I like to describe actions of my characters; it comes from DMing tradition in my case. My characters also tend to talk during combats, both when I'm running NPCs and PCs, taunts and boasts and that sort of thing.
My favorite description I used was with a warlock character, who's hand glowed different colors depending on what invocations and feats he used on his eldritch blast. It got to the point, towards the end of the campaign, that the DMs, and all the players, knew that "green, orange, purple" meant a sickening empowered eldritch blast, for instance.
Demiurge out.