I'm looking forward to seeing whether Zevran is a better fighter. I guess he'll be a dual-wielding specialist with some stealth skills, which would be nice.
I only use Imoen chick in the first phases of entering a town when it's all about chatting up people and I have the opportunity to influence her, but as soon as the fighting is starting I swap her for another mage.
The tier 4 archery skills seem pretty nice, though... but with the destruction mages can rain down on enemies, who cares?