First, I'm asking for help, recommendations, suggestions I can use and share with my players.

Second, I was going for a pithy subject. I may have failed. The group of players for which I DM has grown to 6. And, as expected, combat is slow. I am having them take a few minutes to strategize even before we roll initiative, and that helped. But the combat still drug on, and some players checked out when it wasn't their turn.

I'm thinking about trying the "Greyhawk Initiative", or other initiative alternatives. I'm also thinking about using 'intelligent' creatures against my players; ones that will also have strategies and tactics.

Besides those 2, and possibly sending waves of creatures against the players, what have other DMs done? What worked? What didn't work? Are there other options I'm not considering?

Thanks, in advance, for your assistance.

Have you tried side/party initiative? 

Quote from Matthias_von_Schwarzwald >>

Have you tried side/party initiative? 

perhaps you could give us an example of how combat is going currently?

I sometimes make combat also like a puzzle, e.g. the main enemy must first have XYZ item removed to make him no longer near-invulnerable or levers in the room need to be activated to stop the waves upon waves of undead. this gives the party more to do than ticking down minions and hp, giving them something to think about.

Well, rule 1 write initiative order somewhere where your players can see it (so they know where you are in the order) and tell them the following "A round of combat represents 6 seconds of battle, if you cannot convey to me what your character will be doing in 12 seconds (double that time) then it will be the DM's opinion that your character must have been distracted/dazed or otherwise incapacitated during this round of combat. Tell your players that the game will be more fun for everybody if you are able to keep things moving. They have plenty of time to stare at their character sheet, look up spell effects, etc between rounds. If you notice someone is playing with their phone, give them fair warning by saying "John, you're up, Samantha, you're on deck!"

Second, use platoons. Move all (up to 5-6) enemies at a time, and resolve their attacks on the same initiative count. Initiative 17, Ranged goblin group A goes. Initiative 13, Ranged Goblin group B goes. Initiative 8 Hobgoblin melee group goes. Initiative 1, wolves go.

Third, Force your characters to make (selfish?) decisions! The big bad is gonna just whale on somebody! Force them to run. Who's going to take out those rangers? They are doing the most damage, but hey, the melee characters seem to have their hands full.

4th don't do throw away combat. 5e is designed around multiple combats per long rest. Depleting resources. Strategically holding reserve spell slots, etc. But throw-away combat is too time consuming for large groups. Instead, I recommend "difficulties." On your way to slay the great evil that has corrupted the land of so-and-so, you encounter a mysterious marsh. There is something about the marsh that feels unnatural, and as you stand peering into the water's edge, you feel sick, as if the marsh were causing you to rot from the inside. As you cross the marsh, each character makes X number of saves (Con saves, in this case) and then takes some amount of necrotic damage. This will force your players to expend resources (healing magic, potions, spell slots, inspiration maybe) and will consume far less table time than actually running a bunch of mini swamp rat encounters. I find that at my table, we can stomach at most 1 combat per 2 hours of game-time with a large group regardless of intensity.

5th to that end, master the art of the complex encounter. Enemies should appear in waves, every character there should simultaneously feel like he's needed everywhere, and that he needs more support!

6th dial up the urgency: because you are running fewer encounters, you need your characters to be "on the clock," so to speak. Not only do they have to make it through the spooky forest alive, they need to make it through before dawn, or they'll be trapped inside!

Quote from JCAUDM >>

perhaps you could give us an example of how combat is going currently?

I sometimes make combat also like a puzzle, e.g. the main enemy must first have XYZ item removed to make him no longer near-invulnerable or levers in the room need to be activated to stop the waves upon waves of undead. this gives the party more to do than ticking down minions and hp, giving them something to think about.

Quote from Diplomacy >>

Well, rule 1 write initiative order somewhere where your players can see it (so they know where you are in the order) and tell them the following "A round of combat represents 6 seconds of battle, if you cannot convey to me what your character will be doing in 12 seconds (double that time) then it will be the DM's opinion that your character must have been distracted/dazed or otherwise incapacitated during this round of combat. Tell your players that the game will be more fun for everybody if you are able to keep things moving. They have plenty of time to stare at their character sheet, look up spell effects, etc between rounds. If you notice someone is playing with their phone, give them fair warning by saying "John, you're up, Samantha, you're on deck!"

