[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by TheGodThatFailed: I have to say, i solo'd a blade and became a real nasty figher.Then wehn you chuck a few spells around you're unstoppable.Meh, i'll always love the blade.

Any character becomes a god at high levels, especially in solo games. The question is, who does it better?

List of things where a Blade beats a Fighter/Mage:
Bard Song that barely does anything
A weakened version of the least useful Thieving skill
Woo! High Lore!
Running around real fast

List of things where a Fighter/Mage beats a Blade:
THAC0
AC
Saving Throws
ApR
Hitpoints
Spellslots
Spell levels
Equipment restrictions
Stronghold (not really a power consideration, but still)
Race restrictions

Originally posted by Jim: Traps can be disarmed via Mirror Image / stoneskin and locks opened via knock. A single level 2 spell will grant much longer invisibility without needing skill point checks each round that will always fail if an enemy is on screen.

True, that is possible, but I prefer to gain EXP from things like that, instead of using up perfectly good spells that I'd rather use against enemies. (The flip side of that is that the Swashbuckler can't cast spells like Stoneskin and PfMW from memory, of course, but happily there are far fewer battles that would encourage a Swashbuckler's use of those spells than there are Traps in the game.) As for Stealth, you know perfectly well that it's only HiS that will always fail if there's an enemy in your visual range--MS works just fine. If a Swashbuckler needs to vanish when there's a bad guy in sight, a simple Potion will do the trick, and when's the last time you were short of Invisibility Potions?

It seems to me that you are trying to put the Blade down because they do not excel in any one area - moderate warrior skills and moderate spellcasting, but combining the two makes for a capable character.

Capable? Yes. Since all the Blade kits have been soloed all through the game, then by definition they are capable characters. I am simply down on Bards because they are so almost completely eclipsed by the other classes, especially multiclasses. I don't mind a character not being really useful all the time, that'd be too much to expect from anyone. But when I notice that I never say to myself, "Boy, it's a good thing I've got Haer'Dalis in the party!", I tend to file that as a black mark.

The THAC0 may well stop decreasing at 10, but with helmets, gauntlets, STR enhancing items, magical weapons and effective dual wielding, .... the Blade [becomes] more than capable of dealing with around 95% of enemies. Being able to use chainmail and helmets effectively matches the slow improving AC bonus of the Swashbuckler in the early stages of the game. .... Offensive Spin ability which will dish out more damage than even the very high level Swashbucklers, .... Defensive Spin = problem solved.

Since Bards and Thieves use the same combat numbers, and a Thief can use Ioun Stones, THAC0 gauntlets, STR Girdles, magical weapons, effective dual-wielding, and some nice leather (all good armors in the game have roughly equivalent AC, compare the Melodic Chain with The Night's Gift), the equation boils down to this:
A Blade can kick some major ass when buffed to the gills.
A Swashbuckler is kickass 24/7.

I'm not trying to say that Blades will always be better than Swashbucklers, since I like them both very much, I am simply suggesting that Blades are far, far from useless if used properly.

True. I would remove the second 'far,' though.

Immune to physical attacks? Surely you jest! DoE+Ronarchs Horn+Jans Adventure Wear(tm) is all a thief can muster through UAI.

Oh, I wasn't referring to Resistances, simply to not getting hit at all. The Swashbuckler owns the title of Lowest Permanent AC in the Game (the lowest AC the game will recognize, in fact), and with a few Stoneskin scrolls saved for emergencies, who cares about Physical Resists when there ain't nothing gonna touch you?

I stand corrected....Nalia can effectively dual wield once she reaches an extremely high level, or is lucky enough to find a scroll of Time Stop somewhere, as well as possessing arguably the most powerful weapon in the game in her inventory.

Oh, the Staff is only there to knock away Ponty's Stoneskins, doing this technique without it would only require another Time Stop, which would put Nalia at.....4.5 million EXP, which is within the scope of SoA (not even entering WK) with Tactics installed.
As for the alleged rarity of Time Stop scrolls, there are 5 of them in unmodded SoA.
As for Dual-wielding in general, I only picked Nalia as the worst possible example; why Dual with her when she's just fine with Tuigan or Gesen?