Mageknight, the arcane half-caster (5e homebrew class)

[Kishigane]

Class: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMhVRpDLwxpFC8729dWu42KplDTPZRDnsUlaEp1mRQI/edit?usp=sharing
Elemental Bonds: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z2p8nqdX1ddI2GHPaO6PwUp6n1tfMIWt7t5a0sd4OTE/edit?usp=sharing
Spell List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K3h9fpaZDPeutxobu9lcOBvGsueEvNb2uF6clbl8sac/edit?usp=sharing

I made this little homebrew class as my personal way to solve that vacancy of an arcane half-caster. Decided to give them more magic than, say, a paladin or ranger, but to counterbalance made them squishier. My biggest inspiration for this way the Basic D&D Elf and AD&D Fighter/Magic-User multiclass (back when demihumans could take two classes but with slower progression). Any thoughts or opinions?

[Morphic tide]

I'll first focus on the thematics, as this class's concept is rooted in the gap of not having a core half-caster for Arcane. Right off the bat, the concept of bonding to Elements throws it off, because that's Druid flavor, already handled by the Ranger. This issue is doubled down on with the subclasses heavily referencing the emotive association of Elements, and makes it clear one is in fact bonding to a specific other being, making marks for Warlock flavor despite again being intended as the Arcane half-caster. It also all-but steals the Paladin's Smite feature with a change that usually makes it better.

In general, Arcane casters are defined as being specifically personal power, not something they cut a deal with others for, not something drawn from elsewhere, not rewards for faith, but stuff they were born into or learned the hard way, and this has a further problem of being really "closed in" with what you can do with subclasses because they have to key to a specific element, and further pens it in by having the template of them all boost one of the smite-ripoff damage options with all four already taken. My suggestion on fixing this is settling on a developed spellcasting focus, whether that be integrated into the bonded items or a matter of runecraft or whatever, then retool the class around that.

Mechanically, Force damage is something of a Bad Idea because it's basically "raw" damage that almost nothing interacts with, and giving a choice of four different damage types that simply includes that means there's literally nothing that will stop this from dealing slightly-less-than Smite damage save "Anything But X" type enemies, and many things with weaknesses to damage types will be dutifully whacked with that weakness. Additionally, they have a critical issue in that their spell list has actually good direct damage spells that will almost always constitute more damage over time than actually using Elemental Strike, unless they're going all in on a nova by using their Bonus Action on Burning Hands, and the spell improvement doesn't really fit in with how almost all the rest of 5e works; by precedent, you'd expect to see a tie-in to the pre-existing Upcasting mechanic.

So for the mechanical end, my suggestion is to decide whether you want to be burning slots for melee damage, in which case you need less focus on useful damage spells and more on leveraging buff spells, especially in dealing with Concentration one way or another, or that they're supposed to be actually casting spells for the bulk of their damage, in which case don't re-integrate Elemental Strike after the above mentioned reflavoring pass. My personal preference would be looking at the PF1e Magus class for how to handle a caster/fighter mixture that's actively both, hitting up handbooks for how they're built and played most effectively, then making tweaks to the details of the way the output works to fit in the fluff you settle on after the natural 5e translation.

[Damon_Tor]

Boy, first level is pretty miserable for this poor guy. Less HP and armor than a ranger or paladin, no spellcasting, no fighting style, none of the useful features that make first level bearable for rangers and paladins. He's got nothing to contribute but the ability to teleport his weapons to himself and sense the presence of elemental stuff?

At second level he has weaker smites, with smaller damage dice and fewer of them. And he's got first level spells, mostly direct damage spells. But since all he's got is light armor and because his features encourage him to be in melee without much mobility boosting stuff, he can't afford to invest in Int before Dex, so he's not going to be any good at that either.

I guess I don't see what you're going for, mechanically speaking. You seem to have made him weaker than his peers in arbitrary ways and I don't really understand why.

[Kishigane]

My biggest concerns is giving a half-caster cantrips. Paladins and rangers don't get cantrips; I'm concerned as to what would happen if I gave mageknights cantrips to be brutally honest.

[Damon_Tor]

My biggest concerns is giving a half-caster cantrips. Paladins and rangers don't get cantrips; I'm concerned as to what would happen if I gave mageknights cantrips to be brutally honest.

I mean, the artificer is a thing. If you need a model for how to make a half caster a little more caster and a little less martial, the Artificer seems to be well regarded.