I'm slowly elaborating an rpg aiming for combats to feel dynamic. I opted for using APs and you can use them to react to something. Attacks usually hit automatically unless the target tries to defend themselves which cost action points. Where I'm stuck is whether it's better when people regain their APs at the beginning of their turn or at the end of it. In the first case, they have to evaluate the risks and calculate an amount to keep "for safety", while in the other one, how much they react will determine how much they'll be able to act during their turn.

I have the impression that regaining at the beginning makes it so you have to take more time to calculate how much you need to keep which is an interesting choice offered to the players but it can make turns longer. Take note that unused APs won't just be wasted, they'll be turned in another ressource (probably stamina or something like that).

Meanwhile, regaining at the end of your turn makes it easier to play your turn as you can just go all out with what you've got left, but you can't plan your turns too far ahead. The major issue of this is that it gets hard to reverse the tide in the case players are constantly being attacked to the point they can't retaliate. It gets impossible to regain momentum without deliberately taking damage (and people don't have many hit points for many reasons that go beyond the scope of this post).

There's always the alternative of having APs reset at the beginning of a round, which would have both dynamics fade into each other at varying degrees depending of the turn order. I haven't figured out what kind of initiative system would be the best.

Can you help me? I'm sure my analysis is incomplete