Does Ameiko have too much skill?

[Gilamunsta]

Since Ameiko has the same levels in Jade Regent as in RotRL, I began putting her into herolabs for later use; and I found that as written, she has 10 points more in skills than she should have. I tried recreating her manually as well, just to make sure that my copy of HL is not smoking crack, but I still come up with +10 skill points.

This makes me wonder - did I miss something?

[Matt Thomason]

I'm going to hazard a guess that much as Paizo's monsters aren't built using the monster design rules and races aren't usually built using the race design rules, they don't necessarily build NPCs by the book either, and instead build them to more accurately represent the character in the story.

Or it's entirely possible someone just miscalculated :) I don't have a copy handy to check the stats right now.

[James Jacobs]

We actually do build our NPCs by the book.

Common places that skill ranks get overlooked = bonus ranks from being human and bonus ranks from favored class. Further, since we actually don't publish the skill ranks themselves, just the final totals... it's also possible you're missing things like bonuses granted by feats, items, magic items, and the like.

[Matt Thomason]

Looks like someone else ran into calculation problems (and was also almost 10 points off), and there's some clarifications here that may help find out where your 10 "extra" points have come from.

(And from the looks of it, it's probably the Bluff and Diplomacy scores that each gain +5 from Versatile Performance (String) allowing her to use her Perform check in place of those skills)

[Gilamunsta]

James: I love the fact that after all these years you guys still peruse the boards and are not afraid to answer =)

And after reviewing the Bard abilities, Matt is right - it was the Versatile Performance (String) that tripped me up.
I'd never played a Bard and neither has anyone else in the campaigns I'd run, so I overlooked the ability - guess I'll know better from now on. I did however figure out correctly that you guys set Bard as her favorite class =)

[James Jacobs]

Ah; yeah, Versatile Performance would do it. We simply list the appropriate Perform bonus in that case rather than the actual skill.

[DM Under The Bridge]

That makes it easier to read, but doesn't show the math. Okay, so she is fine by the numbers?

[James Jacobs]

DM Under The Bridge wrote:

That makes it easier to read, but doesn't show the math. Okay, so she is fine by the numbers?

Showing the math is, honestly, not the primary goal of our statblocks.

[DM Under The Bridge]

It all follows though? That is good.

Found a few stat block errors over the years, but hey, they slip in eventually.