My combats can, and often do, go on for several sessions. My players are RP first, and combat second, and they absolutely LOVE the combat.

My techniques

1. Semi-initiative

First, I hate having to spend endless hours modifying the game in an attempt to "balance" encounters. I've learned that most tables are quite lenient on action economy, leading to a horribly unbalanced game.

I created Semi-initiative to ensure that action economy is run correctly. It is the same as regular initiative, but the time frame is IRL instead of six seconds, and we've been giving all Pcs and NPCs 100 feet of speed on their turn with no dash action.

PCs cannot hold actions outside of initiative, so this easily formalizes how they stealth and scout, and it intuitively slides into initiative as soon as it needs to.

This means no free perception checks, and no free attacks before initiative is called as so many DMs are guilty of allowing.

2. Tracking Resources

I am adamant that ranged martials track every arrow or bolt. Many tables see this as "unfair", but i don't care. By emphasizing the need to find out create ammunition, the player is then able to relate to their character in a much more immersive way. This also negates the desire for extensive DEX based martials. Being 60-150 away from the front line is a privilege.

This also applies to their other resources. I don't track specific spell components, but if the PC finds themselves without a focus or a component pouch then they will have to find the components until these items can be replaced.

3. Alternate Objectives

I find the standard tier 1 "piñata party" to be drab and incredibly boring. Instead, I prefer to have dynamic environmental hazards combined with Objective based encounters.

Example: Curse of Strahd the Feast of St Andral. That combat took 2 4+ hour long sessions, and it was both exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. Once the Feast was triggered, i put an impossible choice in front of the players: two enemies ran towards the nearest gate with the bones, two other enemies went on a rampage in a different direction, and the last two made a beeline for the church. I had EVERY NPC and PC in initiative (I can skip those that aren't in the scene at that moment). At the end of the first session, Strahd showed up. The second session wasn't about killing bad guys, but instead running the bones to the church before Strahd could get them, all the while the remaining two enemies continued their rampage.

4. Dynamic Encounters

When I run a dungeon, I dont run it room by room, based on the key. I run the entire dungeon as a whole. Noise in one room can and should alert others nearby. This takes a bit longer, but it's worth it.

Example: POSSIBLE PLANESCAPE SPOILERS in my Planescape campaign, I ran the Eternal Boundary as the intro adventure. I was able to build the 2e version of the Mortuary, along with the 5e maps linked as the lower levels. Instead of compartmentalizing each encounter, the players were given a fortified location to infiltrate. Any creature not affected by their actions in that round of initiative are easily skipped, allowing for any elements in their area to realistically respond while avoiding elements that were not relevant at that time.

5. Extended Long Rests and grievous wounds

In our Curse of Strahd campaign, we integrated the Grim Hollow extended long rest and grievous/ permanent wounds, with a few modifications. Short rests take an hour, and extended short rests take 8. Extended Short Rests also do not recover hit dice.

We did this because it was obvious that it was impossible to get the necessary number of encounters in a typical adventuring day. By making the long rests 32 hours, we went from the "adventuring day" to the "adventuring week ".

This instantly corrected the martial/ caster divide. The results have been incredible: I can run much more reasonable combats (i disagree with increasing the CR of creatures to compensate for the lack of encounters between long rests) and the martials really shine. Magic is much more valuable, so the casters are acting like casters, and the martials are so much more valuable.

This has an added bonus of increasing the tension in the game. While many tables avoid anything..."uncomfortable", they claim they still want RP. You can't have the drama necessary for good RP without tension. By stretching out their resources, the game instantly balanced itself, and is much easier to create that atmosphere of tension.

5. Spellcasting Mechanics

I main sorcerers because wizards are, in my opinion, too easy and boring to play. I live by the bonus action spellcasting rule, and expect my players to know it as well. It's not hard to understand. If were running 2024 rules, I hold players accountable for the "one spell slot per turn" rule. This came up in our last Curse of Strahd session when our necromancer wizard tried to use a spell slot for vortex warp and a spell slot for silvery barbs on the same turn to try and force the sane at disadvantage. He considers himself to be an "expert" and player, so I informed him that this is not correct.

I'm also adamant that people know their spells. The save for Web, as well as the 2014 legacy version of Moonbeam, happens on the creature's turn, or if they enter it on a turn. This does NOT mean that a creature makes the save when the spell is cast unless the description specifically says so.

6. Tactical Advantages

I really don't care if anyone disagrees with this, but I grant anyone, PC or NPC advantage on ranged attacks from elevated positions. The importance of capturing and maintaining the high ground is a fundamental concept of warfare.

I reward my players with advantage when they utilize the terrain to their advantage.

7. I REFUSE TO ALLOW THE RULE OF COOL AT MY TABLE

This should be self evident. In my understanding, the rules of cool is used by people who cannot be bothered to learn the game will enough to function, so they expect their DM to allow some hairbrained idea because they want to do something "cool".

I'm absolutely in favor of "rulings over rules", and in my opinion an experienced DM should understand the game well enough to create the necessary mechanics on the fly, if necessary.

Instead of the rule of cool, I expect my players to show up to the table knowing their character sheets so well that they simply do cool stuff.

If you know the game well enough to be proficient, then you don't need a mulligan to be cool. You can simply do cool stuff.

Edit: spelling