The Ruined Keep scenario will begin with the same characters, fully rested, on Tuesday.
Then I'll look forward to reading that one too.

Good stuff, mate. Sounds promising.
I
might have tried some of this out - being tempted. . . well, almost - but I'm a bit short of truly free time for now and the immediate future, habitual random forum posting notwithstanding (ahem). The fact that the system is not complete is a significant factor as well. I've found that testing out bits of systems without proper context is of arguably very little use, when it comes to determining their usefulness, appropriateness, balance and so on.
But, like I said, it's sounding promising at this stage. Glad you're still going ahead with it, getting it (or 'drafts' of it) playtested, and oh yeah, those statblocks are
tidy!
edit --- re:minions - in 3e(-ish) I've had 'minion' as a template, limiting them to
minimum HP (NOT 1 total), and reducing things like stats and resistances, etc, somewhat. And 'elite', well they're the mirror image, having maximum HP, increased stats and so forth. It's worked well enough, and was all in place prior to 4e, like the vast majority of my house rules, including some that are reminiscent of, or even identical to, certain 4e rules.