Role-playing Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for gamemasters and players of tabletop, paper-and-pencil role-playing games. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
The jermlaine from the Monster Manual II were given a non-cohort LA of +0 by the 3.5 revision, making the jermlaine an appropriate race for a PC.
Using the standard array, a jermlaine's ability scores are adjusted as follows: −8 Strength, +6 Dex −2 Constitution, −2 Intelligence, +6 Wisdom, −6 Charisma.
However, no one talks about a jermlaine's racial skill bonuses. How does it get that Hide +14? How can I reverse-engineer the jermlaine's skills?
Neither the original jermlaine (Monster Manual II 131) nor the revised jermlaine (3.5v Accessory Update 34 and available separately for the Monster Manual II here) has a jermlaine receiving racial bonuses on skills so a jermlaine receives no racial bonuses on skills.
In dnd-3.5e a jermlaine's skill modifiers are the result of its ½ fey Hit Die. The Monster Manual says, "A creature with less than 1 Hit Die is treated as having 1 Hit Die for the purpose of determining skill points and maximum skill rank" (301). This makes the revised jermlaine's starting skill points 20 due to its Int 8 (i.e. 6 fey skill points to start then −1 from an Intelligence score of 8 then that total ×4 for what is, essentially, 1 racial Hit Die). Some of its skill points are spent as follows:
However, the revised jermlaine still has 5 skill points unspent. This reader recommends the DM put 1 more skill point in each of the jermlaine's class skills.
In case you're curious or you're trying to reverse-engineer the original jermlaine's skills, in dnd-3e a fey receives its Intelligence score ×3 in skill points for its first Hit Die and an additional +2 skill points per extra Hit Die, so the original jermlaine receives 24 skill points, spent as follows:
The original jermlaine's skill points are spent correctly.
Subtract the attribute modifier, and then subtract the ranks spent on the skill (you can usually tell what skills the entry spent its ranks on by examination). Lastly, remove any generic 'always-on' bonuses from e.g. size or a swim/climb speed. The result is the racial modifier. In the case of the jermaline the answer is that they just don't have a racial modifier to any skill checks, though their entry seems to give them 6 skills despite their -1 int mod (a common error-- they should only receive 5). They do get a half racial HD of Fey leveling, though, which is sometimes very very good, since that fraction may technically be rounded down for things like experience required to level, which would give a Jermaline something like an extra 6+int skill points compared to your average character.
