Playwright (Nowhere near finished)

[Mocpages]

I have a character idea from which I have developed a class idea. As I have no real experience with designing a class, much less balancing one, I have decided to appeal to the internet for aid.
The basic character idea is a mad playwright, who believes the world is a story- play, book, something like that. He talks like he is in a play, possibly metagames (have to talk to DM about that obviously), and is obsessed with finding the "main character". There's some more, but the basic idea is a con man / author / stage magician turned adventurer.
The obvious classes are bard and rogue, neither of which really works. Bard feels like a fighter/wizard with a tiny bit of rogue, and rogue feels too focused on sneakiness and stabbiness.
What I'm really after is sort of a mash-up of rogue, battlemaster fighter, and probably a secondary caster. The emphasis is limited "maneuvers" which move allies and enemies, and maybe do things like disarm them, temporarily blind the foe, or even knock them prone. D8 or even d6 hit die, light or no armour, secondary caster (with no damage spells), and some sort of maneuver system?

[JBPuffin]

Starting with the basics:

Class Features
As a playwright, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per playwright level
Hits Point at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per playwright level after 1st

Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose three from Acrobatics, Arcana, Deception, History, Insight, Intimidation, Performance, and Sleight of Hand

Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
(a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) any simple weapon and shield
(a) leather armor
(a) an entertainer’s pack or (b) a scholar’s pack

Decent start on the chassis, if nothing else. The precise combination of elements you're looking - spellcasting ought to be fine, but stacking another resource on top of that is most likely too involved. Although, doing something like the fighter's maneuver-magic-(other) for Archetypes would probably work rather nicely...If other ideas come to mind, I'll either post them here or write the class and link a Google Doc here :smallsmile:. Happy hunting!