as a general rule i avoid random/filler encounters, and i try really hard to avoid combats that are just fights until someone wins. every chance i get, i want a secondary (or more) goals, items being stolen or people being kidnapped, big buttons that need pressed or a ticking time bomb that needs diffusing. multiple factions wherever possible.

as a side effect, this also means that more fights end without everyone dying - if the goblins charged in here to steal the mcguffin before the elves could get it, then whoever’s team gets it is only leaving enough people behind to try to prevent a chase. (and if they didn’t get it, then they’re trying to get past the other guys to run off on a chase)

so the party has to decide (a) whether they’re on one team’s side or the other and probably (b) whether to hold off the other team while the one they support runs off to get the thing, or tell *them* to hold off the other team while the party runs off on a chase. it’s even more complicated if they want the mcguffin themselves and now have to fend off both groups (who are unlikely to band together but are still both fighting now)

…so by the time there’s just one goblin, nobody cares about fighting him. either we handwave it and he gets knocked out, or maybe there’s a very funny scene where two groups have just run off and this goblin is the only one conscious to ask what in the heck just happened. now we have a great NPC encounter!