| Zechariah Nelson |
I think the key to interesting combat is to give your players some sort of meaningful choice. "Hit it 'till it dies" fights do have their place, but player's don't have much input other than rolling their dice. My favorite way to do this is by making interesting battle maps. Throw some rocks in so the fighter has to choose between getting a full attack off, or moving to cover, and getting a single attack off. Have a hallway, leading up to a big room full of zombies, so the party has to decide whether to charge in and blast them all with AoE spells, or to stay in the hall way so they can't be flanked. Have visible traps or hazards, so they have to think about their positioning. The most important thing, is to not have a clear cut best option, give the players an opportunity to come up with their own best option.
In the end, it doesn't matter much what the monsters do, if the players' best option is to run up and hit it.