This is way anti-traditional, but I'd be much happier if belts of giant strength increased damage but not attack rolls.
TBH, I have never been that happy about Strength adding to attack rolls full stop.
This is way anti-traditional, but I'd be much happier if belts of giant strength increased damage but not attack rolls.
Doesn't matter--players don't get to choose their magic items in DDN.
This "balance doesn't matter because the DM controls the game" argument has never been satisfactory. It's not just the players that benefit from a balanced and well-designed game, DMs do too. It makes the DM's job a lot easier if he doesn't have to worry about using any of the magic items in the rulebooks for fear of breaking the game. After all, not every DM is an expert game designer, and most aren't going to know that a particular item is going to be a problem until they give one to their players and the game falls apart. Saying "oh it's okay, because it's up to the DM" is a cop out in game design of the very worst kind. The game rules are supposed to be there to help the DM, not to create additional pitfalls for him or her to have to avoid.
This is way anti-traditional, but I'd be much happier if belts of giant strength increased damage but not attack rolls.
A. There are no increases in ability scores and magic is exceedingly rare, meaning very little boosts to attack bonuses.
Stat modifiers need to be made smaller.
But alas, the fundamental rules of the game say that Strength applies to melee attack rolls... I don't think we want to start changing that, but I wouldn't mind having belts that work like you suggest. OTOH I wouldn't mind either if they worked like now. Higher hitting rate is not that different from higher hitting damage, they both equate to killing monsters faster. There are some corner cases of course, but the main effect is not that different.
One of the tricky balancing acts that D&DN is trying to walk is to preserve the "system produces a predictable level of difficulty" aspect of 4e (and to a certain extent 3.5) while also giving the "feel free to run off the tracks" feeling of 1e/2e (and to a certain extent 3.0).