Ability Score Modifiers for Monsters?

[reefwood]

Do all the creatures in the Bestiary use the Basic NPC ability scores?

I have a player who wants to roll the ability scores for some of his creatures, so I want to determine their racial ability modifiers, and I assume I just need to work backwards and do a little guesswork.

If a 4 HD creature has Str 19 and Con 19 as its highest ability scores, I'm guessing that if it used the Basic NPC ability scores, it placed the 13 in one of them, and it placed the 12 and the 4th-level ability score increase into the other ability score. Therefore, the racial ability modifiers would be Str +6 and Con +6. Does that seem correct?

Now, what if I wanted to make a 3 HD version of this creature. This would lower Str or Con...whichever one received the 4th-level ability score... so is there anyway I can determine which ability score started out as 13? Cos that will still be 19, but the other that started out at 12 will now be 18. Not that this affects the Str mod or Con mod since 18 and 19 provide the same ability mod. But is there any way to breakdown these finer details of monsters? Do magical beasts always put their highest ability score in Str, while elementals always put it in Con? Or some sort of general rules for monster ability scores?

[Mok]

It depends...

The creature either has:

1. All 10's and 11's as their bases (so if the score is even then it starts as a 10, and if it is odd then it starts with an 11)

2. Standard Array (this creature has NPC class levels)

3. Elite Array (this creature has PC class levels)

[reefwood]

Mok wrote:

It depends...

The creature either has:

1. All 10's and 11's as their bases (so if the score is even then it starts as a 10, and if it is odd then it starts with an 11)

2. Standard Array (this creature has NPC class levels)

3. Elite Array (this creature has PC class levels)

Thank you. That answers most of my questions. So, a dire wolf has 10's & 11's, the Orc Warrior has the Standard Array, and the Vampire Sorcerer has the Elite Array. Makes sense.

Any idea is there is a rule or guideline on where monsters put their ability score increases? I guess this part doesn't matter for what my player wants to do since he will be using creatures with normal HD, but I'm just curious in case I ever decide to roll up a creature with more or less HD than normal.

[Mok]

reefwood wrote:

Any idea is there is a rule or guideline on where monsters put their ability score increases? I guess this part doesn't matter for what my player wants to do since he will be using creatures with normal HD, but I'm just curious in case I ever decide to roll up a creature with more or less HD than normal.

I don't think so, beyond perhaps the guidelines of what kind of role the monster has. There are listings on what basic kind of role the monster has in terms of its tactics on the battlefield. I've never looked at it in detail, but I assume if someone at Paizo had to grind through a zillion different monster stat blocks they'd likely just follow that role for their own sanity. Thus if the creature was about melee then it would go to the appropriate physical stat, and if it was more about hitting people with DC attacks then it would likely go to bolster the appropriate stat.