Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-201.68.123.221-20131218134843/@comment-218.186.253.7-20131218145529

Really depends on what game you play:

In older games, like Oblivion, battlemages did not use armor, used mainly magic as their main attack form and weapons as a back up plan/more DPS in case crap happens

A spellsword uses magic to supplement weapons and wears armor, but a spellsword still uses the sword as the main weapon and magic is the back up plan.

In Skyrim definition and archetype, though:

Battlemage=Heavily armored badass mage with a giant hammer and couple of swords slung across his back badass style, spraying destruction and summoning dremora to overkill everything

Spellsword=warrior that uses some spells, especially destruction to make up for the lack in archery.