Beginner gm seeking advice before my sanity goes out the window

Overly dramatic title aside, here is the situation.

First off a little kind of disclaimer. So far everyone has fun but at this point I realized, that most encounter, even bosses don´t impose any real threat to the party and I think it´s mostly my fault, so I try to find a way to ballance things out a bit.

I am not trying to tpk them or kill single charakters on pupose. I just want a bit more challenge. 

Currently running the crooked moon as my first campaing. because of this, I decided to stay as close as possible to the books descriptions. 

The Party consists of six players. clearly my first mistake (but sessions take place when at least 4 are available due to the Campaing being intended for a party of four and it shows in regards of how encounters play out)

Characters in the party are: bard, druid, barbarian, cleric, paladin, rogue. no multiclasses so far.

We are halfway throug the story so far and it get´s hard to even put a scratch on them

well... this party has a quite strong synergy (also the Campaign throws magic items left and right on them). Experiment barbarian uses his maddening fumes trait to force anemies to do a wis save or have disadvantage on every target except him. Twillight cleric has a AC of 24 due to a plate armor he stole (whoever thinks to do the campaing, looking back i strongly advise to change the part with the three knights in the crimson monastery stables to the knights wearing their armor, so you can claim that the armor got destroyed in battle...), the druids´s sanctum of the sheperd, the shield of Marius Renathyr (that grants him a whooping +4 AC) and the druids wicker effigy granting +1. also whenever the unlikely event happens that he get´s hit, he uses the shields reaction to just deny the hit (most common enemies have not that good + to hit.. so they barely ever hit him aside from crits oder close hits) he also has twillight sanctury active in most encounters, so the largest part of damage dealt to any partymember get´s blocked or undone by regained temp HP. 

difference shows whenever this player is not present in a session

Now I guess most people would advise to use abilities with saves, bringing me to the next part of the synergy. The party allways crowding around the paladin, grants them +5 on their saves. prime target for a fireball (or similar aoe), right? 

yeah well, none of the casters so far has fireball.. or dispell magic or counterspell. All the aoe stuff aside from insect swarm on a higher level in a location that would be highly disadvantageus or the caster, is recharge 5-6. Also damage get´s undone by either twillight sanctuary or the tons of healing at their disposal. simply throwing more minons at them? yeah, hypnotic pattern or spirit guardians... it´s kinda trivializing the encounters and everyything I try to ballance things out seem to only lengthen encounters.

Also whenever there is a situation where during travel or that´s not happening on a battlemap and any kind of saving throws is needed, the paladin claims to keep everyone in 10 ft. reach around him. (absolutely trivialized the Hartsblight forest chapert so far, where a dc 10 Con save is needed whenerver the party travels to the next location or they gain a stacking debuff) 

so that brings me to the question, what would be your advise on how to ballance things a bit towards tha party size and situation? 

Giving more HP to everything just makes encounters go longer so far. 

More enemies seems not to be very effective so far. Threw a improvised encounter at them that was labeled as deadly by a en****er calculator. Not a single scratch on them... aside from the druid getting dragged off and mauled by a bat hound. 

my goal is to spice up the challende a bit, giving them at least a greater feeling of being in danger 

My current idea would be to give caster enemies more spells like counterspell, dispell magic or heat metal. lowering recharge time? Turing some abilities into bonus actions?

What would be your advice?

Use terrain to split them up and give monsters some AoE and countermagic. A maze-like area forcing players into single file and then ranged attackers pummeling them from above. Make the maps difficult for them. Battles can be much more than just stats with the right terrain. Play enemies smart. Pounding them with AoE will teach them to spread out, which then allows you to engage them one on one, or a few on one, and makes the battles more interesting. Figure out how to turn their tactics against them.

I think the guidelines for encounter balance are garbage and produce cake walk combat.

I regularly thow dozens of monsters at my players and i usually knock one player unconscious. If your players have an aoe, you need  a mob of closely packed cannon fodder to.draw their fire.  Make them high emough to last 1.5 rounds, and the player casting fireball will feel awesome. Meanwhile have at least 2 decent front liners spread out and coming from 2 different angles to keep the party tank busy. Then you need a random monster for everyone else. Some range attack fodder to go after the players at thr back of the map.

Have the front liners focus fire on the tank until they go down, then disperse and diffuse them so their damage is speead out to.give the party time enough to heal the tank and kill the big bads.

