon you must make a concentration check to maintain the spell, if the check is failed, or you lose contact with the weapon, the spell is lost. If the spell has an area of effect, center the area of effect on your target. At 11th level, you can cast a Duskblade spell you know as part of the attack action, and the spell affects each target you hit in melee combat that turn. Doing so discharges the spell at the end of the turn.

 Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.  

 Absorb Magic

At level 7 you gain the ability to channel some of the damage you take into your next weapon attack. When hit with an attack that has magic damage, you can use your reaction to have resistance to it until the start of your next turn, including the triggering attack. Also, the first time you hit with a melee attack on your next turn, the target takes additional damage equal to the damage you took for the triggering attack after resistance.

Magic Sense

You gain the ability to sense if items are magical just by being close to them. At 10th level you gain detect magic as an ongoing affect within a range of five feet.

 Penetrating Magic
At 15th level, you can spend mana points to increase the potency of your spells allowing you to cut through your enemies defenses. When you hit a creature with your weapon you may spend 5 Mana Points to have the next spell to ignore damage resistance or have that creature make a spell save with Disadvantage on their spell save DC.

Over Flowing Pool

At level 20 you now regain all Mana Points over a short rest and a long rest.

Blade Origin

Dragon Blade

Draconic power: At 1st level, you choose one dragon damage type as your mana power source. The damage type associated with each dragon is used by features you gain later.

You can speak, read, and write Draconic. Additionally you gain damage resistance associated with your dragon damage type.

Dragon Breath: At 6th level you can use your bonus action and spend 1 Mana Point to exhale destructive energy. Your Dragon Damage Type determines the size, shape, and damage type of the exhalation.

When you use your dragon breath, each creature in the area of the exhalation must make a saving throw against you Duskblade spell DC, the type of which is determined by your Dragon Damage Type. A creature takes 3d6 damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level.

After you use your breath weapon, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or Long Rest. In addition whenever you use Magic Burst the damage type matches your Dragon Damage Type.

Dragon Wings: At 14th level, you gain the ability to sprout a pair of Dragon Wings from your back, gaining a flying speed equal to your current speed. You can create these wings as a Bonus Action on Your Turn. They last until you dismiss them as a Bonus Action on Your Turn.

You can’t manifest your wings while wearing armor unless the armor is made to accommodate them, and clothing not made to accommodate your wings might be destroyed when you manifest them.

Draconic Resilience: At 18th level you gain Immunity associated with your Dracon Damage Type.

Ancients Blade

Nature’s Defender: At 1st level you learn the druid craft cantrip and you learn the druidic language. In addition you gain resistance to nonmagical damage from bludgeoning, piercing, slashing damage while wearing armor.

Tree Stride: when you reach 6th moving through difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.

Undying Avatar: Starting at 14th level when you are reduced to 0 hit points and are not killed outright, you can choose to drop to 1 hit point instead. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Ancient Champion: At 18th level, as an action and 5 Mana Points you unleash natures power. For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits: at the start of your turn regain 10 hit points, you have resistance from magical damage, gain advantage against saving throws vs magic. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action

Shadow Blade

Shadow’s Essence: Starting at 1st level, you gain Dark vision out to 60 feet, if you already have dark vision you add 30 feet to your existing Dark vision. In addition armor no longer causes disadvantage on stealth checks

Dark Aura: At 6th level, as an action and spending one Mana Point, you can cause each creature in a 30-foot cube originating from you to make a wisdom saving throw against your duskblade spell DC. Creatures that fail their save are frightened by you until the end of your next turn. Once you use this feature you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest

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.

Shadow form: When you reach 18th level, As a bonus action and 5 mana points, you change into a shadowy form. While in this form you gain Resistance to all damage except force, fire,  radiant, 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.

Spell List

Cantrip: Acid Splash, Blade Ward, Booming Blade, Chill Touch, Dancing lights, Fire Bolt,, Frostbite, Green Flame Blade, Light, Lightning Lure, Mage Hand, Poison Spray, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Shocking Grasp, Sword Burst, Thunderclap, True strike

1st level: absorb elements, Burning hands, cause fear, Chromatic orb, color spray, comprehend languages, detect magic, disguise self, earth tremor, expeditious retreat, feather fall, fog cloud, grease, ice knife, jump, longstrider, mage armor, magic missile, protection from evil/ good, ray of sickness, shield, sleep, snare, thunderwave, witchbolt

