Combat
Preventing Boring Fights
Combat is a large part of the 5E system, and of dungeon crawling as a whole. But without special care, it can devolve into laborious dogfight. The tools in this section are designed to prevent combat failure states.
Prelude to Combat
In almost every situation, players should be given one chance to avoid an impending combat situation. Describe the orcs closing in before declaring initiative. Allow them to try their hand at a distraction, or diplomacy, or something else altogether. And if they fail, move into combat.