@NotAYakk , I have given it some more thought and I really like the start you made here:
I like how you have set up the baseline and how it evolves by Tiers. I am less convinced by the elite monsters and templates, but I like where it is going. I will post more detailed thoughts on monster roles (elite+) and templates (brute+) later, but I want to make a few quick comments.
Roles
I need to delve into the specifics a bit more, but I can say I want different names for each one. So...
Paragon = standard x 4
Elite = standard x2
standard = baseline
grunt = baseline / 2
minion = baseline / 4
Rather than Paragon vs Elite, I have noticed we can just have Elite(2) and Elite(4).
The point is by scaling Elite(N), we get a monster that can
grow horizontally as the party size (or drama) requires.
The math for "a double-wide" monster and a "4x wide" monster is relatively similar.
Like, suppose you have an encounter for 4 PCs, but you have 6. You can make the Elite(2) an Elite(3) and take the 3 standard monsters and up it to 5.
How that is achieved is TBD, but I will try to come up with a draft later today. Also, does N = Tier? I didn't see that explained, but that was my assumption.
No, N here is how "wide" it is. Elite(2) is 2 monsters "wide" (counts as two monsters of the same level). Elite(4) is 4 monsters "wide" (4x).
Scale HP by N (hence duration of the fight) and get a "half damage" Paragon action(s), plus some fudging on base stats, and you get a monster that "auto-scales".
Templates:
It appears the templates you created are more powerful than the baseline. My intent would be for them to modify the baseline, but not make it more powerful. I will see what I can come up with and post my draft later today.
Sure, I get that. But adding to a lower number is the same as adding and subtracting to a bigger number.
Ie, if Soldiers are +2 AC and Brutes are -2 AC, we can just lower the baseline AC by 2 and make Soldiers +4, Brutes +0, and others +2.
By making the Templates/Roles almost entirely additive and roughly as good as each other, adding a Template/Roll ups the power of the monster by a known amount. Then we budget for a certain number of them on a monster.
This intentionally blocks "I'll just use a vanilla monster" because vanilla monsters aren't a thing; all monsters should have texture.
...
The baseline I used was based off of a "naked rogue". I didn't make it scale right, especially T3/T4.
The templates where completely eyeballed and not even a balance pass done. I wanted Templates to have a significant impact (a Brute should feel very different than a non-Brute), so made Brute big. And you get 2 of them.
Possibly I need to make them smaller.
...
I like the "1 attack per tier" thing. But I think it also needs a dropping of the baseline damage for the math to work out.
So a naive Rogue does 2d6+3 damage at level 1 (10), and goes up by about 2 per level. This is 8+2 per level. But that is a lie, because it neglects a bunch of non-naked Rogue power ups.
In my first pass, I shaved a bunch off and then multiplied it by tier. But this gives a quadratic result, not enough damage in T1, and too much in T3/4.
Like, (4+L)*Tier vs (8+2L), then relied upon templates to provide the gap.
1:5 vs 10 (!)
4:8 vs 16 (!)
5:18 vs 18
10: 28 vs 28
11: 45 vs 30 (!)
16: 60 vs 40 (!)
17: 84 vs 42 (!)
20: 96 vs 48 (!)
If I change it to (7+L/2)*Tier it boosts level 1 monsters (even tier 1) a bit and pulls down later on:
1:7 vs 10
4:9 vs 16
5:18 vs 18
10: 24 vs 28
11: 36 vs 30
16: 45 vs 40
17: 60 vs 42
20: 68 vs 48
that works better. By T4, the "naive naked rogue" is relatively less powerful than it was at level 1.
OTOH, I could just go with 8+2L. But I like the (damage times tier) thing.
