The semi-skilled bugbear, and other SS questions

[The Spectrum Rider]

So I bought Savage Species, and now I'm trying to understand it.

In the Monster Character Building Example (pg.23-24), it says "Necause of his Intelligence bonus, Gnarsht starts with 9 skill points as a bugbear."But looking at the Starting Skill Points chart on Pg. 11, I would expect Gnarsht (Int 13, 3 HD) to have starting skill points of (2 + Int mod) x (HD + 3) = 18 skill points.

Did I miss something? Becasue this seems like a pretty big mistake in a primary example.

Also: if you're advancing a monster through its Monster Class (Appendix 1), what determines the maximum skill points (for a class or cross-class skill) at each level? Is it the Monster Class level, or the number of HD at the given Monster Class level?

I would assume the answer is "number of Hit Dice," because the monster only gets new skill points as its Hit Dice (rather than levels) increase. But: one of the requirement for the PrC Siren (cool class, by the way) is Intimidate 6 ranks. Intimidate is a cross-class skill for a harpy, so if we're going by Hit Dice, a harpy (7 HD, cross-class skill max 5 ranks) couldn't enter the PrC. (At least not without taking a few levels above just being a harpy, but that's not what the example Siren does.)

If it goes by Monster Class level instead, the harpy (10 total MC levels, cross-class skill max 6 ranks) could qualify. But skills always seem to be based off HD....

Any ideas?

The Spectrum Rider

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

A follow-up question: in the siren PrC (can you tell how much I like it?), the Song of Despair is listed as once per day. All the other special songs are listed at once per day per PrC level. Intended, or typo?

(I would have expected something more like the bard overall: one Specail Song usage per level per day, perhaps with different special songs costing different number of usages.)

The Spectrum Rider

 

[Spatula]

In the Monster Character Building Example (pg.23-24), it says "Necause of his Intelligence bonus, Gnarsht starts with 9 skill points as a bugbear."But looking at the Starting Skill Points chart on Pg. 11, I would expect Gnarsht (Int 13, 3 HD) to have starting skill points of (2 + Int mod) x (HD + 3) = 18 skill points.

This is a mistake. The bugbear in the example should have 18 skill points.

Also: if you're advancing a monster through its Monster Class (Appendix 1), what determines the maximum skill points (for a class or cross-class skill) at each level? Is it the Monster Class level, or the number of HD at the given Monster Class level?

HD. The ECL (which is basically what the "monster class level" is) is only used for XP and starting equipment purposes.

But: one of the requirement for the PrC Siren (cool class, by the way) is Intimidate 6 ranks. Intimidate is a cross-class skill for a harpy, so if we're going by Hit Dice, a harpy (7 HD, cross-class skill max 5 ranks) couldn't enter the PrC. (At least not without taking a few levels above just being a harpy, but that's not what the example Siren does.)

Hmmm, good point. The list of class skills looks to be correct... I wonder if this is a 3.5e thing, it's possible Intimidate will be a class skill for harpies in the 3.5 MM but the class skills for the level breakdown weren't updated.

If it goes by Monster Class level instead, the harpy (10 total MC levels, cross-class skill max 6 ranks) could qualify. But skills always seem to be based off HD....

Any ideas?

The Spectrum Rider [/B][/QUOTE]