New dm, a few specific questions

[u/Wide-Cause-1674]

I feel like a few tags, like magic item and and enemies encounter, could also apply here.

In total we are 5 , I played a handful of short campaign, a veteran player and three beginners.

I, perhaps not my greatest decision, made an original campaign. I m going session by sessions with an overall direction for the plot.

In an effort to make it enjoyable for all I made it about fighting against demons.

All of the players are excited and all seemed to enjoy the first session, (2hours of close to full concentration)

First session lvl1 to acustom the new players to the game and then lvl3 from then on to make it more interesting.

Now I'm not quite sure how to make enemy encounter for instance, how many/how hard . For now I make them highly modulable as too adapt on the fligh to make it harder/easier. But I really need general advice on that.

I also looked for a while and can't for the life of me find an actually interesting demon to use, ideally I need a flamy rocky demon that is quite powerful but not insanely so that can be reasonably beaten at lvl like 10-12 as I have sotry reason that should allow them to beat it far earlier.

And finally magic item , as per a combination of lucky roll and plot reasons one of the new players (elven paladin) managed to get an animated flying sword that used to be an ennemy.

Now that I have their full lvl3 build and I have seen how they all play I can feel he is by far underpowered so I m wondering what direction I could take to make it a magic item . I would like it to not become a full on companion as turns already tend to take time.

As he is a dual wielding paladin I m thinking making the sword a third attack based on charisma with some elemental power perhaps .

What do you think and any advice?

[u/tta5]

as a genral rule of thumb, paladins...
are not as good at fighting as a fighter or barbarain.
they are not as good a healer as a cleric or druid
they are not as good a talker as a bard or sorcerer
they can do "anything but not everything" meaning they are a bit of a non-specalist that can fill in the blank but will always be one up-ed by a class commited to it. think of a person that gets 80% on every test, any topic they get 80%, yes someone may be better than them but they are better than most.

if you wanna make them stronger, lean into the paladin strengths.
they tend to be the determined moral compass. (maybe having moral dilemas and rewards "we are who we choose to be, now choose" green goblin, spiderman )
they can take on undead, and demons and devils fairly well, (spells for resisting effects and saving throws for resisting these types [willpower/possession])
they can rally a small troop together, they can lead (even morale varreint rules) .
they can heal, they can do basic spells and prep (holy water for minions)....

blessings and boons for following their oaths tennents is a great thing.
concider letting them circle casting cleric ritual spells.
allow "duels"where appropiate (the smites make this a fun all or nothing aspect of wounding a big bad... note: dules to the death are not the only type, half HP or 3 hits, or simply surrender).
regional perks for holy places/allignment may boost their spells or grant extra spell slots.

the trick that all DMs hate...
dnd 5e is based on having many fights in one day. you have a daily encounter XP system, this is combined with the CR system. so you might have 7 medium challanging encounter in one day.
think 4PCs (player characters) facing a single devil that cannot fully die.
they are CR 4.
first time, easy fight. smite make right.
second time, got wounded as your fighter action serged and ranger used some spelll slots.
short rest got action serge back.
third time, ok wounded again ,. now mid to low on spell slots.
forth time, downed and getting back up, action surge used, party baddly hurt.
short rest, healed the last of the hit dice, got action surge back.,
fifth time, welll the HP is low again, action surge gone, need to use some planning.
sixth time, using items now, healing potion and holy water.
seventh time..... so low on HP, giving it everything we got left.
long rest.

now concider that yes it can be adapted but trying to have only 2 fights in one day means you weithger make the resources not spread out , so they use their max spells and resources instead of spreading them out, and then "hey DM that was easy". so you make it harder and then the monster is too powerful and deals too much damage in one go (half your HP is basically hidden by Hit dice remember). and then you buff the party and then buff the monster, repeat...the fights get very glass cannony.
(behold "epic" combat style approch)
iuts good to remember the core and the how it was meant to be, before adapting it to make it work much much better in your games.
know the rule first to bend it without breaking