I also find it useful to remind the PCs of their surroundings in the descriptions.
While fighting outside in a thunderstorm: "At this point, you are all drenched to the bone and you hear a wet thud as your blow hits the fighter's leather armor."
In a cave: "Although you see next to nothing, you manage to hit him right over the head."
On a mountain slope: "Because he has the higher ground, you find it hard to hit your opponent."
I find that it is easier for the players to imagine the action if they are given these cues. That in turn keeps them more excited.
Description is great, but it often falls by the wayside as the game presses on and the urge to open the next door, kill the next monster, and collect the next treasure moves inexorably forward.
Another way to make combat exciting is to have the monsters actively attempt to kill the PCs. I'm talking about cruel, murderous, evil monsters. If regular attacks are getting old you might try having a monster bullrush a PC off a cliff or into a pool of lava. Monsters with a good CMB but mediocre damage might try to grapple, trip, and push PCs intto all sorts of bad places. Have you ever had a fight in a sawmill?
You also might try having the monsters and NPCs talk during combat. Whether they're babbling madly about the power of their demon queen or just spouting off with a bunch of trash talk it might engage the PCs and the players a bit. Maybe they'll even talk back.
There is a great (although costs money) resource called fastercombat.com. It is a series of lessons/articles on many of the issues you describe, and is made to help people turn combat into a RP-free roll-fest into a fun, fast, and exciting part of the game. If you visit the website roleplayingtips.com you might find some of those articles individually, as well as other good advice:)
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Description is huge here. There is nothing like telling a PC that they just had their extra kidney removed.
But pace and energy matter a lot too. Try speeding up combat a bit. If the players feel the pressure of time they will feel the danger.
Also, if you are not that great at descriptions (like me) then add in voices and screaming. My throat is raw most days after game from all of the "I WILL SMASH YOUR TINY FACE!" or "yes, come closer into my lair.... HAHAHAHAH!"
Its lots for fun to just get into it. Don't worry about perfect strategies. Enjoy being the big baddy.
Against BBEGs my party likes to find capabilities then spend an hour or two planning and 10 min on the actual combat.
You don't have to allow them that time. One of the (optional) combat rules is that if a player takes longer than a certain amount of time to state an action on his turn, then he is automatically considered to have delayed his action. If all of the party does this, then initiative rolls around to the BBEG's turn and it attacks.
I'm of two minds on that method of combat. On the one hand, it does keep combat moving and adds a sense of urgency and tension to play; on the other hand, our characters are seasoned combatants but we aren't (usually), and so it can sometimes make people feel cheated.
In regards to description, I must echo what everyone else has said: Encourage your players to offer more than, "I attack it." Make sure that the environments in which the combat occurs feel 'alive' by mentioning potentially useful (or hindering) objects ("Piles of rotting garbage are strewn about the mud-covered alley floor," which sets up the possibility of backing enemies into slippery spots for knock-downs, or perhaps flinging hands of filthy mud into the foe's eyes as a distraction).
Perhaps offer players bonuses to hit or damage for offering vivid descriptions of their attacks. Exalted (from White Wolf's Storyteller system) encourages this.
You can even help prompt creativity by offering up descriptions of the results of a PC's attack ("Your arrow thunks solidly into the orc's chest and he roars in pain as it tears through the muscle.").
Have combat scenarios that affect combat mechanically, such that there are more tactical concerns than just doing damage to the opponent. It can be simple, such as "break the crystal of zombie awakening to stop the from coming back the round after you killed them" to complex such as fighting on a teeter totter above a lava pit.
The first "boss battle" of Shards of Sin (Shattered Star 1) is another example where the location contributes a lot to the battle, making it interesting.
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There's description...and there's also tactics. As previously mentioned, if all you have is a 20x20 bare room, you won't see much in the way of tactics, but if it's a bunkroom, a PC can dart behind the bunks to avoid the attacks...and then topple the bunks onto the villians. If there's a table, a bold PC can leap atop it and fight with a height advantage, or turn it up to protect against archers. Make sure your environment encourages creative combats...and if the PCs don't get it, take advantage of it yourself, until they do.
