Dramatic Combat & Ability Warm-up

[GGambrel]

Today I watched a video by Matt Colville entitled "Action Oriented Monsters" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zl8WWaSyI) in which he elaborates his approach to custom monster design. He describes giving monsters thematic bonus actions, reactions, and [pseudo-]legendary actions to keep the players on their toes. Of particular note is that the pseudo-legendary actions change from round to round in an attempt to make the combat have sort of a narrative structure with exposition, rising action, and climax (which was likened to an 'ultimate' from League of Legends). I encourage any interested to watch the video.
It isn't uncommon for abilities in games to be limited by resources (actions/action points, spell slots, mana, stamina, ticks, etc.) or to have cool-downs after their use. I think it might be interesting if some abilities couldn't be used to full effect until 'warmed up'.

Examples (basically off the top of my head):

Fighter

moves to melee range
creates an opening in enemy's defenses
runs enemy through with weapon

Wizard(Evoker)

gathers fire energy and casts fire bolt (cantrip)
casts burning hands (1st level)
casts scorching ray (2nd level)
at combat's end, maybe only lose the highest spell slot in each 'chain'?
maybe can skip some levels

I think something like this might make combat more dramatic/cinematic by giving it a pace/cadence. It might also prevent characters from 'wasting' their best abilities on push-overs.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever played a system that did something like this? If so, how'd you like it?

[jjordan]

Today I watched a video by Matt Colville entitled "Action Oriented Monsters" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_zl8WWaSyI) in which he elaborates his approach to custom monster design. He describes giving monsters thematic bonus actions, reactions, and [pseudo-]legendary actions to keep the players on their toes. Of particular note is that the pseudo-legendary actions change from round to round in an attempt to make the combat have sort of a narrative structure with exposition, rising action, and climax (which was likened to an 'ultimate' from League of Legends). I encourage any interested to watch the video.
It isn't uncommon for abilities in games to be limited by resources (actions/action points, spell slots, mana, stamina, ticks, etc.) or to have cool-downs after their use. I think it might be interesting if some abilities couldn't be used to full effect until 'warmed up'.

Examples (basically off the top of my head):

Fighter

moves to melee range
creates an opening in enemy's defenses
runs enemy through with weapon

Wizard(Evoker)

gathers fire energy and casts fire bolt (cantrip)
casts burning hands (1st level)
casts scorching ray (2nd level)
at combat's end, maybe only lose the highest spell slot in each 'chain'?
maybe can skip some levels

I think something like this might make combat more dramatic/cinematic by giving it a pace/cadence. It might also prevent characters from 'wasting' their best abilities on push-overs.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever played a system that did something like this? If so, how'd you like it?
You can sort of do this by assisting other players. I like the idea that you could spend your action on one round setting up an attack with advantage on the next round.

ETA - Thinking about this I came up with the following for melee attacks. I don't know if I'd use it for spellcasting and other non-melee actions, but it seems like it could be used in that way (taking extra time).

Advantageous Position, Melee Version -
The character spends an action maneuvering to put their self into an advantageous position against a single opponent they are engaged with. The opponent gets to make a Wisdom save to negate this. If the opponent fails their Wisdom save the character gets advantage on their next melee attack action (not reaction or bonus action).

[Old Harry MTX]

You can sort of do this by assisting other players. I like the idea that you could spend your action on one round setting up an attack with advantage on the next round.

I'm writing a class that uses gadgets to do things ... I could use your idea for some of them!