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I was reading nostalgically over some of my old 4e books after going back to check on some old advice from the DMG I remembered, and ended up looking at some powers and remembering how everything being a named attack had a certain charm to it where my players developed fighting styles of their own around these named techniques.
Now I much prefer the PF2e system overall despite my nostalgic love for 4e (lack of trap options, asymmetrical resource management, better out of combat support), and I was thinking about how the game accomplishes this feeling with some of its class feats to a lesser extent, like One Inch Punch, Double Slice, Twin Takedown, and so forth, along with some of the feats from say, Ruby Phoenix--- or even some spells like Blazing Dive or Horizon Thunder Sphere, and was thinking that I hope we continue to see more such attacks when an idea hit me.
One mechanic I don't think we've seen are combo attacks where you have to spend an action on each move of a given combo in sequence to get to the later stage of it. Unlike normal multi action activities, you wouldn't spend the actions at once, instead you use the first action, then the second action, and then the third, choosing to exit the combo anywhere along the way or starting it late so you don't have the actions to finish, but with each step building up to the finish. The key is that you can't get the benefit of the later stage of the combo without spending actions building up to it with the first part.
I suppose this could also be accomplished for something like the fighter with more Openers/Presses/Finishers that flow into each other, allowing them to be customized, but then it loses some of the fun factor of it being a named combo.
One could name the combos themselves, maybe even shout them out or have a fellow spellcaster cast an illusion displaying the combo's name it large letters or Tian symbols. Okay, maybe just save the names for post-battle gloating, yet the principle remains that we don't need Paizo's stamp of approval on this. And each PC could add their individual spin, with different weapons also changing the flavor, especially if enchanted w/ showy magic. Ex. a frosty axe Power Attack would likely have a different name than a fiery meteor hammer Power Attack.
It does seem that Fighter's the only class built along these lines, where using one feat in a round supports a different feat's Strike. Another combo is the fear from Intimidating Strike setting up Shatter Defenses (which is a Press). Add Fearsome Brute (10) and it resembles the feat chain from PF1.
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I'd say Snagging Strike > Combat Grab > Dazing Blow definitely has a combo vibe to it.
So does Dual-Handed Assault > Combat Grab actually.
Free-hand fighter in general has a certain combo vibe to it. It is great.
I'd like too see that too, OP. Several combo starters with branching follow up attacks and a finisher. I think a Monk class archetype that deletes FoB could work for that.
I also thought about creating a homebrew Fighter class archetype that deletes the extra weapon proficiency, heavy armor proficiency and shield block for a special variable action with the press trait (free action to 2 actions) that allows for a use of a Fighter strike feat for 1 less action than usual.
I'd say Snagging Strike > Combat Grab > Dazing Blow ...
i call it the grab and stun. Gotta love the free hand fighter
I think we can have both class feats that let us create our own combos, and also class feats that represent bespoke combos, specifically I think bespoke combos allow for stronger effects deeper in the combo, because they can't be matched with whatever early effect you want-- from a design perspective, you can pay for a stronger finish than normal, by controlling the first and second move of the combo, that could be used to create a menu of techniques that involve action sequences that aren't always optimal (in other words you lose effectiveness doing something you normally wouldn't but then break even or a little above through a stronger finish) but then in certain situations those early movements are much more useful and the whole combo is effective.
Technically, we could also see them as multi-action regular activities, like Dance of Intercession from Ruby Phoenix is conceptually a really cool feat, and I could see that concept being used in more places.