Yes, If it's a Dragon

The lone case I know of in the rules that talks about this is Dragonhide Armor. You use a dragon's scales to make it, and the armor can get properties from it. Here's the description (emphasis mine, as it's the relevant part):


  Armorsmiths can work with the hides of dragons to produce armor or
  shields of masterwork quality. One dragon produces enough hide for a
  single suit of masterwork hide armor for a creature one size category
  smaller than the dragon. By selecting only choice scales and bits of
  hide, an armorsmith can produce one suit of masterwork banded mail for
  a creature two sizes smaller, one suit of masterwork half-plate for a
  creature three sizes smaller, or one masterwork breastplate or suit of
  full plate for a creature four sizes smaller. In each case, enough
  hide is available to produce a light or heavy masterwork shield in
  addition to the armor, provided that the dragon is Large or larger. If
  the dragonhide comes from a dragon that had immunity to an energy
  type, the armor is also immune to that energy type, although this does
  not confer any protection to the wearer. If the armor or shield is
  later given the ability to protect the wearer against that energy
  type, the cost to add such protection is reduced by 25%.


That's about it.

Which of these are properties of the skin, and which are properties of the creature itself?

Properties are that of the creature as a whole. Skinning a Drow and wearing it does not confer it's Spell Resistance on you. Somehow capturing part of an Air Elemental and eating it doesn't let you turn into a Whirlwind (although it might give you an upset stomach). Etc.

The exception is Dragonhide, which is mentioned specifically in the rules.

Would such properties persist in the skin after removal (and tanning, I assume)?

Aside from Dragonhide, this is going to be DM interpretation. Does a Drow's right hand have Spell Resistance if severed? I really have no idea, and the rules don't say.

Would tanning/crafting produce armor, a wondrous item, a trophy, or what?

There's precedent for using hides to produce armor (Dragonhide, and "Hide Armor" in general). So if your DM rules that a bear hide has some special property, you could use it to get armor crafted, sure. But that requires such a ruling to work, by RAW the only time it works for armor is Dragonhide. You would also still have to have someone use the hide to make the armor with Craft: Armor.

Wondrous Items by the rules can only be produced with the Craft Wondrous Item feat. You could use whatever you skinned as the base of that item, but you'd still have to use the feat and pay the appropriate costs to make it magical.

As for a trophy... I don't see any reason why Craft: Taxidermy (or Profession: Taxidermist if your DM prefers) couldn't be used to make trophies. And hey, they look awesome on the wall of your base of operations. :)

There are a few cases (as Eric B mentioned) where an item might have a listed value. In that case, you could harvest the item and sell it. If it doesn't have a listed value, it's worthless unless your DM decides otherwise. (Maybe the leatherworkers in the area really like working with Dire Wolf pelts and will pay for them.)

Harvesting parts from slain creatures
First post here!

What I'm trying to accomplish looks fairly simple but so far I've had no luck in finding a way to accomplish it. Essentially I want to create custom stroke caps (or strke profiles if necessary) that will allow me to create strokes with a shallow rounded end or an angled end as shown below



Is this even possible? If so, how would I go about making this happen? I am working on a typeface where these two shapes will be common, and I prefer to work with pure strokes first, so if I can accomplish this it would be great. Thanks in advance for any tips!
