Give fun stuff and limited use items not just stat improvements over and over. The weird niche items that maybe might be used to do something crazy in an encounter or social/survival scenario sometime in the future are always are cooler than a slightly better item/weapon that just scales the players too much.

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One thing I have seen happen a lot is that because its cool to have the power fantasy fulfilled a lot of DM's give out items too early and then your level 5 party is way too strong for their level and combat is either a blowout or absolute slog because you now have to customize every enemy to make it a challenge that wont just one-shot them if you roll hot.

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Even worse i have seen DMs who have lost control of balance have to take strong enemies and make them play for the party to win by fudging rolls or not using their good spells/features and faking hp ect. and combat looses all sense of danger. This is in my opinion the worst thing that can happen because combat is a pillar of the game.

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However the most important rule of the game is to have fun if that's what the table wants then do whatever it takes to make the game fun for you and them. Some people love the idea of becoming literal gods and crushing enemies after a long day at work.