Thrown axe is arguably as good as a bow. Attacks/round are about the same if you are pounding the points into Axe proficiency, and you get the attack and damage bonuses from specialization - I'm pretty sure of that, but not entirely. You for sure get strength bonuses.
(Edit: actually, check that. I'm sure you get
something, as my thrown axe does 10 damage on average, but I'm not sure which exact bonuses you get. It would seem logical to get both specialization AND strength bonuses, but I don't recall any IWD-specific rules that confirm it.)
The returning throwing axe is +2, so you don't have to worry about weapon immunity.
The only disadvantage to using axe is that the weapon init isn't as fast as many of the bows - not quite as good for spell disruption, but then your dwarven fighter is charging down the spellcasters, right?
I'd go with Axe and Hammer with dwarven fighters. Conlan's hammer turns it in favour of hammer over mace or flail.
Edit: just one more thing to add re: the Cleric/Ranger. C/Rs in IWD get druid spells from the start. Iirc, they don't get them until lvl 6 (8?) with HoW. So there's a little versatility bonus in IWD that you don't get in HoW.
Further - bards and druids are so-so in IWD... until you get HoW with all the amazing tweaks. After getting HoW, all of my parties have had one or the other, and most have had both. Yes, they are that good.
[ 10-23-2004, 02:50 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]