And with DEX based fighters, the first round of combat really sucks when your melee character has a higher initiative than the mage with the buffs.

It would be nice if you had an option to defer you combat turn until after the rest of your party members. After all, just because you're First and ready to go Right Now doesn't mean you can't wait for a better opportunity in a minute...

Probably won't happen though. Kind of late in dev for that kind of new mechanic.