The other thing where encounter balance formula drop the ball.is they dont scale for whether the encounter is the first after a long rest or the 6th encounter since a long rest.

If the party just had a long rest, expect the first fight to not challenge the party nearly as much.as the sixth fight.

Id the party just had a long rest, make sure the party runs into a couple random encounters or fights in the foyer before the main event. Otherwise the party will go nova on the bad guy and itll be iver pretty quick.

ok, so with your input in mind and after some research I did and some talks I had, I´ve come to the following conclusions.

Because Encoutners in this campaign are pre designed I don´t have much room, to edit them. also maps are fixed for these encoutners. But I regularly add more enemies etc. 

Whole parties Ac goes down by 1, because apparently the druid doesn´t know his spells (as a beginner I heavily rely on the players explaining their spells or sending them in vtt... a thing I won´t do aganin in the future) and lacks the component, he needs to cast "sanctum of the shepert" 

less long rests, more pressure.

I´ll stray from the "immersive" combat towards more of a optimised one. with the argumentation, that Creatures know what they are good at and also know to identify their preffered targets. 

talked to the cleric about the shileds reaction and that despite the wording, my interpretation is pretty clear about him not being able to use it on himself

also realized, that due to their fabled heirlooms, their save dc´s are pretty high for their level, why I´ll adjust enemy save dc´s. also because the paladin clumping issue. 

probably will adjust enemy caster spell lists ab bit (some are in desperate need of dispel magic and similar) 

I´ll try it like that and see how this weeks session plays out

A given CR should be a deadly challenge for one character of the same level, (almost) always. Also, the more actions a team can take in one round, the greater the advantage. You can take that as a base and do other things, like splitting the party, adding environmental hazards etc.

Also, if a character wants to don armor they've looted, as a DM you can just say that it doesn't fit and needs to be adjusted.

Quote from alvarojosemarquez >>

A given CR should be a deadly challenge for one character of the same level, (almost) always. Also, the more actions a team can take in one round, the greater the advantage. You can take that as a base and do other things, like splitting the party, adding environmental hazards etc.

Also, if a character wants to don armor they've looted, as a DM you can just say that it doesn't fit and needs to be adjusted.

 I tend to add more enemies due to larger party size than the campaign is made for. 
at least every boss encounter has special conditions that trigger at ini count 20. but due to larger party sitze and aura of protection clumping, they rarely have any larger impact aside from respawning minions. 

I did exactly that. The problem: they looted exactly three full plate armors at that part (because of the three knights storing their equippment close by) and I made the mistake to allow to sell two of them. Giving them the money for the allready lower than buy adjustment price (I made it pricey and time consuming). 

"Experiment barbarian"

Oh my goodness. Youre running Crooked Moon as your first dm experience? I havent played it yet, but i own it and read through it and it seems  kinda complicated?

So, my take on Crooked Moon is it puts the party through scarcity mode after scarcity mode.

As DM, you may need to on-the-fly adapt to make that happen.

"Because Encoutners in this campaign are pre designed I don´t have much room, to edit them. also maps are fixed for these encoutners. But I regularly add more enemies etc. "

You absolutely need to give yourself permission to change anything in any campaign book you read to work for your party. A campaign boom is written for a generic 4 person party. You have to adjust it to your party size and power. Dont treat the campaign book as some sacred text. It is merely a suggestion of a starting point for you, the dm.

"also realized, that due to their fabled heirlooms, their save dc´s are pretty high for their level, why I´ll adjust enemy save dc´s. also because the paladin clumping issue."

First of all, i think the heirlooms start at low rarity and get more rare in their status as the players level up? Maybe i misread that. No way would i hand out a very rare item to anyone below level 10.

Also, sounds like youve got quantum player superpositioning. If you say the enemy casts chromatic orb and rhe orb bounced to a nearby party member, the players will say they are spaced far apart. If you say the enemy cast fireball and everyone needs to make a saving throw, everyone will suddenly be standing next to the paladin for his aura.

If you arent doing maps, at the very least get a grid and force players to show their marching order before combat atarts. This will avoid quantum positioning. Force them to declare their marching order at all times. Even if nothing else is on the map. When the encounter does happen, hit them with the marching order they last reportrd

Put down a blank grid and always have their minis doen there showing their marching order.

If they are bunched up, use monster features that force movement. Grapple thr paladin and pull him away from the cluster, if a monster can cast fear, have it getbup close, cast fear, and  force players to run away in lines radiating out from the monster. That should push the party apart. 

