[Ygorl]

Do Death weapons make the base weapons magical? Flaming weapons are not magical, only the wimpy fire strike is, so a fire bless is not useful against high-protection ethereal dudes. Depending on how Death works, that could make it better in some cases... Teraswaerto alluded to cases where a blood bless could be better than a fire bless. A water bless is especially nasty - with more than one or two blessed guys whacking at high speed against an enemy, the multiple-attack defense reduction will often do more to help them hit than the +4 to attack. Think, e.g., of Warriors of the Five Elements... With a water bless, each gets three attacks per turn; that's nine attacks coming out of a single square, for an average defense reduction per attack of -8 (divided amongst the number of different targets, of course). Ozelotls are even scarier.

I do wish blood had a slightly more interesting level-9 bless. Mostly, though, I think things are good; which blesses make sense is hugely a matter of circumstance (Air-9 isn't a terrible idea if you know you'll be starting next to Caelum, eh?) - yeah, yeah, blah blah blah...