Am I the only person sick of a GM that sends encounters of the same monster just multiplied to increase encounter difficulty? I remember when goblins had shamans among them, but apparently that's not done anymore.
Having varied monsters of the same type shouldn't be any more difficult than having different monsters.
I've been known to mix and match. Things like hobgoblin bullies who forced their goblin slaves into attacking the PCs. Or a pirate crew with a captain (fighter), first mate (sorcerer), and deckhands (rangers)--as well as an enslaved marsh giant. Or a wizard with a pair of "pet" manticores.
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I have thrown "six orcs" or "fifteen zombies" at the PCs before. Sometimes, especially it's an impromptu encounter, you just don't have time to stat up special individual monsters with character levels.
This is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to the Monster Codex!
It's easy to vary monsters on the fly. Make one strong, with +2 to hit & damage over bog standard. Vary hit points by +/-1 or 2 per hit die. Give them different weapons - especially easy to conceptualize if using figures armed with different weapons.
Throwing in shamans or clerics or adepts or wizards or whatever is easier if you can pull a stat block out of somewhere, including spells memorized. Post-it bookmarks in various books helps.
I feel APs do a decent job of having different types of opponents in combats. At least the ones where you have more than one opponent.
When I first started running games, this was something that frustrated me as well. Then my husband did the most wonderful thing for me. He sat down with the common monsters in the books and added class levels for a host of different classes and features to them. Now I have a veritable codex of monsters to draw from without having to create the Goblin/Orc/Kobold slot machine.
It is easy to do, just time consuming. If you take the time to do it once, it's a resource that can be used over and over again if the typical encounter just isn't doing it anymore.
Example: In my world there are what are called 'Initiates of the Dark Blade'. What they are is a collection of individuals, from nearly any race (even goblins) that sell their souls to some unknown benefactor for improved martial skill (benefits vary). They have no idea who they are selling their souls to, and given that all of those that are sought out are tormented and have suffered some sort of tragedy, don't really care. They just want the pain to stop. But, unbeknownst to them, they are slowly driven insane the more powerful they become.
It's rather interesting to see the reaction when you describe to a party 'the lone figure, cloaked in black, standing a mere three and a half feet walks toward you, mumbling softly to itself'. Players have no idea what to make of it and usually just attack it. Many a party has gone by the wayside doing this.