dnd 3.5 improving destrachan attacks?

[Rerednaw]

So in our continuing campaign we are fighting at least 2 iron golems and a pair of destrachans...there's an invisible evoker too that is blasting witb AoE's than cannot be seen with see invisible plus we are expecting more waves...and of course 2 artifacts of doom spaming save or die fx.

In other words a normal encounter for our group.

So...I was surprised when the destrachans opened with 10d6 cones. DC 21 saves for half. I suppose ability focus and multple advanced templates to bump the DC....but how do you increase the dice of damage?

Now that I know that despite banning third party he does allow the fighter in the group to use third party there may be a supplement out there...but I was wondering if there was a RAW method.

Just curious.

[DrMotives]

Sounds like your DM already did boost the damage. When they attack flesh & bone, they do 4d6 per cone. When they attack nerves, they do 6d6 nonlethal per cone. Default DC is 15, but is charisma-based. So the ones you fought had 12 more points of charisma than a typical destrachan. I don't see anything in the monster text about scaling up the damage, just the DC. Although 10d6 doesn't sound unreasonable.

[Remuko]

Sounds like your DM already did boost the damage. When they attack flesh & bone, they do 4d6 per cone. When they attack nerves, they do 6d6 nonlethal per cone. Default DC is 15, but is charisma-based. So the ones you fought had 12 more points of charisma than a typical destrachan. I don't see anything in the monster text about scaling up the damage, just the DC. Although 10d6 doesn't sound unreasonable.

DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha bonus so if their HD was bigger than normal they wouldnt need 12 more Cha.

[J-H]

As a DM, I'd probably increase breath (sonic cone) weapon damage dice with HD, similar to the way dragons do. The MM is just a set of suggestions, and there is nothing wrong or illegal with a DM modifying monster stats to make it more or less dangerous in his game world.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It looks like since your party is quite powerful, so the DM made the monsters stronger as well. A Destrachan can get up to 24 HD (+16 HD is +8 DC), and an Aberration only gets +1 CR per +4 HD added. It's possible that this improved version may be able to combine two of its attack modes at once (4d6 flesh plus 6d6 nerves is 10d6), or it's possible that the DM increased their damage based on their HD (1/2 HD in d6 for flesh, 3/4 HD in d6 for nerves, etc.).

It's also possible that there was an effect in place that increased sonic damage, such as a Creaking Cacophony spell. Regardless of how this was accomplished, it's well within a DM's power to make such changes to ensure the encounter is challenging.

[Rerednaw]

It looks like since your party is quite powerful, so the DM made the monsters stronger as well.
... Regardless of how this was accomplished, it's well within a DM's power to make such changes to ensure the encounter is challenging.
Well as to how powerful?

My core wizard, saving all wealth had 300 gp net worth at level 6. He never picked up a new spell to scribe. But then again until we hit about 7th there were no other spell casters, anywhere, who had a shop. You could not even buy a L1 scroll.

We finally came into wealth and no place to shop.
Now there are a few (one) place to shop since most characters were at 10-25%WBL...but with PC deaths and saving about 1 in 3's belongings (others DM ruling auto destroyed)we have more, but no time to go to shop or bad things happen. We did manage to find a single CLW wand for > full charge price, with 30 charges.
Though this is amazingly better than before.

Oh no crafting per se by PCs, time limit.

The party monk has AC 16...and he is the tank. That has not worked so well so my druid, sans equipment and sans Animal Companion has been tanking.

We typically lose 2 PCs each session (last one we lost 2 to Wail of the Banshee, before that it was 6 triple advanced cloakers that could has house-ruled nausea that removed all actions, and we lost 2 to CDG.)

Personally I think we are below the curve for EL+5 as typical encounter (can be as many as 11+ encountersbefore rests)...but EL+9 is very typical for what he considers as a boss fight.

I wasn't quibbling over the DM's right towards rocks fall you die, I was just trying to find if this was a feat or template I had not heard of.

So far it appears this is house-ruled or 3rd party which is all I need to know.