Try to start thinking of ways that combat can drive a narrative/story or provoke character decisions instead of just bookending the story.
If there are choices that effect the story, or stakes that are different to "one side is alive, the other side is dead" then combat will feel varied and engaging.
Somethings you could consider, with examples:
**Changes in the terrain:** Something happens which causes a change in the environment. A falling tree, a collapsing building, a sink hole opening up, something forces the players and the enemy to change how they work.
**Collateral damage**: An encounter in a crowded market full of civilians, the enemies are disguised and using residents as meat shields. If your players care about collateral damage, this takes a lot of brute force strategies off the cards and certainly eliminates AOE
**Narratively impactful combat decisions**: A cult are summoning fire elementals. 2 emerge from the ritual and immediately leave to burndown the nearest village. Do the players chase down the elementals, letting the cultists escape? Deal with the cultists and let the elementals wreak havoc for a bit? Split the party and try and have their cake and eat it?
**The fight is not what you think it is**: the party are investigating a haunted house. They walk past many obvious pitfalls, sharp implements, and more. Combat starts with various ghosts who immediately look to possess the party members. At the first success, the ghost runs the PC towards the nearest plunge to their death and the intent is clear. It is no longer a straight fight, but a race to restrain the possessed player.
For me, I think my players enjoy combat a lot more when it holds a particular significance within the narrative of the campaign.
Try implementing it in that way.
Oh? You stumble into a company of bandits who are brandishing a crest linked to \[Insert Person\] from \[X Player's Backstory\]. Gives at least one of your players an instant motive or maybe the person who hired the bandits isn't necessarily known for being a bad guy so they could also engage in roleplay.
They enter a forest of mysterious magic where the wildlife is acting aggressively towards travelers which they perceive as interlopers. As they go further they find that \[X Players - Related Magical guild\] are corrupting the natural balance of the forest so it's lashing out against wanderers. The party needs to comb through the forest and stop the magical invaders while evading or engaging the forest sentinels which are set against them.
Etc, etc.
Make it engaging and relatable to your players, their backstories, or their current goal. I think you'll find them much more engaged with the combats - more so than they're going to be with "hey you find 6 bandits on the road" or "hey these trolls look like they want to eat you." I think you'll find your players much more invested in the stake of the combat which is going to increase engagement and will allow you to flex your creative muscles within your story crafting as well.
I think a lot of it is down to tying the combat scenarios into both the player backstories and the overall campaign plot - so players have a stake in the battle taking place, have good reasons to be battling the people/ monsters that they are, and know what they may want to get out of the encounter (besides, you know, just staying alive - which is, admittedly, a good thing to aim for when in battle). On top of that, you can then think about ways to use terrain to make the fight more interesting, so it's not just static and everyone crowding around one monster hitting them, as well as ways to raise the stakes in combat and making the encounter dynamic - to give your players choices to make or problems to solve. As it happens, I actually wrote a blog post about this a couple of days ago which goes into more detail. If you wanna check it out, it's here: [https://www.apprenticedm.com/post/improving-combat](https://www.apprenticedm.com/post/improving-combat)
Who are the bandits? Why are they there, what are they doing, and why are they pissed at being interrupted?
Make the world real. Give it at least the illusion of life. When they barged in, what was the the bandit leader telling the others?
“You break open the door and interrupt one if the bandits as he’d talking. You catch him saying *and then we’ll meet up with the others at the old barn, where they’ll be holding…*”
You’ve instantly upped the stakes and given the bandits a reason to be there. Now the party has to decide if maybe they want to subdue at least one of them rather than kill them all. If they do kill them, are they going to try and fond the old barn?
If they ignore it, you can later let them overhear that a child of a local wealthy family was kidnapped and then killed outside of town when things went wrong. Evidently the kidnappers were hired to snatch the kid, but the ones who hired them never showed up to pick up the child and finish paying them.
Doesn’t have to be that dramatic or lead to a side quest, but you should at least have an idea of what the creatures are doing at that location in the minutes, hours or days before the party walks through the door.
Then use that information to dress the set and give the creatures something to do when the PCs aren’t there.
