Healers being able to counter by bashing people in the face with their staves is one of my favorite parts of Radiant Dawn. It's just so funny an unnecessary but I want them to bring it back.
Yes. It was based off of the strength stat though, so it wasn't much most of the time. For some reason, staves also had massive crit rate. (One even had 100%) There was a character with a killer strength growth that could wreck other squishies with just that though. It was fun.