What do you mean by "not better than 'fighter with a sword'?"
Er, that was an unnecessary 'not'. I meant that the base fighter was a little less interesting, admittedly.
Anyway, I'm looking into Duskblade. I don't see why you bring this up now, though. I had planned to play Wu Jen when we already had a Wizard, and Wu Jen is more-than-a-little like Wizard.
I don't really care about the similarities in classes so much, just them being the exact same. It's a bit of a superficial approach, but still important.
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"As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero." -Vaarsuvius, Order of the Stick