[Updated] The Spellblade - Arcane Halfcaster v0.3

I'll only be pointing out what stands out most to me with VERY brief reasoning to save space, given the amount of content in the class. If I skip over something, I saw no problems with it mechanically or thematically.

Hit die: Too high. make it a d8.

Chakrams: Modified darts? Exotic weaponry holds little significance with the elven cultural background given to the class.

Equipment:The longsword vs rapier choice makes no mechanical sense given the class. Two-handing a weapon disables rune blast from how you've worded it and you also emphasize dexterity heavily, not strength.

Minor Magic:Don't reinvent the wheel. Give them one or two cantrips. Prestidigitation and/or mage hand.

Rune Blast:1d4 bonus damage per attack. Rangers use a 1st level slot in a bonus action to do the same thing. Also, this is 3d4 on the Assault archetype.

Weapon Bond: Basically pact blade but gives finesse property? Longsword and rapier now become identical weapons and the only options that anyone would ever use.

Spell Weaving: Incredibly stronger version of an existing ability. Enables 3d4+3 (Magic Missile) guaranteed damage on a bonus action in addition to the attack and rune blast. Limit to cantrips.

Arcane Knowledge: Don't ever make another class obsolete. A half-caster should never be better at arcana checks than a wizard. Also, free spells are generally restricted by long rest, warlocks barred.

Extra Attack: With rune blast, this extra attack is 100% better than fighter's extra attack. Don't do that.

Fluid Intelligence: Even with the long rest restriction and later level gain, this is quite better than bard's Jack of All Trades skill.

Evasion: Overlaps thematically with rogue. The entire class seems to be an Arcane Trickster with additional peculiar design choices, though.

Combat Mage: A weird Careful metamagic. Seems to encourage friendly fire, rather than allow it to happen like a sorcerer does.

Crystallized Intelligence: A much better Reliable Talent feature that makes any other intelligence characters obsolete. Don't make a class obsolete, let alone an entire ability score.

Assault Features

Magical Skirmisher:Partial thematic overlap with Arcane Trickster, but that's okay. No idea why it also removes 5ft disadvantage on ranged attacks.

Army of One: Multiple things here. Too much damage. Scales even better with level. Assuming three hits, 6d43 + Dex Mod*6 with 16 dex is 36-98. 39-110 if rune blast is applicable on all hits. Also, a teleport that moves using movement speed defeats the purpose except for EXTREMELY niche situations. And the random 15 ft teleport following the flurry makes no thematic sense.

Self-Proficient: Feels kind of shoehorned to give a non-combat feature. Food isn't usually a large factor in most campaigns, and even when it is, it's not a dire enough need that doubling the amount gained is useful. Also, everyone does their best to maintain weaponry. Spellblades don't really strike me as the type to know more about sharpening their swords than fighters or restringing their bows like rangers.

Extra Attack: It seems like this class was designed to make eldritch knights cry. Also, this is 3d4 free damage if you can land attacks.

Arcane Control: Makes the teleport not random, which I like. Makes Army of One more spammable, which I do not like.

Runic Empowerment: Same problem as Army of One: Only loosely thematic in that it just adds flat damage. Damage is boring. People want to feel agency, not numbers. Also, never divide by 3 in 5th edition, if possible.

Defense Features

Mana Shield: Mana Pool is weird wording in the D&D setting. Some people consider Spell Slots to be a "Mana Pool". Also, caster level x 4 is basically just 80% of a Lay On Hands that grants "temporary HP", but it can be used 20 ft away and stacks with ACTUAL temp HP. Some overlap with abjuration wizard. 80 Temp HP on a d10 hit die class is too much.

Night's Watch: Again, feels shoehorned. Somehow even less useful than the foraging bonus. Maybe make it more along the lines of giving bonus to keeping watch at night, not reducing sleep.

Uncanny Dodge: More rogue overlap.

Shielding Aura: Kind of boring. The bonus is also not useful for 15th level characters unless the setting is calls for plentiful casters.

Restorative Shield: So basically, you just wait until anyone is missing 40 HP and then dump the entire shield on them, because it has the best action efficiency. Also, this can be used to instantly bring any allies at 0 HP up to 1 HP. 40 Times. Why can a half-caster grant the party meatshield 120 effective HP? Why can a half-caster even BE that meatshield?

Overall, it just seems to take bits from other classes and reflavour them. But it doesn't flavour them all the same, it adds a weird mix of flavours that don't match and then adds a dash of paprika because it thought it needed something else to keep the ingredient list the same size as other classes.

/r/UnearthedArcana Thread