While running around with my dwarven weapon master ( Augustus Gloop), I noticed something odd.... a dwarf can't use a dwarven axe with out selecting the exotic weapon skill. So you're going to tell me that a dwarf needs to go to school to learn a weapon designed by his own race??? I would think that that should be a automatic skill for a dwarf ( elves get bows selected automatically why not this).
Anyway I'll get off my soap box now......

Yeah, I've run into that before, and I'm not sure why it's a big deal either. It's not because it's an exotic weapon, because monks can use kamas out of the box, and they are exotic...

Is there really a problem here?

Elves and monks are graceful, ethereal, almost supernatural beings so we can expect them to have feats and skills beyond the normal.

The rest of us more mundane characters clearly need advanced training even to handle gardening implements without being a danger to ourselves or cutting through the cable.

Hehe...it's that whole drunken thing... they need training to hold the axe while weaving around... [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img]

Can't believe that Greything has already graduated to garden implements, I'm still training on spoons (and I'm not allowed to run with scissors either).

I wonder... would the instruction book read
1) grab stick with sharp end.
2) shake sharp end at bad thing
3) if bad thing gets hostile hit bad thing with sharp end.
4) avoid hitting self with sharp end....
5) repeat until bad thing is dead.
Ahh I get all misty eyed thinking of young drunk dwarves , sippy cup of ale in one hand and axe in the other, taking on a horde of stuffed kobalds.

Have you taken a look at the damage it causes? That, my friend, is my best guess as to why. As I've no idea why they didn't just write it into the hardcoding for dwarves (for weapons available) as they did for elves (longswords and bows), that would make the most sense. Dwarven Axes are like Katanas and Bastard Swords: one-handed wielding yields you a 1d10 weapon. Regular One-Handed Axes give you 1d8 worth of damage. As well, one has to wonder why Tridents weren't just included in spears and given a Disarm feat (much like whips) and how mauls were not included in the first place for martial weaponry. The Greeks used mauls, and almost every major fantasy book series (or gaming series) eventually has dwarves holding what are CALLED warhammers but are really mauls (which are, of course, sledgehammers with more kick behind them). Anyone unfamiliar with a maul should watch Troy (yes, THAT movie with Brad Pitt and Eric Bana). The character Ajax (played by the same man who played Sabertooth in X-Men) uses a maul to great and lethal effect.