I'm not sure what you mean 'in their own range'? I think it's been agreed that keeping mercs in a separate table from npc_types makes the most sense, if that's what you mean. KLS commented on that earlier.
Keep in mind, we need to include spell damage modifiers (per spell type, as I believe HoT spells aren't affected), as well as melee skills or discs, which don't conform to the npc_types table.
I agree some kind of scaling feature would be nice, but I also think allowing for complete customization has its benefits as well. I may have come over to Trevius' thinking in that respect. I'm not sure some aspects match a specific scaling rate, as looking at maxhit from lvl 1-60 does not seem to follow any particular equation, or any set of equations. I'm sure the same can be said of spell damage modifiers, etc. This also allows customization shown in live pets, where one particular pet focused with a particular focus has extreme regen - a bug I'm sure, but created some differentiation. SOmething similar could be done with something like the mercenary contracts, where obtaining a contract and hiring your mercenary that way results in a superior merc than what is available from the merchant, at the same proficiency and tier.
What I had planned to do was basically split the npc_types table in two and pull out any unneeded fields, and end up with a stats table (hp, mana, str, sta, resists, regen, etc for each level of a particular proficiency and tier), a texture table (to store visible textures and tints- weapons seem to change every 5 levels, and armor maybe every 20 or so?) - no need to duplicate the textures for every level. Then, one more table for the spell & skill mods (instant heal mods, nuke mods, buff duration mods if any, etc.).
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