Second, use platoons. Move all (up to 5-6) enemies at a time, and resolve their attacks on the same initiative count. Initiative 17, Ranged goblin group A goes. Initiative 13, Ranged Goblin group B goes. Initiative 8 Hobgoblin melee group goes. Initiative 1, wolves go.

Third, Force your characters to make (selfish?) decisions! The big bad is gonna just whale on somebody! Force them to run. Who's going to take out those rangers? They are doing the most damage, but hey, the melee characters seem to have their hands full.

4th don't do throw away combat. 5e is designed around multiple combats per long rest. Depleting resources. Strategically holding reserve spell slots, etc. But throw-away combat is too time consuming for large groups. Instead, I recommend "difficulties." On your way to slay the great evil that has corrupted the land of so-and-so, you encounter a mysterious marsh. There is something about the marsh that feels unnatural, and as you stand peering into the water's edge, you feel sick, as if the marsh were causing you to rot from the inside. As you cross the marsh, each character makes X number of saves (Con saves, in this case) and then takes some amount of necrotic damage. This will force your players to expend resources (healing magic, potions, spell slots, inspiration maybe) and will consume far less table time than actually running a bunch of mini swamp rat encounters. I find that at my table, we can stomach at most 1 combat per 2 hours of game-time with a large group regardless of intensity.

5th to that end, master the art of the complex encounter. Enemies should appear in waves, every character there should simultaneously feel like he's needed everywhere, and that he needs more support!

6th dial up the urgency: because you are running fewer encounters, you need your characters to be "on the clock," so to speak. Not only do they have to make it through the spooky forest alive, they need to make it through before dawn, or they'll be trapped inside!

 

Think of it this way, a pack of wolves, highway bandits, or a small band of orcs is going to be less inclined to jump a group of 7 warriors. They, like everything in DnD have motives, and there are easier places to get a meal. A large group is a hard target. Your group of 7+ warriors might still encounter those highway bandits, but the bandits are going to respond very differently than they would to a group of 4. They will produce papers that prove the goods they are carrying are theirs, they will surrender to the PCs and allow them to take them into custody, rather than fighting...and they will stab the party in the back later:P This will save you 1 lame combat, which would take 2 rounds to resolve and end with 1-2 of your characters maybe taking 1 wound, and instead lend itself well to add flavor to a "deadly" encounter... Like I said, 1 combat per 2-ish hours. Find your group's "rhythm" but that's what works for me. Any more, and combat drags on the story, any less and dungeons can feel too empty.

It doesn't matter whether it is a random encounter or not, per se. You CAN have random encounters... I just don't recommend wasting everybody's time with something that would be considered a "medium" or less difficulty. If you are going to run an encounter, be ready to run an encounter with some meat to it. Spread that damage around a bit.

I have sometimes had pairs of characters act together- perhaps two fighters, or two spellcasters. Fudging initiative a bit is not a problem. When the players know they will be working together this way, they will often come up with interesting maneuvers or roleplay ideas for their turn/attack. They are more excited to get their idea together before their turn and be ready for a quick description of their actin and a quick roll of the dice. This encourages better teamwork, and you've now cut your combat time by perhaps a third...hopefully.

I am afraid there'd be little improvement to be gained by tweaking the rules themselves: you still have 6 people that have to act, 7 counting yourself. That's a lot of decision-making time, regardless of how clustered the initiative can be and how grouped the enemies act. Plus, every caster usually takes 1,5x time to run their turn on average (they might take less, they might take longer).

I think that one of the best ways to make combat more interesting is describing what happens each  or every other character/enemy turn. The first thought is "hey, that'd just make thing even longer, how does it solve the problem?". The thing is the problem is not necessarily the length of the combat encounter, just that it can feel boring if it is just "I do this" "ok, roll hit/ok what's your spell DC?" "xyz" "Cool, roll damage" "zyx" "Nice, next" (not saying this is the case, I just haven't seen any mention of description/interpretation so far).

