Frozen_Heart
Hero
Yet we still got Paladin despite all that, with Clerics magic being boosted up to Wizard level. And in a similar manner, we got Ranger to slot half way between Druid and a martial class.Cleric was the original OD&D Gish, a melee combatant with magic. Not as good at straight fighting as a Fighting Man (weapon restrictions, lower HD) or as good at straight magic as a Magic User (no spells at 1st level, different spell selection with less attack spells), but their combo is pretty good and allows stuff the other two can't (healing and buff spells, etc.).
But people strangely object to having a similar equivalent for arcane / elemental magic. Even Artificer is banned by many DM's, and only ended up with 4 subclasses.
I do think that an Artificer subclass could have worked for a Swordmage, but with 5e coming to an end that will never happen now. One focused on forging a weapon, and then having a selection of magical strikes with it similar to an Arcane Archer.