Basic Class I'm working on, advice please.

[Enari]

The following is a flavored class I've been wanting to play for years. When I was playing 3.5, the battle sorcerer (which this has a lot of said flavor) was about perfect with that system. Now in Pathfinder everything is a little more versatile, and I find that the Magus almost completely takes care of this class sweet spot I've developed, but not quite. I'm torn between calling it a War Sorcerer, War Caster, or Battle caster. I'm wondering how balanced it's looking, any input and critiques are welcome.
(some information has been copy pasted or references other other class abilities)

Good Will save, Bad reflex and Will.
D8 Hit dice, BAB progression as Cleric or ¾ level.
2+ int skill points, skills same as Sorcerer.

Proficient with all simple and Martial Weapons. Light armor (can cast spells in light armor). Shields cause arcane spell failure as normal

Spells per day, Same as sorcerer -2. (so spells follow a 1, 2, 3, 4 progression)
Spells known, Same as sorcerer.

Casts of Charisma. (saves and bonus spells obviously)

1st Level – Cantrips, Weapon Spell training (Allows use of weapon during casting as somatic component), including a two handed weapon that can be held in one hand while casting a spell.

2nd Level- Arcane Pool (same as Magus, although Based off Charisma)

3rd Level – Arcana (same as Magus arcana, also gained at level 7, 11, 15, and 19)

5th Level -Bonus Combat or Metamagic Feat, also gained at 9,13, and 17.

I'm not sure what 20th Level ability I'd give it. The class is fairly general, but I like the idea of using the feats, arcana, and spells to build a fairly adaptable character. Although probably Bland. I'm not sure what I could change/add to make it more flavored. (I personally like it as is).

[Cyrad]

You CAN cast spells while holding two-handed weapons. In fact, a magus can two-hand a spellstrike. You just can't do it during spell combat. I'm not sure what you want to accomplish. Do you want a Charisma magus or something? There's a spontaneous Charisma casting magus archetype in ACG.

[Enari]

No, I'm looking for a class with full, fairly versatile spellcasting, with a melee magus like quality. The wizard in heavy armor flavor doesn't satisfy me. I'm having trouble getting input from my friends. One says the class is too general, no flavor, and easy to abuse. lol. /sighs Can't seem to scratch this itch.

[Cyrad]

Enari wrote:

No, I'm looking for a class with full, fairly versatile spellcasting, with a melee magus like quality. The wizard in heavy armor flavor doesn't satisfy me. I'm having trouble getting input from my friends. One says the class is too general, no flavor, and easy to abuse. lol. /sighs Can't seem to scratch this itch.

I agree with your friend. There's no flavor here, nothing unique or interesting about the class.

IS this class a full 9-level spellcaster? A 9-level, 3/4 BAB arcane spellcaster is pretty unheard of. It sounds more like you're trying to make Eldritch Knight as an entirely separate class.

[Enari]

The Battle sorcerer variant from the unearthed arcana was basically converted into pathfinder (you can search and find it). It's a 3/4 bab full level casting class. I converted/minimized some of the things in it to get this barebones class. I want to make it more flavorful, but I'm assuming a specified spell list and some 'other' type abilities are needed. All my other attempts make me feel like it's too complex. I'll probably just go with the Battle sorcerer Variant. Part of me dislikes that.

[Aelryinth]

Why not just use the Battle Sorceror and throw on the Sudden Metamagic feats like a warmage and call it done?

Spellcasting is the strongest element of this version of D&D. If you have spells you really don't need much more.

==Aelryinth

[Cyrad]

Spellcasting is the strongest class feature in the game, especially arcane spellcasting. Full arcane spellcasters pay a cost in this power by having less class features and only a 1/2 BAB.

I honestly recommend making this into a sorcerer archetype that sacrifices bloodlines and one spell slot per level in exchange for a 3/4 BAB. You could also replace Eschew Materials in exchange for something similar and thematic, like being able to cast spells with somatic components using a hand wielding a light weapon.

[Otheusrex]

I'd actually say that going with a Battle Sorcerer is a good place to start from, but replace all the bloodline stuff with the magus abilities, like Spell combat, spellstrike, arcane pool and arcana. I think that accomplishes most of what it sounds like you want, while being pretty much a simple 1 to 1 transfer of abilities.

This makes it more powerful than the Magus since you have a much greater choice of spells all the way up to 9th level, so perhaps make it so that a 'Battle Caster' uses a special that's bonded to him as a focus for spellcasting and thus must have it drawn to cast spells. This is kind of like a mix between a Wizard's Arcane Bond and one of the Cleric archtypes called Weapon-Sworn. This would also replace Eschew materials.

On the flip side though, you aren't getting the armor proficiency, weapon proficiency, good fort save, or quite as many special abilities as you level up, so maybe it comes out about even as this new battle caster is more vulnerable than a magus.

Sadly, in sacrificing some of the Magus and bloodline traits, you're cutting some flavor from the class. You still haven't chosen an ultimate 20th level ability; I might suggest starting by choosing a powerful ability that mixes melee and spellcasting and then retroactively altering one of the magus abilities to progress towards that.

[Enari]

I guess running off of the overall opinion of the 3.5 sorcerer vs battle sorcerer variant. That loss of spell casting is a serious hit, and the lack of specialization between melee and casting makes it not nearly as good as a normal sorcerer.

I guess with all the posts I've read, I'm convinced that the increase to Bab compared to the spell casting loss is reasonable. It seems to be a 'meh' point with wearing the light armor + casting for a lot of people.

I can see that being super nice in pathfinder, but frankly it seems the best character classes are highly specialized, so being a class normally dropping haste and fireball plus getting a slightly better to hit isn't that game breaking (as I mentioned it's just the opposite for a lot of players). It makes the class less specialized and useful... anyway. I can see it being a big advantage for ray attacks, but that's about it (and not that significant)

Yes this is a very lackluster class in terms of fluff. lol. I get frustrated originally and gave up on it. After the DM allowed me to tweak the Battle sorcerer variant and have full melee weapon profs i was quite happy.

Which was a big requirement for eldritch knight, which is honestly the flavor of the class I want to play.