2nd level: aganazzar’s scorcher, blindness/ deafness, blur, cloud of daggers, crown of madness, darkness, darkvission, dragons breath, earthbind, flaming sphere, hold person, invisibility, levitate, locate object, magic weapon, melf’s acid arrow, maximilian’s earthen grasp, mirror image, misty step, ray of enfeeblement, pyrotechnics, scorching ray, shadow blade, shatter, snilloc’s snowball swarm, spider climb, web

3rd level: bestow curse, blink, counterspell, dispel magic, erupting earth, fear, fireball, flame arrows, fly, gaseous form, haste, lightning bolt, magic circle, melf’s minute meteors, phantom steed, protection from energy, sleet storm, slow, thunderstep, tidal wave, vampiric touch, wall of sand, wall of water, water breathing

4th level: Banishment, blight, charm monster, confusion, dimension door, elemental bane, evard’s black tentacles, fire shield, greater invisibility, ice storm, polymorph, sickening radiance, stone skin, storm sphere, vitriolic sphere, wall of fire, watery sphere

5th level: bigbys hand, cloudkill, cone of cold, dominate person, hold monster, immolation, negative energy flood, steel wind strike, teleportation circle, wall of force, wall of light, wall of stone

SO... first glance. without looking too in depth and deep.

The overflowing pool at level 20. is too powerful. I imagine that skill to be similar to a level 20 sorcerer regaining spent sorcery points, but Sorcerers do not regain all of them. And especially considering they can have as many as 20 mana points. to recover all 20 is ridiculous

Why would anyone be a sorcerer and:

Sorcerous Restoration

At 20th level, you regain 4 expended sorcery points whenever you finish a short rest

when they could be a Duskblade, and regain a full 20!

Sorcerers are capable of casting 9th level spells, plus their sorcery points effect how they cast spells. The mana points in the build act more like ki points for a monk, where you spend them to use abilities in the class, but no way of enhancing or twinning a spell like the sorcerer can. With the monk a level 20 character would have 20 ki points to use on abilities and from the start they recover all ki points on a short and long rest. too me it feels right for a level 20 ability powerful for the class but nowhere near game breaking, if a sorcerer could do that then that would be an issue, but thats because they would twin spell 9th level spells a bunch and sacrifice lower level spells to get those slots back, which this class cant transfer spell slot to get more points or sack points to recover spell slots. looking at the warlock sorcerer dual class to twin eldritch blast is a testament to how strong it is to just create sorcerer spell points on the fly, this class cant do the same thing with spells that a sorcerer can do, so thats why someone would play a sorcerer. thank you for your input though.  

Quote from Rooster68W >>

Sorcerers are capable of casting 9th level spells, plus their sorcery points effect how they cast spells. The mana points in the build act more like ki points for a monk, where you spend them to use abilities in the class, but no way of enhancing or twinning a spell like the sorcerer can. With the monk a level 20 character would have 20 ki points to use on abilities and from the start they recover all ki points on a short and long rest. too me it feels right for a level 20 ability powerful for the class but nowhere near game breaking, if a sorcerer could do that then that would be an issue, but thats because they would twin spell 9th level spells a bunch and sacrifice lower level spells to get those slots back, which this class cant transfer spell slot to get more points or sack points to recover spell slots. looking at the warlock sorcerer dual class to twin eldritch blast is a testament to how strong it is to just create sorcerer spell points on the fly, this class cant do the same thing with spells that a sorcerer can do, so thats why someone would play a sorcerer. thank you for your input though.  

Ah. I will take a deeper dive then. It makes sense then if it's more like the monk Ki points. I shall re-look with a more compare to monk idea then.

Nature’s Defender: At 1st level you learn the druid craft cantrip and you learn the druidic language. In addition you gain resistance to nonmagical damage from bludgeoning, piercing, slashing damage while wearing armor.

Tree Stride: when you reach 6th moving through difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.

Shadow’s Essence: Starting at 1st level, you gain Dark vision out to 60 feet, if you already have dark vision you add 30 feet to your existing Dark vision. In addition armor no longer causes disadvantage on stealth checks

The shadow walk... given its level 14 vs way of shadow monk ability being level 6. the extra 60 feet seems fair. So I like that. but the 3 above. Issues.

Tree Stride. is essentially the same thing as Ranger Land Stride, and comes 2 levels earlier. With the only difference being advantage on saving throws against magical plants to impede movement. For getting the same skill, as a class, that their sole purpose is to do that kind of stuff, 2 levels earlier. and without a difference that makes it 2 levels worth. Not entirely balanced.

Nature's defender. At level 1 permanent resistance to non-magical slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing. AT LEVEL 1, and it's Permanent! That's highly unbalanced.

