What I love about DOS-series is the multi-classing:
My air-scoundrel-shieldtank-Wolfram was probably our most deadliest fighter in DOS not-EE. I also liked my glas-cannon-support-mage wich had point in pretty much every mage-skill-class and got about 24 AP in round 2 for heavy buff-debuffing combos. You really felt powerful that way.

About the debuffing stuff, there remains the main issue with the current protection system we are already are adressing here:
http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=597486#Post597486

Without a decent amount of damage, all debuffs are useless, because they can't get used anyway.