Greetings fellow tale spinners.

Question: How much do you flavor combat with narrative descriptors? I.e; a ranger rolls a 14 and misses the armored zealot. As opposed to "the zealot looks frantically about at your allies as you swiftly notch your arrow and let it fly. *twang* the shaft pierces the temple air and heads towards the target, only to be gracefully deflected by a gauntlet hidden beneath the flowing, azure robes."

My players really enjoy the flavor, but sometimes I feel it can unnecessarily lengthen combat. If someone doesn't get a descriptor they feel cheated. But I don't want to lose whole sessions to fluff. 

How do you folks handle this balance?

I try to keep it short, but I do describe attacks.  It's easier in PbP.  "You shoot at the zealot, but he interposes a previously unseen gauntlet in one flowing motion." 

I mentally limit myself to roughly 15-20 words. If I can't get a bit of flair across in less than that, nobody will be paying enough attention for more words to matter.

The main thing is to be brief, clear, and willing to let the players' imaginations fill in the fine details. "Your arrow glances off robe-hidden armor." and the like.

That may be too brief for what my players want, but I should definitely  make a mental note to stop at around 30.

Yeah, need to meet in the middle a bit more. 

Look at some highlights of how Matt Mercer describes combat. He's pretty good at giving everything a proper description while still keeping the flow of combat.

Even if you describe things, the flow is most often killed by players that are not ready for their turn... it doesn't do a lot of good to try and keep your description of combat down only to wait another 30 seconds for the spellcaster to figure out they can't cast that spell this time.  I try to vary the amount of description so that it doesn't all feel like staccato nor like poem and verse.  Though, it is hard to remember in the heat of the moment to vary it... but if you are aware of what you are trying to do, over time it will improve.  If it feels awkward... practice in front of a mirror... same as actors do when trying to work out a part for stage as it is essentially the same thing.

Just do it your way some, and if the Player character really describes something juicy it may be a good idea to elaborate based on ideas.

But if people are just saying "I want to shoot it, I rolled a 16" it's okay just to say it misses and "ahh the shot just whizzed right his head" or "the shot connects but hits in a heavily armor part of his body, taking no damage" 

I guess it's really about polling the party.

I think the reason they enjoy the extra bit is my attempts to bring personality into the generic, undefined enemies around the combat rolls.

A goblin who.continues to miss all his attacks they may notice him.in a splint with whip marks and wounds that look like they are still healing. Sometimes they grow empathetic and attempt to keep.him alive.

Or one particular mob I randomly.continue rolling high for might evolve as a vicious, ornately decorated soldier. He's the one they will want to press for.information later. Seems to powerful to be a grunt.

I usually give good descriptions only for crits (either crit fail or crit hit), and keep normal hit or miss very coincise, like "the arrow bounces harmlessly on the armour" or "you land a solid blow on the enemy's arm". keeping good descriptions for crits makes them feel even more special. "you skillfully get past your enemy's guard, and blood seeps from the weak spot in its armour: it cries in pain and rage, and clutches the wound, trying to stench the blood!" gives much more flavour to that nat20, and makes it even more memorable. I also like to use descriptors as "clumsily" or "skillfully", as they give the players the sensation that the blow was due to their ability as much as luck. 

I try to use descriptors in combat wherever possible as they keep the combat interesting. The length of combat should matter much less if it flows alongside narrative and is kept interesting. One trick I have started using is stealing descriptions i like from books such as Robert E Howard's Conan stories. The language is extremely evocative. I reference these descriptions now and again from a printed sheet of paper and cross out ones I've already used. I guess with time and practice i might not need the reference. I also use a similar method and lift bits of interesting and cool dialogue to throw in too to give enemies and NPCs something to say so that combat and narrative are working together nicely. In my opinion there are many things you can do to speed up combat if you feel like it's bogging down your game but flavour and narrative should not be top of that list.

If they're enjoying it, then you don't need to worry about how long combat takes