[Olorin]

I currently have a dwarven barbarian in my party and he does very well. When you invoke the rage ability, you get +4 str and +4 con and several immunities. The str bonus can be helpful for opening locked doors and chests. The reason I'd take the dwarf over the half-orc is for the Dwarven Thrower. It's a +3 hammer for either melee or throwing (it does have a bit of a bug, it's supposed to do blunt damage, but without a fixpack, it does piercing--so you can't hit clay golems).

At the beginning of the game, I would recommend using a shield for the AC bonus, and the special abilities available. My favorite for the early game is the shield of reflection from the adventurer's mart. It reflects all missile weapons back at the shooter/thrower. In some instances, you can just stand there and let the enemies kill themselves for you! Oddly, the worse shot the enemy is, the less that works (if they miss, there is no reflection). So if you have a good AC, some enemies will run out of ammo without hitting themselves enough.

Also, don't forget about useful weapons like Ilbratha (shortsword that casts mirror image) or the Staffs or Fire, Air, Earth, Namarra, Ras, etc. You don't have to be proficient with them to use their special abilities. The barbarian has four weapon slots available; if you use one for your main melee weapon, one for a thrown weapon, there are two left for weapons that give abilities. After you use their daily charge, you can swap them out for something else if necessary.