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I like to use incidental encouters to fill out the setting. If the party is going through an inhabited swamp, then encountering a boggard tribe (PF2 Bestiary, page 44) would be appropriate. A crocodile (PF2 Bestiary, page 67) would be more appropriate for establishing that no intelligent tribes live in the swamp. Peaceful encounters work for this too, such as encountering a shrine of the champion's religion will illustrate how his or her faith fits into the locale.
My wife points out that incidental encounters can also be roleplaying opportunities. A party rogue might have left a bandit gang to become an adventure, and a chance encounter with the same bandits could be a social encounter if played diplomatically or a combat encounter if played disrespectfully. A druid character could develop his philosophy with nature during an encounter with a leshy (page 218) or a nymph (page 246). A barbarian character could be invited to a boar hunt by the local barbarian tribe.
I also sometimes use little encounters to warn the party about weaknesses in their combat style. Lords of Rust, 2nd module in the Iron Gods adventure path, provides a good example. The party has to fight a gang of gunslingers, even though gunslingers are a rare class and gunpowder firearms do not fit the milieu in Numeria. However, in a few more levels, the party will encounter enemies with laser pistols, since Numeria has alien high technology. The out-of-place gunslingers let them refirne their defenses against firearms by taking new feats before the firearms get especially deadly. An encounter with a 4th-level griffon (PF2 Bestiary, page 194), where a partial success would drive it off to seek easier prey, could let the party practice fighting against a flying beast before an important encounter with a 6th-level manticore (PF2 Bestiary, page 232).
I like to use incidental encouters to fill out the setting. If the party is going through an inhabited swamp, then encountering a boggard tribe (PF2 Bestiary, page 44) would be appropriate. A crocodile (PF2 Bestiary, page 67) would be more appropriate for establishing that no intelligent tribes live in the swamp. Peaceful encounters work for this too, such as encountering a shrine of the champion's religion will illustrate how his or her faith fits into the locale.
My wife points out that incidental encounters can also be roleplaying opportunities. A party rogue might have left a bandit gang to become an adventure, and a chance encounter with the same bandits could be a social encounter if played diplomatically or a combat encounter if played disrespectfully. A druid character could develop his philosophy with nature during an encounter with a leshy (page 218) or a nymph (page 246). A barbarian character could be invited to a boar hunt by the local barbarian tribe.
I also sometimes use little encounters to warn the party about weaknesses in their combat style. Lords of Rust, 2nd module in the Iron Gods adventure path, provides a good example. The party has to fight a gang of gunslingers, even though gunslingers are a rare class and gunpowder firearms do not fit the milieu in Numeria. However, in a few more levels, the party will encounter enemies with laser pistols, since Numeria has alien high technology. The out-of-place gunslingers let them refirne their defenses against firearms by taking new feats before the firearms get especially deadly. An encounter with a 4th-level griffon (PF2 Bestiary, page 194), where a partial success would drive it off to seek easier prey, could let the party practice fighting against a flying beast before an important encounter with a 6th-level manticore (PF2 Bestiary, page 232).
This is how I like to approach encounters. I think it is makes the world so much more interesting.
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Interesting terrain! That's my input here.
Anybody can make a plain square room. And a sufficiently interesting monster may even result in an engaging fight.
But you can do so, so much with just the terrain. Especially since Pathfinder 2 has all sorts of great actions like taking cover, sneaking, etc., that often require interesting terrain.
Examples:
If it's a forest, don't just call it all difficult terrain to represent undergrowth. That's a good start, but... a path running through the forest gives more tactical choices. Move faster on the path but leave the cover? Add in some very thick tree trunks (filling a whole square) that are impassable, some rocks as greater difficult terrain, perhaps a log that a character can step up on top of... all of that makes the environment more dynamic and interesting.
If it's a room, don't just leave it empty. Pillars are fairly common additions to rooms. Players can take cover, they can deny enemies flanking options, etc. Furniture can be difficult or greater difficult terrain. A torch on the wall could be an improvised weapon - particularly if a foe that has a weakness to fire is involved.
In a recent fight, I took a plain-jane 5x5 room with a 5 foot wide door - as bog standard as it gets - I put the quest objective on the far side with some treasure to lure the party in - and I put a 5 foot wide crevasse across the middle of the room. I put a Gibbering Mouther in the crevasse and designed the encounter such that as soon as a PC leapt over the crevasse to get the goodies on the other side, initiative was rolled. The Mouther used its first action to ascend out of the crevasse and then attacked the rogue in melee and spat at somebody across the crevasse. Instead of a simple "oh there's a bad thing, let's all surround it and smash it" sort of fight, it was a great test of the character's abilities. The warpriest leapt across to give the rogue some help. The fighter used Lunge to attack from across the crevasse. The ranged characters, poor things, fell to the Confusion effect of the Mouther and started zapping each other. Even though I kept failing my attack rolls with the Mouther, it was a real fun fight all around. The terrain was a big part of that.
Another thing I like to do is include 3D elements. I'm not talking about props here. If the encounter is in city streets, include a way for characters to climb up onto balconies or roofs. If it's a dungeon or a cavern, stairs or steep slopes can create interesting situations. Shaky bridges are a classic fantasy trope.
Think of how much fun that scene in Fellowship of the Rings was, when the Fellowship is dashing down that windy, exposed staircase towards the bridge of Khazad Dum, goblins pelting them with arrows, the stairs giving way under them. Now imagine it again in a plain square room. BOring... the players would have engaged the weak goblin archers, no threat or interest at all. But since the environment was a danger in and of itself (if you take too long it will collapse and escape will be impossible), so they can't really stop and decisively deal with the goblin archers. Legolas picks off a few, but in the main, they're running.
The following encounter with the Balrog relied heavily on terrain as well. If there was no chasm and no bridge, the Balrog may have just sidestepped Gandalf and his magical wards and fried the Fellowship right then and there. Gandalf got to be the hero because of the terrain. Imagine the GM's face when Gandalf's player is is all like "well I cast a spell that breaks the bridge if the balrog tries to cross..."
The following encounter with the Balrog relied heavily on terrain as well. If there was no chasm and no bridge, the Balrog may have just sidestepped Gandalf and his magical wards and fried the Fellowship right then and there. Gandalf got to be the hero because of the terrain. Imagine the GM's face when Gandalf's player is is all like "well I cast a spell that breaks the bridge if the balrog tries to cross..."
This made me laugh. It's the bane of a GM's existence to create this elaborate intense fight just to have it crumble out from under you because a PC had a spell you didn't even remember was in the game that completely destroys all your hard work.
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The following encounter with the Balrog relied heavily on terrain as well. If there was no chasm and no bridge, the Balrog may have just sidestepped Gandalf and his magical wards and fried the Fellowship right then and there. Gandalf got to be the hero because of the terrain. Imagine the GM's face when Gandalf's player is is all like "well I cast a spell that breaks the bridge if the balrog tries to cross..."This made me laugh. It's the bane of a GM's existence to create this elaborate intense fight just to have it crumble out from under you because a PC had a spell you didn't even remember was in the game that completely destroys all your hard work.
I tend to really enjoy it as a GM when I just say "here's a problem, you're a resourceful bunch of PCs, find a solution". So spend more time coming up with a good premise than with the specific solution you want the PCs to use. (Just make sure there's at least one solution that they would be able to think of.)