Board Thread:Questions and Answers (Q&A)/@comment-1476364-20160401054954/@comment-24784390-20160403144810

For the regular throwing axe, yes it is only useable as a ranged weapon (at least in BG1. I'm pretty sure they fixed this in BGII). but remember that there are regular, non-throwable axes if one wants to use melee. Also, the way the throwing axe works is that you throw it the same way you would throw regular throwing daggers or throwing axes, meaning that it gets used when you throw it at someone.