I hear this complaint about Illustrator all the time, he's a tutorial I came across that covers how to do it (this time as part of a technique to do the all-too trendy 1900s newspaper print stripe shadow effect).
http://blog.rogercline.com/2011/11/05/old-school-embossed-type-in-illustrator/
http://blog.rogercline.com/2011/11/05/old-school-embossed-type-in-illustrator/