Stat Penalties/Damage?

[I'm A Banana]

Or they could just give you -2 to melee attacks, -2 to ac, -2 to reflex defence, etc. In other words no secondary effects.

I think that's going to happen.

I also think that a kind of "ability damage" will stay in, but that it won't subtract from your ability scores. More likely, it will be "tallied" alongside your ability score, and when the damage exceeds that ability score, Something Bad Happens.

Think of an effect like Stone to Flesh. What if that spell just gave you 1d6 let's call them Petrification Points. Whenever you have 1 Petrification Point, you take a -2 penalty to Reflex defense because you are turning to stone. When your Petrification Points exceed your Constitution score, you become a statue.

Or a poison that, when you have Poison Points greater than your Con, you might start dying.

Or a mind blast that, when you have Stun Points greater than your Wisdom, you become paralyzed.

So it won't be a subtraction (no math), but when you get too much of a bad thing, something Very Bad might happen.

 

[Blackbrrd]

mmm... I don't think they will have anything like petrification points, poison points or anything else but straight hp. That would be more book-keeping, not less, which I think is the way 4e is going.