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Message: <blockquote data-quote="77IM" data-source="post: 4595316" data-attributes="member: 12377">1)  No, because sometimes you make a skill or ability check vs. a defense (the only one I can think of is Intimidate vs. Will, but I'm sure there are others, especially considering DMG p.42).  Lowering defense helps these checks as well.  Increasing attack does not.There is also the minor issue of people who are bad at math.  It's easier to add than subtract, making the attack bonus easier to calculate; but attack modifiers are more common in the system than defense modifiers, making the defense bonus easier to calculate.  Pick your poison.Then there's the psychological differences.  It seems more "fun" somehow (more over-the-top, higher stakes) for everybody to get bonuses.  On the other hand, if you're a simulationist, the cumulative defense penalty seems like a reasonable way to represent the fatigue of combat.I would probably go the bonus route (it seems more fun to me somehow).2)  Yes and no.  In my experience the thing that slows down encounters is missing too much, especially missing with encounter and daily powers, so the attack bonus/defense penalty will help with that.  OTOH, smart players will wait until they have built up a decent bonus before using their dailies, because it sucks missing with a daily.  So that may actually make battles last longer, since people are only willing to use their at-wills for the first few rounds.This could be an interesting variant, though.  Instead of parties going nova with their dailies, they circle, applying at-wills, until the stakes are high -- then all the PCs and monsters whip out the high-damage daily powers and the fight ends with a sudden frenzied bloodbath.3)  I don't see how this helps fight min-maxing.  The fully min-maxed character will always be better off; after 2-3 rounds, the poorly min-maxed character may have caught up, but the fully min-maxed character has pulled ahead by 2-3 points.I also don't see how this encourages any sort of creativity.  It's just some bonus shuffling.  If I were a player this would not inspire me to do anything but withhold my dailies until the end.You should playtest this idea and let us know how it goes. -- 77IM</blockquote>

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