Understanding Skills in Monster Manual

[Inexist]

Hi guys,

In the monster manual there is Skills appearing two times.

I always used the one between Abilities and Feats without adding the Abilities Modifier or anything.
That said, now I am starting to think that it is maybe the number of points they have in the skill and that I should add the modifier.
Also there is another Skills under the Combat Tab which says how much they have has a racial bonus.

I'm now confused, so could someone tell me what everything is all about?

Thank you in advance and I hope my question is clear enough.

[OgresAreCute]

You just use the numbers in the stat block, they have taken everything into account. They might occasionally be a little incorrectly calculated I suppose if some editor got sloppy, but for the most part you should be able to use them and not think twice about it.

For example: A Dire Lion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direLion.htm) has, according to the SRD, +2 to Hide, +7 to Spot and Listen and +5 to Move Silently. The Lion has +2 to spot and listen from the Alertness feat and +4 to hide and move silently as a racial bonus. It has 11 skill points from its 8 HD and intelligence. It has a +1 wisdom modifier, so between that and Alertness, +3 of the +7 modifier to spot and listen are accounted for. Therefore, it must spend 8 skill points on putting 4 ranks in each of those two skills. Then we look at Hide. +2 from Dex, +4 from Racial bonus, -4 from Large size ends at +2, the exact number in the stat block. That must mean its last 3 ranks are spent on move silently. 3 ranks + 2 from dexterity = +5 skill bonus. All the numbers are correct and already calculated in the stat block, taking things like abilities, size, feats and other modifiers into account.

TL;DR: Use the numbers in the stat block with no modifications, they're usually correct.

[ksbsnowowl]

TL;DR: Use the numbers in the stat block with no modifications, they're usually correct.

The GIGANTIC caveat being the Jump skill, as the modifiers for a creature's speed are pretty hefty, if it's anything other than a 30 ft. base movement speed. If there in an entry for Jump in the stat block, it's usually right, but any creature can attempt it untrained. Just take the Dire Lion from above. No Jump modifier listed, right? So just use it's Strength Modifier (Str 25 = +7 mod), right? Wrong. The Dire Lion has a base speed of 40 feet, so it gets a +4 bonus to Jump checks, so if it attempts a Jump, it is at +11.

The other gigantic caveat is Hide, as the creature's size modifies the overall modifier by +4 per size category smaller than Medium, or –4 per size category Larger than Medium.