How good are shamans in melee combat?

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What combat table do they use?

They get to use an axe and a dagger and I'm all about that
They can also use a few other melee weapons so they should be pretty good right?

 

Shamans level up as per the mage XP table, and have the same thac0 and saving throw progression as the cleric& druid tables.

 

About the same as a cleric or druid, which means do not send a shaman into melee battle. That being said the shaman as you noticed can use bows and axes so are more flexible when using them - use them for range support instead of pure melee. But really keep the shaman away from melee - use bows if you don't have any spells left or even use the dance - if you are lucky you can call up some spirits in time to help assuming you are close enough to battle that they will move and engage them.

I am playing with a shaman - trying out new tactics and all that - so one thing that does not work is you can't send the spirits into battle if they can't see the monsters - not even if you are around the corner - it seems the spirits will only attack if they can directly see them and only if they feel like it. Makes for interesting tactics.

If you have time to dance they make a nice distraction for monsters to pound on and even if they die you can call up immediate replacements almost automatically as long as you continue to dance, which is great and then have your npc attack from the flanks.

 

That's one of the reasons i kind of dislike the shaman and why it's certainly not a solo class - your summoned spirits cannot attack outside of your line of sight, and if you move to gain more sight over an area you'd need to stop dancing, losing your spirits.
That said, the shaman's thac0 progression is not bad at all, so they can manage themselves in melee just as a cleric can, though the sells they get access to are overall less suited to self-buffing compared to the cleric.
You still get access to the healing spells and buffs like armor of faith, bless, strength of one, defensive harmony, death ward, negative plane protection, chaotic commands and most importantly iron skins, but depending on your playstyle you might wish to pick up some offernsive spells as well, and since the shaman works like a sorcerer there is a limit to the amount of spells you can learn.