Shadow's Essence. So, its kinda like Umbral Sight from Gloom Stalker ranger. difference being gloom stalkers are then invisible to creatures, when in darker areas, that rely on darkvision for sight. and the Shadow Essence instead has no more disadvantage on stealth checks due to armor. Additionally, umbral sight comes at level 3.

no disadvantage on stealth checks regardless of armor, permanently, is a lot more useful, than In specific conditions of there's not light. and that a creature is relying specifically on dark vision, you are invisible to them (for sight checks). Additionally, this happens at level 1 for the armor. vs level 3 for possible invisibility. This too, is unbalanced.

Then there's the damage from dragon's breath stuff from Dusk Blade. For both the dragon breath spell, https://dnd5e.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon's_Breath , and for a dragonborn's breath. the damage is 3d6. but for duskblade you said 3d8.

That's just my 2 cents looking it over. your world, your rules ultimately.

(seems like a fun class too)

I don't see this as anything unique for the purpose of a base class, it feels like a subclass to a sorcerer, it almost seems as though the only difference between this and a sorcerer  is mana points a growing trend to redefine spell slots essentially. Now I am not a fan of spell points in my opinion your trying to reinvent the wheel for no good purpose other than to call it something different, but I digress i am not in opposition because of that. lets break it down shall we. 

1. What are Mana points used for? I know what you said they are used for but how are they used? There is not allocation table or cost for spells so how many mana points does it cost to use a cantrip if any? How many for a 5th level spell? I may have missed it but from what I see it doesn't exist in your write up. 
   
   
2. Dusk blade, as a subclass this works, but as a primary base class it steps on the toes of Hex Blade warlocks. Granted this class seems to be more effective than the Anything warlock but none the less it is mimicking another class and you actually do this a few times, with Eldritch Knight, Sorcerer and Monk. Now the aspect of every class in 5th ed, got away from the 3.0 and 3.5 editions where they had 32 base classes I believe and only 9 actual base classes and the rest just being a twist on the others. 5th  Edition did away with that, A ranger isn't a fighter or a monk or a rogue, all the classes may have overlapping tones but all do something dramatically different than the others. In fact the first Base class made and officially recognized by WoTC was Blood Hunters by Matthew Mercer, and the second was or will be Mystics which has been in play-test for nearly 2 years now. 
   
   Sorry but this class just feels like you took a couple of classes and reskined it and gave it to us, nothing feels Unique about it, and I am sure that you feel it is unique enough, but you put it out here for the community to give you the feed back. That feedback from this member that has been playing D&D and other TTRPG for the past 30 years such as Rift, VtM, WoD, Exalted, Gurps, Shadowrun, Cyber Punk, D&D from 1st Ed, Palladium games, Call of Cthulhu, and the list goes on, i have seen a lot of variations of systems and takes of classic classes, i think honestly this has good feel in a sub class but as a base class it falls short.  
   
   
3. Under your combat casting; i want to point out this is the few times you spend mana points and where i think it is decent with later abilities i feel this is trying to emulate a monk with better effects which then in that case why play a monk? I know you can argue well becuase monk does different stuff, yes they do but you are essentially making this a Martial caster ( nearly Identical to the Eldritch knight that is a Subclass) and adding in heavy monk overtones, but I digress i went over this in point 2.  Now the combat casting abilities
   
   1) Magic Burst and Riposte are solid choices I like them 
   2) Haste - this is a direct copy and past of the celerity action from Mystics again another re-skin of something already in the game or something that is confirmed to come out shortly and the whole community knows of and greater majority despise. 
   3) Fancy foot-work - This is a direct copy and paste of the Rogues cunning action of disengage and Dash, you just renamed it and dropped the Hide action. Again this is taking something unique and putting it in a base class. 
   
   
4. At 7th level you gave them Absorb Elements but did it for everything, not sure if this seems weak, or odd but in general i guess as a Subclass feature it would make sense but as a base class feature it seems widely out of place. In fact your 7th, 11th and 15th level abilities aren't bad and thematically they fit but just feel like Sub class abilities not base class, Especially the 15th level one maybe feels like it shouldn't be a stand alone feature but rather an addendum to combat casting. This is more personal feeling rather than hard core this shouldn't be, so take this point with a grain of salt. 
   
   
5. Overflow - I am sorry but Eight Pack somewhat has a point, and that is mainly because I feel your base class is trying to be roughly 4 or 5 classes wrapped into one instead of its own unique class. So when this happens we have to ask the question, Why play a Sorcerer, Monk, Rogue, Fighter, or warlock when I can play a Dusk Blade and essentially take all the best parts of those other classes and none of the weaknesses? 

