Man, I thought I was the only one who was feeling this way. As the DM, I'm finding the EXACT SAME THING. The combat is decided about 45 minutes before the end of it and the rest is uninteresting drudgery!
I'm thinking of beefing up criticals to add some randomness back into the game or something..maybe drop 50% off everybody's starting hp's.
It's been frustrating (boring) as a Dm to say the least [edit: because the players are limited in their actions too (as the other poster said).
WFRP (warhammer fantasy roleplay) has been an interesting ADDITION to our D&D 4e campaign.
SEE HOUSE RULES HERE. I'm running the
Path's of the Damned series but using 4e D&D rules. I ran KOTS as part of Middenheim and am using stat blocks from the other scenarios (and Dungeon).
After reading everyone elses posts (all good btw), I've decided that more dangerous critical hits is the answer. Minions will still do max, but everyone else will do DOUBLE DAMAGE like in previous editions. That should mix things up a bit.
jh