I posted this in another thread, but it's easy to miss it. So here it's in its own deserving topic!
I know you guys aren't going to release extra spoilers or anything, but one thing that has been a huge problem for me since D&D 3E (persisting even now into 5E, where the guidelines are so loose that CRs are often meaningless) is designing monsters. So what you have said about monster design in Pathfinder 2E is of great interest.
I love being able to design my own monsters, especially if the rules for such actually produce something that meets projected challenge levels. Will you talk more about this sometime, or ever share some of the process? Everything sounded very promising so far. If it's not a total headache, I'd love to create a lot of my own foes for my games! Yes, you can reskin monsters, but I like it when there's a system that works and the math is good, and you can design interesting opposition that also matches expectations.
Related, but it sounds like monsters aren't going to be designed 100% like PCs? If that's true, that's great. I used to prefer that, but then I realized how unnecessary and also headache-inducing it could be. Simplified is better for me (though I don't prefer too simplified). So here's hoping for some great monster design rules!
While I don't know what the design team is currently planning, I wouldn't be surprised if it bears some similarities to the Simple Monster Creation rules in Pathfinder Unchained. Personally, I found most of the monsters it creates balanced while granting a fair amount of creativity, and there are suggestions on how to adjust things to suit your vision with it.
I personally like them better than the version used in Starfinder, but YMMV.
They've mentioned using templates where you add on extras, and I'm presuming that each "extra" comes with a CR adnustment.
But at the same time they're also including the ability to built a monster or not from scratch using PC rules.
So it looks like we'll get the best of both worlds.
*fixes the link* Forgot to the end section of the URL after finding the link to begin with...
Anyway, yeah, I saw that in the Know Direction podcast, that the numbers if you build an NPC by the PC rules they should end up fairly close to the quick generation rules. I like that there are options, and am curious to see how they work out.
That all sounds very encouraging. I don't like just being forced to reskin monsters, or else use a system that creates wildly variable results for what should be a given CR. If it's a good monster creation system, I'ma go nuts with it.