Pre-fight Planning

[magewish4]

Hey, long time reader first time poster!

My friends and I are starting a D&D campaign (3.5) and I'm picking up as DM for the second time. First time was a short campaign and I don't have a lot of experience. I sat down and talked with a couple of the players about what they wanted/liked and they mentioned strategy in fights.

Specifically, in the last campaign they were in, they wanted a chance before fights to roleplay with an NPC and get a combat advantage, or have the terrain be something other than an empty room so they had more strategy. It seemed the melee players especially wanted the second.

I can pull monsters from the MM all day but that won't give that sort of encounter. What sort of things should I be thinking about? What are good, basic ideas to get me started figuring out a way to make this more interesting? Are there some good reading recommendations?

[Kazudo]

Pull monsters from MM, but read more about their tactics and get them into their favored environment. Maybe even boost their INT score a bit so that you can feel safe in using some advanced line tactics (like kobolds using a phalanx line with heavy shields and spears to make melee combat difficult, while they're being covered by archery fire in the back row on raised platforms). You can give your monsters whatever tactics you feel them to use. Lots of aberrations and magical beasts typically have notes on how they tend to fight and hunt prey. Alternatively, you can make the enemy primarily humanoids with class levels. That's always a challenge.

[HalfQuart]

I gather it's not so much that they want their enemies to use better strategies, but more that they want to be able to use better tactics and strategy themselves. So be sure to include plenty of balconies, banisters, chandeliers with cut-able ropes holding them up, bookcases that aren't attached to the wall, appropriate furniture in rooms, etc.

Also allow opportunities for the PCs to set ambushes for monsters. Or to catch of glimpse of a room where combat will occur on the monster's turf, so they can plan out their dynamic entry but not really have the upper hand from a terrain perspective.

[Kharannos]

Allow the PCs to fight some kind of "war". Even a low level one. They have character classes, they are good enough to help defend a whole village from an undead infestation, for example.
Let them gather during the day, to plan tactics.
Where you are putting the guards? Can they convince the peasants to form a militia, gather scythes and forks? Can you build some kind of wall or block with the peasants tools?
They can come up with nice tactics, like throwing boiling oil from the walls.
And you can punish them for mistakes (you wanted the peasants with forks in the front line of the gate?? They all died before the could say goodbye to their children).
Also, there is a lot of social reward. They can be known as heroes. Or they can sink a whole village. :)