From what I've seen in the backer beta videos on youTube, there's a very limited variety of combat animations. Even abilities, for a fighter for example, don't have any unique animations. It's the same default attack animations, accompanied by some sound and VFX.

 

In Pillars 1, monks had some really cool default unarmed attack animations. Even those seem to be missing here. Don't know if Obsidian are gonna add more in the future, but combat, from an animation standpoint, looks pretty boring and monotonous.

In one of the backer updates they showed a new animation for the pommel strike ability (which apparently didn't make it into the beta), and idle animations were emphasized as a selling point so I would find it hard to believe that we aren't getting more varied attack and ability animations as well come full release. Remember that the backer beta is primarily being used to test gameplay concepts and balance issues, there are plenty of visual and aesthetic elements that have been intentionally left out.

There's another thred opened regarding this matter last month.

 

Sawyer twitted one day he is watching some HEMA videos. Maybe it has to do with this?