The lasting note I want to leave on is i find things personally wrong with this, I am not hard core authority on how to build X and i will never make arguments or points from Authority as they are fallacy's that are weak. Although with that said I have been playing games for quit some time and as a Player I do ask my self why would I play X if this was there, and as a DM, ST, GM, Director, Lore Keeper I have to ask what is unique about this class that justifies its presence in a game? 

Look I understand that you have put in a ton of hours and thought into this and as you are reading through my critique i am sure at times you're getting frustrated or aggravated or annoyed that I am not sharing your vision and that is fine, or maybe your not I don't know, but if the former is true just remember that you're putting this out for the feedback. I have made roughly 36 Sub-classes all publish on DnD Beyond and some or horrid, like my School of Temporis Wizard class, i really need to redo that. When I got slammed on that class I felt somewhat attacked and disheartened and even went as far to try and justify my choices, sometimes feeling as though they were personally attacking me since it was my idea. In the end they are trying to help me, and the point of all this is to not discourage you from making your own base class or to even scrap this Idea but rather take it back and try to re imagine it as something unique rather than a re-hash of previous classes. Look at the Blood Hunter, and look at the Mystic on Unearth Arcana and try to figure out what Unique thing they bring to the table that sets them apart from the other base classes. 

Look all Classes that share a commonality have overlap as all Base classes are broken into 2 groups 

• Martial 
• Caster

All martial classes share a similar feel just like all caster classes share a similar feel. But they all have a unique feel to them, Wizards can have an unlimited amount of spells given time and money, Sorcerer has a limited but aren't restrained by protocol and can shape their magics to their whim, whereas Druids have a smaller list but can call upon any spell to fit their needs and are forces of Natures, where as the clerics are the will of their gods that shape magics by that will given them a unique outlook on favor from the gods. The you have the martial types that differ also Barbarians fuel their martial prowess through the rooted power of the world and taps into that to accomplish tremendous feats they are raw in your face brutes, whereas Fighters are cunning methodical tacticians that plan their attacks to make everyone matter rather than blindly swinging a blade to the fighter combat is art. Then the Rogue is a finesse fighter that relies on elements of surprise or group tactics to be effective, whereas the Monk is in your face in tune with the forces around him relying on that force to allow them to do amazing things such as catch arrows or projectiles using a multiattack feature. You also have what I call the Half classes Ranger, Bard, Paladin Warlock, but you get the idea I think each class may have similar qualities but all offer something unique that another class doesn't, and no class barrows from another class to be unique 

In the ling run you can take this as a good thing or a bad thing I just hope I have helped you take this and make it better, if not that is fine, if so great. Thank you for sharing your ideas, and look forward to anything new 

P.S. Your Class chart break down is annoying to look at at first I said well he couldn't add tables so it is understandable then you added tables for the blade origins. So maybe add a table with headers telling what columns represent would be helpful.  

I'll work on adding a table for my class abilities, your right looking at this on mobile vs my laptop changes it and it is very annoying. 

1) the mana points aren't used for spells, they are purely used for abilities in the class.  

2) speaking of the crazy amount of classes from 3.5 the Duskblade is one of them. It was the wizard fighter combo that let you cast in armor without spell failure, and you could store a spell in your blade to be released when you hit your enemy.  While helping someone with their class my memory jumped back to this class from 3.5 and I decided to spend the day to remake it for 5th edition. Granted it steps on the toes of other half casters, but it is what it is, and it's a half caster.

3) I wanted to emulate more of the martial aspect where one would use magic to enhance one's own physical abilities and reaction like a battle master fighter or a monk. This does need an overhaul, more and/or different abilities and I'm sure I'll think of some later. It also maybe the case where this is removed entirely because it just doesn't mesh well overall. (Haste) I actually had no idea that this was a mystic ability, let alone despised I'll probably have this one changed or removed completely. (Fancy footwork) yes rogues have the own version, but this one is more from the monks step of the wind feature (pay with resource, gain bonus action move) with 2 core classes having this ability i can see where it stops on toes and this may get removed later on, once i come up with different abilities. 

4.) 7th level I like absorb elements and I thought it was a bit weak to be used purely from being a spell to just becoming an ability. With that in mind I changed it just slightly so it would work against all magic damage, a small bump in power. As a gish I felt that and ability like this was needed for survival reasons. 11) 5 foot detect magic I was thinking about removing entirely, even more so after adding the second part from arcane channeling that starts at 11. 15) the ability to bypass resistance or give disadvantages on spell saves is strong in my opinion and wouldn't fit in combat casting unless there was a level restriction on it.. I really like the visual "in my head" of fighting something like a deamon where they are shrugging off fire damage due to their skin, then this guy comes up stabs through his resistant hide and gives him a belly full of fire for full affect. 

