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Getsugaru
2014-04-23, 06:09 PM
Something I have noticed with many monsters is that they often have a higher bonus to a skill than they could from skill points per level, even some that have no other explanation (whether it be feats, climb/swim speeds, etc.). So, I was wondering how do you determine Racial Skill bonuses (as they are the only explanation I could find)?

Ex: Yuan-Ti Holy Guardians have 8 Monstrous Humanoid HD and an INT of 19. They have both a climb speed and a swim speed, along with their Chameleon power granting a +10 to Hide. It gets Alertness as a bonus feat. Its skills are as follows:
Climb: +11
Concentration: +13
Craft (Any): +16
Hide: +10
Knowledge (Religion): +15
Listen: +17
Spot: +17
Swim: +10
If we remove the known bonuses, we get:
Climb: +3
Concentration: +13
Craft (Any): +16
Knowledge (Religion): +15
Listen: +15
Spot: +15
Swim: +2
At 8HD with +4 from INT, He'd have a total of 66 Skill Points, with a maximum rank in each of +11. So, Playground, how does this work?
OldTrees1
2014-04-23, 07:19 PM
Skill
Modifier
without mods*

Climb117
Concentration1311
Craft1612
Hide109
Religion1511
Listen1711
Spot1711
Swim106

Total: 78 bonus / 66 skill points

*Ability scores and feats. Movement types were not accounted for since that would require a negative racial modifier to Climb and Swim.
Buufreak
2014-04-23, 07:20 PM
Did you calculate into any of the skills the ability modifiers that are related to the skills? IE, Str -> Climb?
Getsugaru
2014-04-23, 07:24 PM
Skill
Modifier
without mods*

Climb117
Concentration1311
Craft1612
Hide109
Religion1511
Listen1711
Spot1711
Swim106

Total: 78 bonus / 66 skill points

*Ability scores and feats. Movement types were not accounted for since that would require a negative racial modifier to Climb and Swim.
Ah, now I see where my folly was.

Did you calculate into any of the skills the ability modifiers that are related to the skills? IE, Str -> Climb?
No. No I did not. Thank you both for your help.
OldTrees1
2014-04-23, 07:44 PM
Ah, now I see where my folly was.

The creature in question is poorly edited (as seen by Climb/Swim modifiers not taking the Climb/Swim speeds into account).

With a better edited monster you start the same (calculating unaccountable bonus / skill points). Then the bonus that can't be attributed to skill points is divided into racial modifiers. There are some patterns to racial modifiers (+2 to 2 skills is more common than +4 to 1 skill and +2/+5/+10/+30 are common choices by WotC)