Another way is to simply have monsters that make multiple attavks per turn get in melee range of a weak player near the paladin. The aura wont help them against attack rolls. Hit the rogue 3 times with attacks from a monster and they will risk an opportunity attack to move away, possibly even dash, taking 1 possible hit now to avoid 3 or 4 next turn.

Give them multiple enemies in multiple locations to attack.  That can sometimes be enough to split up the paladin party. When you peel the rogue away, hit them with a save.

Or go after the paladin with something that takes an INT save (likely their worst save) and render them incapacitated, which takes their aura down.

The idea is not to so all of these things every encounter, but to do something different every encounter that challenges your party.  If you keep mixing it up, then the players will have to keep adjusting tactics and each combat will feel different, which is what yiu want.

"they looted exactly three full plate armors at that part"

Ok, DM rule of thumb. Loot doesnt have to make sense. Just because you got attacked by 3 knights doesnt mean there are 3 plates of armor they can wear. For one, if its nonmagical, its likely bespoke/custom made and wont fit. If they want to sell it for scrap, the local smithy will point out all the damage that needs fixing and all the work he needs to do and will offer them 400+1d4gp per suit. A good persuasion check (dc15) can get another 100 gold if they make it by up to 5, or another 200 gold if they make it by more than 5.

If they start doing big damage attacks on the enemies, the enemy armor is destroyed/worthless. Only worth the scrap metal price of 200 gold per suit.

Also note, plate armor weighs 65 pounds per suit, and the party has a hard carry capacity of str×15 pounds per pc. They should not have a bag of holding at level 1 and can only take what they can carry, and a suit of plate armor is big and bulky and doesnt fold up into a carry on bag. A pc can probably carry one suit on their back. And all stealth checks are at disadvantage.

"I´ll stray from the "immersive" combat towards more of a optimised one."

I use a laptop and dmhelper to manage monsters. I can put dozens of monsters in an encounter and the software tracks each monsters hitpoints for me. I roll a d20 in a bottle so i can shake and slap it down for repeated rolls in about 4 seconds a roll.  I used fixed damage, monsters do not roll damage dice. I roll to hit and use the fixed damage number.  I can probably do two dozen monsters in a couple minutes. Just rapid fire. Roll tohit and assign fixed damage. Monsters tend to attack whoever seems to be the biggest threat, to keep it fast, 

But if youve got a cluster of players around your paladin, have two dozen monsters swarm them and each does 2 attacks per turn. The weaker players will want to pull back, but the paladin will usually want to stay and fight. Youve just dealt with the paladin aura problem now cast fear or hypnotic gaze on the player who pulled back. 

Last but not least, i do not allow paladins to use pact of the blade. I dont know what your paladin player looks like. If he is attacking with strength, his charisma cant be much higher than a 14. Thats a +2 to his aura.

But if he dips 1 level into warlock and takes pact of thr blade, he can put str at 13, max his charisma to 17 at level 1 with point buy, and one half feat at level 4 and he's got a +4 tohit and damage with his weapon AND a +4 to his aura. Its just way to op for me. So paladins must use str for their attacks. If you've got a pal-lock (paladin with pact of the blade warlock) feel free to tell your players you are banning that combo and give them a session to rebuild their pally.

"You absolutely need to give yourself permission to change anything in any campaign book you read to work for your party. A campaign boom is written for a generic 4 person party. You have to adjust it to your party size and power. Dont treat the campaign book as some sacred text. It is merely a suggestion of a starting point for you, the dm"

I started to increase the ammount of Monsters they go up against. But it seems like I have to adjust their overall stats? most enemies don´t land a hit. my rolls are too bad it seems. 

"First of all, i think the heirlooms start at low rarity and get more rare in their status as the players level up? Maybe i misread that. No way would i hand out a very rare item to anyone below level 10."

I thought that they would feel the most rewarding.. but ballacing wise these things are a absolute nightmare. players save DC increase to around 19 below level 10. to counter this I started to increase the Creatures saving throws. Or I just let them succeed if a fail would be utterly anticlimatic. 

also I have to mention here, that the feats you get with crooked moon kinda give a lot of heroic inspiration. Fate gambler and tireless reveler being pretty powerful in combination. 

"Also, sounds like youve got quantum player superpositioning. If you say the enemy casts chromatic orb and rhe orb bounced to a nearby party member, the players will say they are spaced far apart. If you say the enemy cast fireball and everyone needs to make a saving throw, everyone will suddenly be standing next to the paladin for his aura.