5) this class will step on eldritch knights and blade locks toes, this is due to what it was in 3.5 where casting in full plate was rare. This I can live I do see your points about the rogue and monk, but I don't think those are the best features of those respected classes. Once I make changes though hopefully it won't feel that way. If you want the ability to attack more, go fighter or monk, if you want to cast higher level spells while swinging a sword go wizard blade singer or blade warlock. I think those classes have a lot going for them, and I'll certainly keep working in this to separate itself from them. 

6) justifying its presence in game) its from 3.5 and I was looking for something that could blend magic and combat together better than what the current system offers. Due to that I thought the Duskblade for 5E was the answer. 

Spending a ton of hours) I spent a day on this, this is the rough draft and first showing. Critique is a part of the process. I'm an adult and have been gaming for most of my life. I didn't get frustrated while reading your response, its your type if response is what I was looking for. I know the hard ship of people getting frustrated, I'm dealing with that right now with someone,  where they have made this awesome class and they don't take any constructive criticism.  What I wanted to bring to d&d was a little nostalgia, but mainly a way of blending spell casting and fighting to feel more smooth and not feeling like you necessarily had to sacrifice one to do the other.  The Duskblade had built in with what I love about green flame blade and booming blade and I wanted to expand on that.  This class is supposed to compete against eldritch knights and blade warlocks and maybe even paladins( just no healing) the lore mentions that duskblades have magic in their blood, but study magic like the wizard and channel in through combat. I think it fits into the fighter mage half class slot pretty firmly.

Thank you for your input, it does help. I'll be working on this and plug more than just a few hours to get it right. Starting with that damn progression chart.

Quote from EightPackKilla >>

Nature’s Defender: At 1st level you learn the druid craft cantrip and you learn the druidic language. In addition you gain resistance to nonmagical damage from bludgeoning, piercing, slashing damage while wearing armor.

Tree Stride: when you reach 6th moving through difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.

Shadow’s Essence: Starting at 1st level, you gain Dark vision out to 60 feet, if you already have dark vision you add 30 feet to your existing Dark vision. In addition armor no longer causes disadvantage on stealth checks

The shadow walk... given its level 14 vs way of shadow monk ability being level 6. the extra 60 feet seems fair. So I like that. but the 3 above. Issues.

Tree Stride. is essentially the same thing as Ranger Land Stride, and comes 2 levels earlier. With the only difference being advantage on saving throws against magical plants to impede movement. For getting the same skill, as a class, that their sole purpose is to do that kind of stuff, 2 levels earlier. and without a difference that makes it 2 levels worth. Not entirely balanced.

 

Nature's defender. At level 1 permanent resistance to non-magical slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing. AT LEVEL 1, and it's Permanent! That's highly unbalanced.

Shadow's Essence. So, its kinda like Umbral Sight from Gloom Stalker ranger. difference being gloom stalkers are then invisible to creatures, when in darker areas, that rely on darkvision for sight. and the Shadow Essence instead has no more disadvantage on stealth checks due to armor. Additionally, umbral sight comes at level 3.

no disadvantage on stealth checks regardless of armor, permanently, is a lot more useful, than In specific conditions of there's not light. and that a creature is relying specifically on dark vision, you are invisible to them (for sight checks). Additionally, this happens at level 1 for the armor. vs level 3 for possible invisibility. This too, is unbalanced.

 

Then there's the damage from dragon's breath stuff from Dusk Blade. For both the dragon breath spell, https://dnd5e.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon's_Breath , and for a dragonborn's breath. the damage is 3d6. but for duskblade you said 3d8.

 Thanks for your input I'll be making some serious changes to the abilities so that they are balanced. I agree with you that some of the abilities are too strong and I will work on having them toned down. 

I thought it was a 3.5 prestige class it feel familiar i just was to lazy to look it up so I didn't really mention that. I have made a lot of Sub classes to fit the old 3.5 classes and prestige classes, honestly I think this works better as Sub class if you ask me. I know in 3.5 it was a wizard fighter. But if you wanted to keep in line with mana points move it to a monk discipline you would be using the Ki points and changing the three core Flurry of Blows , Step of the Wind, Patient Defense  

Then again if you want to push this as a core class go for it, but there is a lot more balancing required in making a core class than there is making a sub class. food for thought. 

No problem. Like I said. the class looks fun. I'll follow along for updates and such. I'd love to give it a whirl as it gets closer to a finished product.