jmartkdr2
Hero
If you're calling them spell slots, it's really hard to separate them form magic. Because spells are magical and names matter (that's why there's an entire thread on what to call a swordmage.)I just don't see any reason that having a martial character whose martial abilities are powered by spell slots creates any issue in that context, because what the character is doing is still very mechanically distinct from casting spells. What is important is that what the character is doing, ie their actual actions in game and mechanically, are meaningfully distinct from abilities with a very different thematic flavour.
If you created a new mechanic for fueling special abilities called Stamina, and made it part of the spellcasting, maneuver, and ki systems, you could probably get people to it. Not everyone, but enough people to be going on with.