D&D 5E My most basic advice for DMs who want more interesting & dynamic combat

[Asisreo]

Give your players false information, in combat. Illusions are a great way to shake up combat. Have that Ogre on the other side of the room be an illusion so that the martial characters erroneously go the wrong direction when the true threat is a disguised archmage.

This means that players will have to be on their toes since even the act of casting an automatic spell or making three attack rolls might still not be guaranteed to work.

 

[Nebulous]

I know some folks feel that way but 4E just didn't jibe for me. I have been able to run interesting and dynamic combat in every other edition though.

I feel the same.

 

[Nebulous]

One thing I have found to keep things interesting is to occasionally have a monster that is a real heavy hitter. That sudden fear of "this thing can kill me fast" overcomes any stagnancy that might evolve from standing shoulder to shoulder and whacking each other. I recently had a vampire that did 4d6 cold with a touch and 1d6 Strength damage (no save). Someone could easily have died, and then reinforcements showed up, so they were fighting the monsters on 2 fronts. No one died, but the threat was there the whole time.

 

[Nebulous]

I had a boss fight a while back with a color out of space where basically their only attacks that could hurt it were psychic and force. The party was split three ways and forced to retreat, with two people leaping from the top of a tower to escape and nearly dying upon hitting the ground.