Blades of fire or Blades of blood?

[Masakan]

Which would you say is the mroe reliable level 1 damage buff?

[Ruethgar]

Blades of Blood with that one ACF, Beleaguered Spellcaster I think. PrC out by level 5 at the latest to get some free metamagic whenever you spend the 5hp on Blades of Blood.

[Masakan]

Blades of Blood with that one ACF, Beleaguered Spellcaster I think. PrC out by level 5 at the latest to get some free metamagic whenever you spend the 5hp on Blades of Blood.
Assuming you DON'T have full access to dragon magazine.

[Darrin]

Which would you say is the mroe reliable level 1 damage buff?

Depends somewhat on how many weapons you can reliably hit with. Blades of fire gets you +1d8 per hit on two weapons, while blade of blood gets up to 3d6 on one hit at the cost of 5 HP. If you're not burning the 5 HP, then blades of fire is better unless you're running into [fire] resistance/immunity.

[SangoProduction]

More reliable? Blades of blood, since it can't be prevented, so far as I can tell (no damage type, right?). Most damage? Blades of Blood. Most damage per point of damage you deal to yourself? Still Blades of Blood, as the longer you let them live, the more damage they do to you, assuming they last 3x as long, or even just 2x because someone else is also DPSing them, then you're taking more than 5 damage.

What I deem most cool? Blades of Flaming Blood!