Ironically, I think the DD is actually more offensive than the Barbarian.
The main advantage of the rage, damage wise, is the Strenght bonus, but a DD will use Crom Faeyr at some point to get 25 Str anyway, and be able to put 4 points in Hammer. The fact that you have Defensive Stance when you need it and that it cannot be combined with Hardiness allows you to use your HLA much more offensively than others fighters.
While the Barbarian's rage protects him against a lot of spells, and he is immune to backstabs.
As for the Human Monk vs Dwarfen Defender discussion, I would go with the DD every day ! It will be incredibly better than the Monk for all BG1 and the start of BG2, then the Monk will start to catch up but he will get tears apart in ToB by foes who use the Critical Strike HLA because he can only reach 40% damage reduction (Hardiness) and has bad hit points while the DD will have the best HPs of the game and will be able to reach 90% damage reduction (20% base + 50% Defensive Stance + 20% DoE)
Sure the Monk has some MR, but the DD will get a -7 bonus to saves from being a Dwarf (-5) and Defensive Stance (-2) so it balances things out.
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The main advantage of the rage, damage wise, is the Strenght bonus, but a DD will use Crom Faeyr at some point to get 25 Str anyway, and be able to put 4 points in Hammer. The fact that you have Defensive Stance when you need it and that it cannot be combined with Hardiness allows you to use your HLA much more offensively than others fighters.
While the Barbarian's rage protects him against a lot of spells, and he is immune to backstabs.
As for the Human Monk vs Dwarfen Defender discussion, I would go with the DD every day ! It will be incredibly better than the Monk for all BG1 and the start of BG2, then the Monk will start to catch up but he will get tears apart in ToB by foes who use the Critical Strike HLA because he can only reach 40% damage reduction (Hardiness) and has bad hit points while the DD will have the best HPs of the game and will be able to reach 90% damage reduction (20% base + 50% Defensive Stance + 20% DoE)
Sure the Monk has some MR, but the DD will get a -7 bonus to saves from being a Dwarf (-5) and Defensive Stance (-2) so it balances things out.
Almost.