Why can't my character fight?

[Kexin]

There is something terribly WRONG about not having the hero character represented in the battle screen, its as if I'm suddenly playing a different game instead of something organic to the main game. Throughout the adventure the NPCs refer to your character and deeds by name, then all the sudden in battle mode I find myself commanding an army of snakes and spiders, but the toon that I carefully nurtured is no where to be found....WTF?

The disconnect is rather jarring. I'm playing a paladin and one would think that a paladin (or a warrior) for that matter would lead his troop into battle personally. Maybe I should be able pick a unit stack and attach it to the main character, and should that stack be knocked out my main character would be incapacitated while the rest of the army fight on or whatever. There are many ways where this could be done, and IMHO its important to the structure of the game. I just don't feel vested in the battle screen at all without the main character engaged in mortal combat.