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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 9775577" data-attributes="member: 6988941">Well I don't really think the issues with combat feeling "unengaging" lie all that much with initiative. My main tweak to initiative is just that if the DM is going to have multiple enemies with separate initiatives in a planned battle they should roll intiatives for them in advance, or at least write down their initiative bonuses, or just not bother with enemy and npc initiative bonuses unless they are notably quick or slow. It's not that it really takes that long in the grand scheme of things, it's just that it can take a minute or two when the players are all champing at the bit to have you write down their initiatives and get started, and pausing to focus on a purely game mechanics task invites everyone to take their bathroom breaks or whatever.When I have been bored by combat it has primarily been some combination of these issus:1. Low stakes for players (though letting players have a low or no stakes battle to steamroll enemies with awesome abilities is great from time to time, especially if they recently leveled up or got cool new equipment).2. Poor or repetitive enemy tactics (which tends to also generate low stakes for players)3. Dull encounter design, including dull spaces for encounters.4. Encounters not actually being designed at all, but rather something that happened because the players caused a fight when the DM wasn't expecting it (nothing wrong with this in general, frankly it's a lot of why I take a ttrpg over a video game, but you do get a few real slog fights in the mix, and sometimes you get ones that only one "it's what my character would do" player wanted)5. Spells or abilites which render my player character powerless for extended periods of time (no don't mind the occasional petrification or whatever in principle, but it's going to mean a lot of downtime for someone at the table).6. Enemies immune to primary means of dealing damage, such that they have to be slowly bled over many rounds (only really a boredom problem in low stakes situations, but if the only thing you've got dealing damage is one mage's firebolt or whatever it starts going on forever).7. Rounds taking too long (usually either because there are too many folks in the initative order or because someone doesn't know how to play their character efficiently or doesn't bother to, or has a severe math allergy. A turn may also take a long time because of a critical or difficult decision but  that isn't likely to bore me).8. DM unwillingness to just call a battle when it's clearly over.9. Having a story or roleplay thing I really wanted to get to only to have it be interrupted by 30 or 90 minutes of kind of tedious combat.10. Just having it be the wrong day for me to play D&D. The game is all so dependent on commitments to meet made days or weeks in advance, sometimes when the agreed upon day arrives my heart is not actually in it for all manner of reasons.Few of these are really system design issues per se. So I'm afraid my main advice is not to redesign anything or add any cool new house rules but simly be aware of what drags and to plan accordingly and get good. DM should have meaningful stakes for battles (this may be danger to PCs or someone they are trying to protect, it may be something they are trying to accomplish or desire to defeat a particularly loathsome enemy), enemies using engaging and sensible tactics (unless they're mindless undead or automatons in which case by all means play them comically stupid but that should not be the campaign's typical battle), in interesting spaces which PCs and enemies can interact with and use to tactical advantage. Enemies and enemy abilites which might render a PC irrelevant or make the enemy a long slog to kill should be used rarely and judiciously. Places where players may initate a fight should be recognized and planned for. Much of these DM imperatives are also relevant to publishers of modules. Players should learn to play their characters, do math, be considerate of other people's time, and maybe not start needless fights other people at the table don't want. Everyone at the table should practice patience because even if you're all superstars sometimes something just misfires or someone is just not in the right headspace.</blockquote>

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