Undead Skills (MM2)?

[Valen]

I've got a question and I thought I'd run it by all of you experts here.

I was reading MM2 and I noticed on page 10, that an undead gets skills equal to (3 x Int SCORE) + (2 x EHD).
Is this correct or should it be Int bonus. If I have two medium-sized undead, one with 1HD and an Int score of 15 and another with 5 HD and an Int score of 10, the 1 HD creature has more skill points? (1 HD= 45 skill points vs. 5 HD = 38 skill points) If it were Int bonus, then the 1 HD would have 6 skill points and the 5 HD would have 8 skill points.

Is my assumption about the Int bonus correct and the Int score an error?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[BOZ]

i'm pretty sure they did it that way on purpose. as a mutilplier of Intelligence (rather than 2/HD or 2/Int bonus) this keeps unintelligent creatures, such as zombies and skeletons, from getting skills.

 

[Valen]

I understand what you are saying about unintelligent monsters not having skills. That makes sense to me. However, under the formula as it stands, an unintelligent undead still receives skill points if they have extra hit dice. The (2 x EHD) is added to the Int multiplier. Skeletons and zombies have no skill points because they don't have EHD.

If I am correct in my assumption that they meant the Int BONUS and not Int SCORE, then unintelligent undead still have a Int mutipler of 0 (because the Int bonus of unintelligent is still +0 as stated on MM2 page 7).

The difference between SCORE versus BONUS, when it comes to intelligent undead, becomes pretty apparent as the HD of the creature increases.

 

[Grazzt]

Undead receive 3 X Int score (+2/extra level) in skill points. That is how the MM, MM2, and Dragon 276 all detail it. If you break down the skill points for the undead in the MM, they add up correctly.

And your examples in the first post are correct:

1 HD Undead, Int 15 has 45 skill points

5 HD undead, Int 10 has 38 skill points.

Look in the MM and compare say the Ghoul and the Allip. The Allip has more HD but a lower Int (and less skill points). The Ghoul has more skill points and less HD.