Description. Speed. Don't give the PCs hours -- or even minutes -- to think. They should be doing their thinking on everyone else's turn.
I think that describing things is an important step. You need to paint a picture with words from the environment to the actions of the baddies. Also keep the pace brisk if at all possible. Don't let things get bogged down in numbers.
In one encounter I ran the party was fighting some giants in the courtyard of a ruined keep. When the 'biggest' giant swung his huge club and missed the cleric I didn't just roll dice and say he missed. I said he swings his huge club with all his might and struck the ground next to you with a loud KA-WHUMP and you get showered with dust and pebbles. A small crater left in the ground where he hit.
If done right, this tends to inspire the others at the table to do the same and collectively the combat (as well as everything else) is more exciting. I recently played in a game and the DM was making an effort to do this. We encountered some bandits and I found myself describing the actions of my PC in combat as well as taunting the bandit leader after rolling a critical, slaying a bandit with one hit. I described this as stepping into his guard putting him off balance while reversing the grip on my sword. Raising it up and stabbing down between his neck and collarbone. Looking into his dying eyes I said "You chose poorly this day."
ENCOUNTERS:
You need to know what you wanna do with your encounters. Use a preplanned tactic to make the encounters exiting, instead of having the monsters and PCs just blindly slug away at each other. This will also help you to keep the fights fast paced and dynamic, instead of looking up spells etc.
If you have a wizard note a sequence of spells he could use and some emergency plan, if he gets focussed.
A D&D 3.5 encounter I really loved was a big and strong bugbear, who was paired with a pretty generic Trap Hole in the middle of his room. If someone charged him directly he would just fall into the trap. During the fight the Bugbear would then proceed to bullrush physically weak characters into the pit.
At the moment I'm planning an encounter with an enemy, maybe a Magus or a rogue using the spell Mirage Arcana - can create an Illusory building - to separate and confuse the group with a small instant abyrinth. He will then dash thorugh the illusory walls onto separated PCs and try to burst them down while the rest of the group tries to find him.
If you've hit your players with lots of nasty encounters give them some easy ones. Send the Party wizard few monsters with Weakness(Fire) to be fried by his beloved fireball.
Or use a big group of low level enemies to push the heroes ego up again.
DESCRIPTION:
IMO it's more important to give a nice description of the enemies actions than the PCs. Before the fight make shure to describe the oponents well allowing the players to imagine the fights action.
I wouldn't necessarily describe, every action during the fight, but concentrate on crucial moments. Otherwise the fight can get elongated too much and use it's dynamic.
The abovementioned Bugbear could move in "with a toothy grin". Don't describe his attacks, concentrate on what a big bully he is and how he enjoys pushing the smaller humans into his pit.
An evil necromancer could enjoy permanently cursing the PCs, whil a dinosaur whil make the surrounding shake by merely moving.
I do combat by the book mostly, but every once in a while I drop that in favour of the Rule of Cool. If a player come up with an idea that is creative, interesting and makes me or another player go " hell yes!", it happens. I'll make them roll dice and look thoughtful about the result, but if I like the imagery enough the dice roll, provided it's not the dreaded Nat One, doesn't matter.
And yes, description is key. Practice makes perfect, but even stilted description is better then bland numbers. Personally, I say the more adjectives, superlatives and modifiers you can toss into a result sentence without making your players roll their eyes, the better. ;)
If the combat drags on because some people are slow with math, have the person in the group that is good with math handle it. Most groups have at least one person like that, that I have been in, or bring a calculator to speed things up.
As a GM I have also let a player handle initiative so it is one less thing I have to do.
Like most have said description, but I will add one other thing that is specific to that role, communication. Description is about WHAT your saying, communication is about HOW your presenting it. also, with the description, don't just give a visual, also give the other senses. How does it smell, what do you hear, how does the walls, or the chest feel to the touch. Is it damp, humid, cold, high up above sea level, so forth.
When I add sound fx, either from myself or some tool/program, it adds another layer to the overall feel of the game. If there is an evil boss, give him an accent or a weird laugh, or something to enhance the overall feel. Little changes in many places has a better overall improvement of the game, not only for your players but also for you. Your dialogue with the players can have different: tone, emphasis, volume, syntax, so forth.
