1) The plot of my adventure involves children kidnapped and forced into crime and in the course of the adventure, I expect the PCs to encounter at least one of them (getting pickpocketed by the kid). I've got the kids statted using the Pickpocket from the GMG and applying the Young template from the Bestiary to it. The Pickpocket is a level 1 rogue and is CR 1/2. The Young template reduces the CR of the creature by 1. Would the CR of the Young Pickpocket be 1/3, 1/4 or what?
2) The mastermind of this operation is a doppelganger with some rogue levels. I decided to break down the basic doppelganger to get a stronger idea of what I was adding rogue levels to and maybe reallocate some of the resources from the base build to make it a stronger rogue. Everything holds together rather well except for the skill points.
As a 4 HD monstrous humanoid with a 13 Intelligence (+1 Int Mod), it should have 20 skill points. But once I factor out stat bonuses, racial bonuses and class skill bonuses (assuming that it gained the class skill bonus on every skill listed in its description), I see only 8 skill points being spent.
One solution I'm seeing would be to assume that only Bluff and Disguise are actually class skills and all other bonuses were acquired with skill ranks. But I want to be sure before I start mucking about.
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1) The next step down from CR 1/2 is CR 1/3, which is what the Young Pickpocket should be.
2) Only Perception and Stealth are class skills for monstrous humanoids, actually; though I thought there was a rule stipulating that monsters with racial bonuses to a skill considered that skill as a class skill as well, I can't find it now, and it seems as though the doppleganger's statblock doesn't use it regardless.
Actually, my wife (who is a hot gamer chick) just pointed out that Monstrous Humanoids have their own list of class skills (Bestiary 308) that includes Perception and Stealth and a few others.
There was an episode of Batman: the Animated Series with a plot much like this called The Underdwellers. If you can find it, it may be worth a watch for inspiration.
Next question:
Does anyone play/design for anything other than the Medium advancement track? As I'm equipping my NPCs, should I just assume Medium treasure amounts? Is there a value to gearing towards another advancement track or including notes and sidebars to the effect of "In a slow advancement game, this treasure stash has x, but for medium advancement, it also has y, and fast advancement gives it z as well"?
Sorry; to clarify, I meant "of the skills the doppleganger has, only Perception and Stealth are class skills."
That's what I figured you meant.
And I think the thing about "assume that any skill that has points in it is a class skill" was something that somehow survived an edit from a previous version of the rules, when class skills and cross-class skills had different costs (like in 3.5)
Next question:
Does anyone play/design for anything other than the Medium advancement track? As I'm equipping my NPCs, should I just assume Medium treasure amounts? Is there a value to gearing towards another advancement track or including notes and sidebars to the effect of "In a slow advancement game, this treasure stash has x, but for medium advancement, it also has y, and fast advancement gives it z as well"?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I'm better off just going with Medium treasure allocations.