This has no direct effect on the progress of the battle.
I 100% agree that it's an interresting tactical decision but it only belongs to D&D and its D20. The system is very interresting and deep and I like it for many reasons but it's less dynamic than what many can expect of a TB video game that is already "slow" by nature.
I don't really know/remember any tactical TB video games in which I have to spend entire turns to ""buff"" character(s) often during combats (>< before combats).
This is completely wrong, but you might be right.
I did encounter attitude before, that if you aren't actively dishing out the damage you are wasting a turn. I do think modern tactical games underrate imporatance of thinking multiple turns at a time, rather then just immediate gain. That need to think ahead is what I thought helped LongWar to elevate XCOM into enjoyable territory - disabling, protecting, moving into position were a valiable and necessary choices, where is Vanilla XCOM most of the time the only question to ask is: what I kill next? Satisfying in short term, perhaps, but gets boring quickly.
