Well, look at it this way.
In a fight, what makes a difference as to who walks away? Strength, not too much. Skill? Very much so. Speed, somewhat. Reach? A bit. How tough they are? Well, yeah, if they get hit, but in reality, you only usually need one good hit to end a fight. This isn't reality, obviously, but we can apply things to it.
So here's what I figure. Make damage at least somewhat dependent on skill. Critical hits, weak spots, whatever you want to call it, skill tends to be the single most important factor in a fight at close quarters, followed closely by speed(reaction speed to take advantage of mistakes they made, mostly), though improvisation is a huge factor as well, and in fantasy cases may well be the most important factor. Different maneuvers should use different stats, do more or less damage, be more or less likely to hit...
In all honesty, best way to deal with the whole issue is to shy a bit away from hard stats. If I'm aiming at you point blank, and pull the trigger with the barrel on your forehead, you aren't going to dodge. You might have managed to disarm me before I started pulling the trigger, but if I just do? You're done, you're dead, unless you're the hulk or magically buffed or something else that needs to be fairly damn powerful. If I slam into you with my whole body? It means a bit more than 'X damage'. Unique resource systems help; just having it all dependent on mana and being able to cast every spell at any time by using some up and making a roll? Not so much. Magic shouldn't always work, of course; you can always fuck up, after all. Physical stuff is meant to be reliable. So make it more reliable. Give it some more bonuses, rather than multipliers or anything. Bonuses from other stats, not as much as strength, and strength can in turn affect those other stats. Same could be done for magic, to a lesser degree; the better you are at magic, the more likely you should be to hit with your spells. Skill shouldn't be the only thing factoring into it; a .50 caliber machine gun and a Wand of Lightning Bolt do not require the same skills to hit accurately with, though they might be similar. Wielding a fucking claymore takes strength to be able to be skillful with it. Moving in heavy-as-shit armor does too. Being able to hit the vital spots with a dagger needs speed and skill more than it needs strength. And so on.
Status effects, in all honesty, are better applied to magic than physical stuff...