I get the general idea; you smash someone and stun (or freeze) them and it causes them to delay their action turn. But in my experience, no matter how big the number it never causes any significant changes to their turn order. I've gotten 3 stun and then it seems like they still attack the next turn. Same with Icey Touch. A freeze of three, next (or second to next) to act anyway.

Is there something I'm not getting with the system? When the enemies stun my guys I see a big difference, but there never seems to be a significant difference against the enemy. Observer bias?

With high enough Speed you will see difference. You might be even able to chain stun a lot of enemies without them fighting back. Seems that your Speed isn't that high, thus you see increased effectiveness of monsters' stuns against you.

Could be, but for every level I'm putting points into Speed. I don't know how I could get it any higher. unless your starting stats per class are random?

Starting stats aren't random.

Make sure that you also have the blessings. At lower levels you won't see much benefit from speed as you didn't invest much into it yet..

You can also get more speed from gear, though I'd recommend getting as much +EXP gear as early as possible (and Golot is THE best deity, hopefully you have him chosen for all your chars). More EXP - higher Level, higher stats (Speed).

Basically easy way through game is to have +Exp gear set (and +Exp skill) as early as possible (and getting resist gear set) and investing in Speed on each level up. Eventually scales will tip in your favor.

One thing to remember is that a physical attack on a stunned enemy will always hit. Therefore, if your Arcane Soldier is going to act immediately after your Mage, you can stun the enemy with Shocking Touch and then your Arcane Soldier's Flame Strike will not miss.

Edit: Corrected spelling error: Toucj -> Touch

Watch the numbers next to each character's picture in the turn order. Those indicate the 'seconds' until that character's turn comes up. If you hit someone with a 3 'second' stun, they will shift down the order by 3 seconds. But it could be the turn after them is 5 seconds away, for example. In which case a 3 second stun will make no difference in the turn order. Time your stuns/freezes so that they do make a difference in the turn order.

As you gain speed (by gaining levels, mostly), your characters will recover faster and thus show up in the turn order more frequently, such that stuns/freezes will be much more useful to you than when first starting out.