good beatstick benchmark opponents in PF

[zlefin]

I'm looking for some monsters to compare a simple beatstick to to assess how tough they are. basically stuff that's a good representation of how tough monsters of each cr tend to be in a simple fight.

are earth elementals good for that?
if not, what monsters would people suggest?
also looking especially for suggestions for high crs.

[Eldariel]

I'm looking for some monsters to compare a simple beatstick to to assess how tough they are. basically stuff that's a good representation of how tough monsters of each cr tend to be in a simple fight.

are earth elementals good for that?
if not, what monsters would people suggest?
also looking especially for suggestions for high crs.

Simple brawlers and bruisers, certainly. Though sadly on higher CRs, it tends to be rather irrelevant; even the Tarrasque is small leagues (supposedly CR25, much closer to CR15-20 for things that actually fight, quite irrelevant for high level casters) on high levels compared to enemies with spellcasting like the elder Dragons. But yeah, magical beasts, earth/fire elementals, giants, constructs and such simple things tend to be the purest warriors you get higher up. But even all of those tend to have a wrench or two at their disposal, just as all high level martials do as well.

[CharonsHelper]

Instead of specific monsters - just use the average AC/HP listed in the bestiary.

[Psyren]

Instead of specific monsters - just use the average AC/HP listed in the bestiary.

Indeed, and Unchained elaborates on this further via Simple Monster Creation (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/unchained/monsters/index.html) by providing generic bruiser, speedster and caster monsters at a variety of CRs, complete with generic class features and spell selections.

[Eldariel]

Using averages does sell some things short though: Power Attacking the low AC high HP monsters of the same level is much more useful than PAing the high HP low AC ones for instance. Both kinds are like to appear in a normal game but the utility of Power Attack does not become apparent by using averages. Same with various combat maneuvers and such - while average defenses are quite high, there is certainly a number of cases where the ability is significantly more worth your while to deploy than vs. averages.