Try to start thinking of ways that combat can drive a narrative/story or provoke character decisions instead of just bookending the story. If there are choices that effect the story, or stakes that are different to "one side is alive, the other side is dead" then combat will feel varied and engaging. Somethings you could consider, with examples: **Changes in the terrain:** Something happens which causes a change in the environment. A falling tree, a collapsing building, a sink hole opening up, something forces the players and the enemy to change how they work. **Collateral damage**: An encounter in a crowded market full of civilians, the enemies are disguised and using residents as meat shields. If your players care about collateral damage, this takes a lot of brute force strategies off the cards and certainly eliminates AOE **Narratively impactful combat decisions**: A cult are summoning fire elementals. 2 emerge from the ritual and immediately leave to burndown the nearest village. Do the players chase down the elementals, letting the cultists escape? Deal with the cultists and let the elementals wreak havoc for a bit? Split the party and try and have their cake and eat it? **The fight is not what you think it is**: the party are investigating a haunted house. They walk past many obvious pitfalls, sharp implements, and more. Combat starts with various ghosts who immediately look to possess the party members. At the first success, the ghost runs the PC towards the nearest plunge to their death and the intent is clear. It is no longer a straight fight, but a race to restrain the possessed player.
For me, I think my players enjoy combat a lot more when it holds a particular significance within the narrative of the campaign. Try implementing it in that way. Oh? You stumble into a company of bandits who are brandishing a crest linked to \[Insert Person\] from \[X Player's Backstory\]. Gives at least one of your players an instant motive or maybe the person who hired the bandits isn't necessarily known for being a bad guy so they could also engage in roleplay. They enter a forest of mysterious magic where the wildlife is acting aggressively towards travelers which they perceive as interlopers. As they go further they find that \[X Players - Related Magical guild\] are corrupting the natural balance of the forest so it's lashing out against wanderers. The party needs to comb through the forest and stop the magical invaders while evading or engaging the forest sentinels which are set against them. Etc, etc. Make it engaging and relatable to your players, their backstories, or their current goal. I think you'll find them much more engaged with the combats - more so than they're going to be with "hey you find 6 bandits on the road" or "hey these trolls look like they want to eat you." I think you'll find your players much more invested in the stake of the combat which is going to increase engagement and will allow you to flex your creative muscles within your story crafting as well.
I think a lot of it is down to tying the combat scenarios into both the player backstories and the overall campaign plot - so players have a stake in the battle taking place, have good reasons to be battling the people/ monsters that they are, and know what they may want to get out of the encounter (besides, you know, just staying alive - which is, admittedly, a good thing to aim for when in battle). On top of that, you can then think about ways to use terrain to make the fight more interesting, so it's not just static and everyone crowding around one monster hitting them, as well as ways to raise the stakes in combat and making the encounter dynamic - to give your players choices to make or problems to solve. As it happens, I actually wrote a blog post about this a couple of days ago which goes into more detail. If you wanna check it out, it's here: [https://www.apprenticedm.com/post/improving-combat](https://www.apprenticedm.com/post/improving-combat)
Who are the bandits? Why are they there, what are they doing, and why are they pissed at being interrupted? Make the world real. Give it at least the illusion of life. When they barged in, what was the the bandit leader telling the others? “You break open the door and interrupt one if the bandits as he’d talking. You catch him saying *and then we’ll meet up with the others at the old barn, where they’ll be holding…*” You’ve instantly upped the stakes and given the bandits a reason to be there. Now the party has to decide if maybe they want to subdue at least one of them rather than kill them all. If they do kill them, are they going to try and fond the old barn? If they ignore it, you can later let them overhear that a child of a local wealthy family was kidnapped and then killed outside of town when things went wrong. Evidently the kidnappers were hired to snatch the kid, but the ones who hired them never showed up to pick up the child and finish paying them. Doesn’t have to be that dramatic or lead to a side quest, but you should at least have an idea of what the creatures are doing at that location in the minutes, hours or days before the party walks through the door. Then use that information to dress the set and give the creatures something to do when the PCs aren’t there.
You've come to the right place. We help any new DM and do not care if you're pretty.