Divine Divinity has been a blast to play. I should have purchased it sooner. I do have three questions related to the game.

1. Should I give the Slasher axe to the Orcs? I don't plan on using the axe. The axe can fetch over 7,000 gold. Is the experienced gained enough to justify giving up this valuable of a weapon?

2. The repair skill in the game doesn't seem to be working. It doesn't restore any of the durability that my weapons and armor have lost. Is the skill meant to restore durability or prevent durability from being lost in the first place?

3. What is the best way to defeat an Orc Drummer? I can dispatch the other orcs easily. The drummers are a different story. Should I invest in freezing magic to dealing with?
I chose a warrior during the character creation process. I am planning to invest in some spells I just haven't decided which yet.

Thanks in advance for your help.

If you are not going to use Slasher, you should complete the quest. By the time you get to a merchant that has enough gold or goods to trade for the axe, you should have collected lots of other equipment to trade with (there are a fair number of good quality axes in the catacombs, for example). By mid game you should have plenty of gold, especially if you trade primarily with loot, when possible.

Level 1 of Repair will restore a weapon up to 60% of its maximum durability, rounded down to the nearest integer. If an item is 6/10 durability or higher, there will be no effect; if the durability is 5/10 or lower, it will be brought up to 6/10. A piece of equipment with a maximum durability of 1 can only be repaired with level 5 of the skill (100%).

The first time I ran into the orc drummers I couldn't do damage fast enough to kill them, but they couldn't really hurt me either, so I left. After meeting the traveling merchant on the path to the cursed abbey and buying a better (random) sword, with higher damage and a Stun bonus, I went back and was able to kill them. Playing a warrior I found the Stun bonus helpful, and when I upgraded the sword again I started investing in the passive Stun skill.
Freeze or possibly Poison Weapon should help if you want to take the orc drummers out right away, though.

> Playing a warrior I found the Stun bonus helpful,

Stun is a big deal. Since Larian doesn't cheat, it even works on bosses. You don't need a lot of spells as a warrior unless you WANT to cast spells.

The drummers were kinda weird. Tougher to kill than most things you encounter at that point, but go up a few levels or find the right gear and they become pretty easy. It was almost like the game flipped a switch but in my case I think it was simply getting better equipment and raising key stats a little bit. I didn't bother with freeze or stun at all, unless it came on a weapon.

Note that you can go "out of order" on the storyline (sidestories, etc.), wander around, level-up a bit, and make attempts later on. Fighting drummers is one of those cases where it makes sense to try again a little later.

Freeze makes the game a lot easier, particularly when dealing with Orcs. Some might argue it makes it too easy though.

Thanks for the help everyone.

It's pretty easy to kill the drummers near Aleroth (the other ones shouldn't be such a problem after you gain some experience and better equipment) with a 'little' help from Lord Seth. Just lure a drummer and make Seth take care of it. Then attack the bastard and make sure the final hit is yours, so you can get the exp (you can quicksave/load when the drummer is almost dead). I used to do it this way with a bow, but it should be possible with a melee weapon too.