Quote Originally Posted by LordBlades View Post
If the differences are small then yes, it won't be noticeable, unless they're the kind of knowledgeable guys that can reverse engineer monster stats in 2-3 rounds, but if it's constantly 2x PC HP, 50% of PC damage like in 4E, then it's going to be noticeable pretty soon.

Some ppl prefer ease of use vs internal consistency, and there's nothing bad with that. I personally prefer the feeling that the dudes I'm fighting are 'people like me' and not something else. Not saying they should be built by 100% the same rules but they shouldn't be noticeably different.
Yes, 4e had a problem with combats dragging too much due to HP bloat and low damage, especially at later levels. I'm not saying that extreme differentiation is good. I just vehemently disagree that a full PC writeup should be used for every NPC, and that every monster should be created with the idea of it being playable by a PC in mind.

Also, there would need to be an exception for elites/minions. I don't think Solos were good for the game, as even they wound up needing some extra minion support. But Elites that are tougher than your average PC in terms of defenses/action economy, while not dealing damage as if it were several levels higher I think are good. Similarly, minions that can meaningfully affect PCs, but die quickly are good. You could maybe make it so elites are only monsters that aren't available to PCs (things like Beholders, Dragons, etc), but personally I see nothing wrong with an Elite Elf Necromancer NPC, since the alternative is throwing significantly higher level NPCs at the party at which point it becomes much harder to balance.