Loupcho's page

Thanks for your responses everybody - considering your comments I can see how there would be minor errors like this. In reality it's not a huge deal to play, but knowing that I was at least on the right track with my calculations is reassuring. I guess I just happened to pick a monster with a slight miscalculation as an example!

So I'm trying to understand the way skill bonuses are calculated for monsters to understand if it differs at all to NPCs and PCs. Currently I'm trying to work out how the skill bonuses for a Bugbear calculate, just as an example and also because I'm advancing one with a Half-Fiend Template (everything else has been calculated already).

A standard Bugbear has 3HD and an Int modifier of 0 for a total of 6 skill ranks (2/HD for Humanoid creatures). Its stat block lists Intimidate +7, Perception +8, and Stealth +10. Subtracting the +4 racial bonuses to Intimidate/Stealth and +1 Dex bonus to Stealth leaves me with +3 Intimidate, +8 Perception, and +5 Stealth. Subtracting the feat bonuses to Intimidate and Perception results in +0 Intimidate, +5 Perception, and +5 Stealth, and Intimidate goes down to -1 because of the Cha penalty. Finally, removing the class skill bonus from perception and stealth granted by Stalker (Ex) leaves me with -1 Intimidate, +2 Perception, and +2 Stealth.

If my calculations are correct (which they might not be), the remaining points should come exclusively from skill ranks - balancing all three to 0 requires only 5, meaning one skill rank goes unused. Is there something I'm missing, or do monsters just have different rules I'm not aware of?

Sorry for the arbitrary question - I just get curious about the finer rules and like to know how things are calculated.

Right - I realised when I was looking at HD by creature types in the appendix that outsiders have 10HD and that's what that particular line is for.

In regards to adding Con modifiers for every hit dice - what determines bonuses to HP for undead, whom lack Con altogether?

Sorry for all the questions - but I like to understand the rules as in-depth as possible, and everyone has been very helpful with great answers.

Loupcho wrote:

That makes sense for 10 + 2 = 12 for the regular Minotaur, and 20 + 4 = 24 for the Half-Fiend Minotaur; so how is the +10 and +20 calculated?

You multiply the constitution modifier by the number of hit dice to get the number of bonus hit points from constitution. Both have 6 hit dice, so it's 6*2 = 12 for the Minotaur and 6*4 = 24 for the Half-Fiendish Minotaur.

Ahh, I wasn't aware of that rule! Is this just something that applies to monsters? I would assume it's consistent across monster types as the Bubbear's bonus HP is +3 (Con modifier of 1 * 3HD = 3), whereas for the Half-Fiend template it would get +9 if I add the +4 ability score bonus to its Con, which is in line with the formulas you have suggested.

It's coming from the constitution bonus. The Half-Fiend Minotaur has 19 constitution (+4 modifier) while the regular Minotaur has 15 constitution (+2 modifier). This doubles the bonus hit points from constitution from 12 to 24.

That makes sense for 10 + 2 = 12 for the regular Minotaur, and 20 + 4 = 24 for the Half-Fiend Minotaur; so how is the +10 and +20 calculated? I was looking in the appendix to see if it was due to additional HP from monster advancement but I can't quite seem to figure it out.

I'm currently trying to apply the half-fiend template from the Bestiary to a standard Bugbear (CR 2), but am having trouble understanding how additional HP is calculated for the example half-fiend given by the book - the "Half-Fiend Minotaur" (CR 6). The base monster for this example, the Minotaur (CR 4), has the same HD (6D10) as the Half-Fiend Minotaur, which is in line with the rule about not recalculating the monster's HD despite the type change to outsider - but the additional HP modifier for the Minotaur (+12) changes to +24 for the Half-Fiend Minotaur, for HP equal to 6D10 + 24. A Half-Fiend Bugbear would retain its normal 3D8 HD, but does the original HP modifier of +3 increase at all? I'm not quite understanding why in the example given by the book the modifier changes from +12 to +24.