Instead of: "you hear something on the otherside of the door, roll perception."
Or "The wizard makes some hand gestures and a giant fireball comes your way. Give me a reflex save. "
It can be: "you come upon the door when your hear what seems to be clanking of some sort of metal on metal, and grunting and moans. (que grunting and moaning sounds from the DM). While also hearing in the background something you can't make out, yet. Roll perception to see what you hear."
Or "the sage old wizard, conjures up from a well known friend known as magic, and unleashes a concentrated singularity of heat and flame from his fingertips, coming straight at YOU! (DM makes a low rolling 'fwoosh' sound for a speeding fireball) Roll a reflex save or get crispy. Bahaha Bahaha."
Get your players emotionally invested in the fight.
This isn't something you have to do with every battle, but for an important enemy, you should set things up so that they want to bring this motherf---er down.
Maybe let the enemy kill a favorite NPC, or describe a few atrocities that it has committed. If it has a high AC, make certain that it taunts the fighters each time they miss ("Is that all the harder you're going to swing that little sword? I was hoping you might at least offer me a little challenge before I make a doorstop out of your skull.") If it's not a particularly intelligent creature, make it out to be truly monstrous and disgusting (maybe something like describing it defecating on its own claws before attempting a claw attack, so the party really doesn't enjoy your descriptions of the filthy wounds it leaves behind).
In a fight to the death, you have to figure the antagonists end up really wanting to kill each other, so give your players a reason to get their thirst for blood going.
My suggestion is: try to avoid situation in wich one or more of your PCs can't do something meaningful.
be it because of a long duration SoS effect or because of monsters immune to whatever the pc can do in combat.
I'm looking at you, swarms and incorporeal undead at low levels.
I also recommend listening to a variety of actual-play podcasts just to get a feel for how other people play. I've gotten a few of my tricks by listening to the official Dungeons and Dragons podcast where they run the Mines of Madness module. Funny enough, it's not what to do that I've learned, but what NOT to do!
Also, there are a surprising number of livestreams of VTT games, which might help for some more ideas tactically (since you can see the PCs and Foes, rather than just listening with podcasts) as well as narratively.
I think the best way to make combat exciting is to do what Iron Heroes did with Stunts.
Let players make Skill checks to get small +2 bonuses for their attacks or impede their enemies for -2 penalties. Like making an Acrobatics check to charge over a table even though it's not unobstructed terrain. Or making a Climb check and a Standard Attack to pull yourself up a giants shoulder for a stab at his neck, with a +2 bonus to attack.
Things that are not normally possible under the rules, but are cool anyway.
Also, use the environment, but letting stuff fall on people, collapsing bridges, and kick enemies over railings into chasms (bull rush with -4 to CMB to get him over the railing).
Wait until the PCs try to run over a burning bridge and then have a group of ogers block their way at the other end, while a dozen orcs comes charging after them from behind. Even if they can be defeated without much trouble, doing so on a burning bridge changes everything.
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Of course, like everybody here, I'm using a lots of descriptions, but also music, like in a manga or a good action movie. The players will have the opportunity to feel like real heroes with a good ost in the background^^
Also, don't hesitate to forbid non-roleplay talking during fight. If the Paladin leader wants to kill the evil wizard first, lets his character say it, not the player. With all this elments, you'll have the Moria Scene :D
Good fights for me: 1/3 dices/strategy/luck & bad luck, 1/3 music, 1/3 roleplay discussion/ description
Few examples:
I used this one for Foxglove in the first AP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqwi5Ej5K3A and this one for Karzoug: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-2IT8rcdj0
For Jade Regent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TsE01qdy5A or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pUNcos0C6o
And in a homebrew scenario in Molthune (I know, easy but...): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myOGE9S36WM
Moreover, all my players have a theme that I play when there're doing epic thing (like the last strike on the boss). For example, one of my rondolero player have this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMWnoJhBNF8
Try music :p
Sorry for my english, not my mother tongue ^^
A very good way to involve your players in the fight it's to let them describe their own mooves and actions just after you tell her the result.
Like, the Paladin make a 17 and hit the goblin chief, killing him. Then, tell to the player to describe his FATALITY move x)