Shapeshifting and Skill Levels -- points spent on a skill in each form

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by younglorax

A lot of animal templates include racial Skills -- if the Shapeshifting character has bought points in a skill that the Alternate Form has, do they add together?

Yes, just like points spent on attributes add to racial attributes when shapeshifting[1]. The character is paying the point cost, he should get the full benefit from it. If, for some reason, you don't want them to add together then simply remove the racial skill from the template cost when calculating the cost of the Alternate Form.

[1] Note that I always convert the points, not the levels, of attributes. If a Human has ST 13 and shapeshifts into a Wolf, the Wolf form gets 30 points of ST in Wolf form, which is normally ST +5 due to No Fine Manipulators. The exception to that is when shapeshifting into smaller creatures or bestial animals, which effectively have a taboo trait of high ST and IQ (even though most templates don't actually list it). I normally limit ST to 2x the racial average and IQ to +1 (if the animal form is meant to be a bestial animal form; otherwise the character just gets his normal IQ level in animal form).