Lower AC is necessary. In turn-based rpg misses aren't funny for most people. It's frustrating when you miss every attack for several turns in a row, but if you lowered AC you have to increase HP or fight will be to easy.
Make compelling animations. I love the superiority dice jump-n-smash animation add some other great animations like sword against sword, clanking against a shield, smashing against a breast plate, rolling away from the attack. Done well, missing can become just as engaging as hitting. Or, alternatively, the wizard might have something to do
Love this sword fight -- miss, miss, sword clank, dodge, miss, hit:
It may be fun for a few early hours, but it will eventually get boring.
Then you have the INSANE amount of asians and other ppl that find grinding entertaining too which is tedious no matter how you look at it AND YET. If we are going for which one would be more popular but Soulless, MMORPG would be the answer. If we go on about what feels repetitive or not, you'll find out that every single videogame out there has some sort of repetitive mechanics or patterns. Whether you find it entertaining or not is subjective to your own standards.
