This is one of the best ways to do it to keep balance, as long as all of your builders adhere to it. I used this system when I developed a MUD (back in the day) . As we are running a free project, and not trying to raise the anty with every expansion to keep people buying it, I think a truely balanced EQ server would be much more appealing than the current system on live.
Best to set guildlines and stick with them, ie:
All mobs of the same level have approx the same HP (with a random() thrown in
), based on class
All items of the same level have the same max point total
No item should ever have more than X points, ever. Ever. EVER!
It is probably easier to work backwards, so start with X Players in the best gear should have a challenge with hardest_mob_y for your max values and work your way back to 1.
I actually had coded all of my items' stats to be generated on the fly, which would be a major overhaul of the EQ engine.