Taunt ability - right for this game?

[Minax]

The whole point was that there is absolutely no point in taking high levels of Armor unless both of your front line chars have it, as in the end the one with no Armor will die first for sure.

My experience is quite different. I have a minotaur fighter (armor/axes) in full heavy armor and a human fighter (swords/evasion). The human has at least the same survivabilty as the minotaur, if not better (it certainly was better on the upper levels, the minotaur started picking up at around level 6 or 7 of the dungeon). Every front row character should have skill points in one of those two anyway, so your front-liner dying shouldn't really be a problem (unless you decide to stand there and let an ogre or a bunch of crabs whack at your guys). Your fighters can still make very good "damage dealers" too, even if you put points in armor or evasion.