If you arent doing maps, at the very least get a grid and force players to show their marching order before combat atarts. This will avoid quantum positioning. Force them to declare their marching order at all times. Even if nothing else is on the map. When the encounter does happen, hit them with the marching order they last reportrd

Put down a blank grid and always have their minis doen there showing their marching order."
I started asking early on, how they position etc.  but the grid one is a good advice. thanks, I will add that in the future.

" They should not have a bag of holding at level 1 "

they found one on lvl 3... A cursed one but an overall better one. also the college of whistles bard can create a handy haversack at level 3. 

"Last but not least, i do not allow paladins to use pact of the blade. I dont know what your paladin player looks like. If he is attacking with strength, his charisma cant be much higher than a 14. Thats a +2 to his aura."

well.. maaaaybe  I made the Mistake to use rolled stats instead of point buy or standard array. also they are currently level 9. 
He priorized his charisma score and strenght second. atm his charisma is 20 and his Strenght 18. luckily for me the paladin is the least problem, since he is the one who is the most understanding if something gets too strong. also he would never go pact of the blade, because this player hates everything he deems metagaming or minmaxing.

the barbarian seems to become more of a problem, because he´s trying to optimise his character as much as possible. But I´ll take advantage of him using reckless attack all the time. especialy if i get some creatures with a way higher damage output at my disposal. 

so yesterday was the next session mostly concisting of the fight against the beast of blight. and it went quite well.

so first of all I raised it´s ammount of legendary actions and resistances. also it´s hp got a good buff. 

Next I raised the ammount of druids present at the start of combat, because they are super weak aside from their recharge ability (also increased the save dc of that ability, spreading a bit of poison and damage without having to go against AC). but the main use of them was tha fact, that the beast of blight has a damage threshhold equal to five thimes the ammount of present druids. never saw this party more confused, than when I told them, the sinners 22 force damage showed no effect on the beast. 

then I combined the beasts legendary and bonus actions to first grapple the Paladin, teleport out of their range and restrain him. also later in the battle I did the same with the cleric. 

also the heartyblight condition finally started stacking up and significantly reduced their max hp

in the end they emerged victorius but badly beaten up. exactly the outcome I wanted. Party was happy, I was happy. apparently their favourite boss fight so far. 

so It seems things get finally better. 

Any advice on how much I should raise save dc or saving throws of creatures?

"I thought that they would feel the most rewarding.. but ballacing wise these things are a absolute nightmare. players save DC increase to around 19 below level 10. to counter this I started to increase the Creatures"

"Any advice on how much I should raise save dc or saving throws of creatures?"

Oof.  Well, if they had it for 10 levels, nerfing  the heirloom items will feel sucky.

Point buy will get you a 15 max score, background will +2 that to 17.  Next higest score point buy is 15 and a +1 from backgrounf.

Normal pc spell save dc is 

8 

+spellcasting ability modifier

+proficiency bonus.

So modifier would be +3 at level 1,  figure level 4 get a half feat to bump spell score to 18 and a +4 abmod.  Some times folks do a +2 asi at level 8 but mote common is 2 half feats to set score to 20 at level 12.

So level10 id expect abmod to be +4

Proficiency bonus at level 10 would be +4

For a spell save dc of 8+4+4=16

By level 10, maybe they have a +1 spellcasting focus. 

For a spell save of 17.

If the players are rocking spell save dcs of 19 or 20, it sounds like the monsters will be 2 or 3 points behind. 

"He priorized his charisma score and strenght second. atm his charisma is 20 and his Strenght 18. "

Wow. He rolled that in front of you?

Roll 4d6 drop lowest, average score is 12.24 

Multiply by 6 scores for a total of 73.5

If all his ability scores add up to much more than 74, he got extremely lucky, he had hot dice, or he cheated.

I think roll for stats has a ~50% chance of getting one score of 16 or higher. I think the odds of getting an 18 or higher is 15% or something. It can happen, but weirdly, it seems to happen to dnd players much more than the statistical average, which is why when i did use roll for stats, they rolled in front of me, in plain view, and they used those stats for the next 20 levels whether they were great or sucked. Most players choose point buy after that.

I dont do rolled stats because it is soooo wonky with the scores. I normally do point buy, but at level 2 i let players bump their highest score by +1. So they quickly get to one score of 18.

Anyway, every 2 points above 74 total is basically a free asi/feat for that player, which should give an idea for how powerfule they are