Describing successes as much as failures adds immersion, even in random/minor encounters, and gives importance to the actions taken, because they get a mental image fueled by your descriptions.

Is it more work for you, the DM? Sure as hell it is, but believe me, it is rewarding as heaven when you see the twinkle in the eyes of your players and the smile widen for a well placed hit that starts making the goblin bleed with a nice cut on their chest after a masterful open-and-in attack, or the anger build for the goblin managing to deflect their blow or shrug their spell with a crooked and mocking grin in its face.

DISCLAIMER: if my eyes deceived me and the description/interpretation has been mentioned/brought up already, I deeply apologise, I do not mean to teach anyone how to play, just offer suggestion for things that are personally working for/with me.

Quote from Diplomacy >>

Think of it this way, a pack of wolves, highway bandits, or a small band of orcs is going to be less inclined to jump a group of 7 warriors. They, like everything in DnD have motives, and there are easier places to get a meal. A large group is a hard target. Your group of 7+ warriors might still encounter those highway bandits, but the bandits are going to respond very differently than they would to a group of 4. They will produce papers that prove the goods they are carrying are theirs, they will surrender to the PCs and allow them to take them into custody, rather than fighting...and they will stab the party in the back later:P This will save you 1 lame combat, which would take 2 rounds to resolve and end with 1-2 of your characters maybe taking 1 wound, and instead lend itself well to add flavor to a "deadly" encounter... Like I said, 1 combat per 2-ish hours. Find your group's "rhythm" but that's what works for me. Any more, and combat drags on the story, any less and dungeons can feel too empty.

It doesn't matter whether it is a random encounter or not, per se. You CAN have random encounters... I just don't recommend wasting everybody's time with something that would be considered a "medium" or less difficulty. If you are going to run an encounter, be ready to run an encounter with some meat to it. Spread that damage around a bit.

 

Quote from Porshadoxus >>

I have sometimes had pairs of characters act together- perhaps two fighters, or two spellcasters. Fudging initiative a bit is not a problem. When the players know they will be working together this way, they will often come up with interesting maneuvers or roleplay ideas for their turn/attack. They are more excited to get their idea together before their turn and be ready for a quick description of their actin and a quick roll of the dice. This encourages better teamwork, and you've now cut your combat time by perhaps a third...hopefully.

Quote from LeK >>

I am afraid there'd be little improvement to be gained by tweaking the rules themselves: you still have 6 people that have to act, 7 counting yourself. That's a lot of decision-making time, regardless of how clustered the initiative can be and how grouped the enemies act. Plus, every caster usually takes 1,5x time to run their turn on average (they might take less, they might take longer).

I think that one of the best ways to make combat more interesting is describing what happens each  or every other character/enemy turn. The first thought is "hey, that'd just make thing even longer, how does it solve the problem?". The thing is the problem is not necessarily the length of the combat encounter, just that it can feel boring if it is just "I do this" "ok, roll hit/ok what's your spell DC?" "xyz" "Cool, roll damage" "zyx" "Nice, next" (not saying this is the case, I just haven't seen any mention of description/interpretation so far).

Describing successes as much as failures adds immersion, even in random/minor encounters, and gives importance to the actions taken, because they get a mental image fueled by your descriptions.

Is it more work for you, the DM? Sure as hell it is, but believe me, it is rewarding as heaven when you see the twinkle in the eyes of your players and the smile widen for a well placed hit that starts making the goblin bleed with a nice cut on their chest after a masterful open-and-in attack, or the anger build for the goblin managing to deflect their blow or shrug their spell with a crooked and mocking grin in its face.

DISCLAIMER: if my eyes deceived me and the description/interpretation has been mentioned/brought up already, I deeply apologise, I do not mean to teach anyone how to play, just offer suggestion for things that are personally working for/with me.