05-15-2006, 09:50 PM
It is certainly possible to survive any part of the game with an axe warrior. People have cleared hell/hell with Vikings, who not only rely on axes (and occasionaly mauls) but also have severe restrictions on other equipment and don't read books at all. You could survive hell/hell even with a jewelry-only warrior if you were crafty enough.
But using an axe has lots of drawbacks and no real benefit. Once your base damage is high enough, the slower axes will actually do less damage per second than the comparable swords. Two-handed swords are a different story, but the difference in damage between a great sword and a bastard sword is certainly not enough to justify giving up a shield. The shield slot is a tremendous advantage to have. It increases your AC, gives you a very high chance to block hits that still make it through that AC, and gives you an extra prefix and suffix to be used for a large gob of life and either a ton of resistances or more AC. Giving that up is always a sacrifice, but the game is easy enough that such sacrifices can be overcome by those who are patient and alert.
But using an axe has lots of drawbacks and no real benefit. Once your base damage is high enough, the slower axes will actually do less damage per second than the comparable swords. Two-handed swords are a different story, but the difference in damage between a great sword and a bastard sword is certainly not enough to justify giving up a shield. The shield slot is a tremendous advantage to have. It increases your AC, gives you a very high chance to block hits that still make it through that AC, and gives you an extra prefix and suffix to be used for a large gob of life and either a ton of resistances or more AC. Giving that up is always a sacrifice, but the game is easy enough that such sacrifices can be overcome by those who are patient and alert.