I was saying it was a better Fighter/mage cause you use a fighter mage with protective spells, then attack. The blade uses the same, but his protective spell powers grow way faster and have more power earlier(due to faster higher levels
). Yes, you may have higher thac0 with the blade, but is that really the problem with the extra special abilities+more spellprotection power?
It only does not matter when you get in the really high levels. Blades get to lvl 8, while F/M's get to lvl 9. But this is only when you already have accumulated 6000000 XP, you will be nearing the cap then.