Emphasize Failures

Don't just say a Scorching Ray missed, say it lit a tapestry on fire, blew out a store window, burned a hole through a nearby door...anything to add flavour and descriptiveness. Besides, anything that you introduce in this manner is another prop/detail for the players to use. Maybe they'll throw the burning tapestry on someone. Maybe they'll leap through the now-broken store window. Maybe they'll peek through the hole burned in the door. Anything works, as long as it gets them involved and thinking.

The above are purely cosmetic changes, but who says you have to stop there? Affect the battlefield. Mess people up. Change the course of battle. Who cares! Break the rules. Maybe the tapestry lights on fire and falls on whoever is nearest. Enemy? Cool. PC? Well, tough luck.

And if it's a PC failing dramatically, yes they still fail, but they're in the spotlight and failing.

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