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So after watching the Google+ interview where they mentioned the idea of dropping ability score to damage I had an idea.
What if a high ability score, say 18 or higher, bumped up the die if the weapon, or maybe even the spell, that you attack with by one?
18 Strength Fighter with a longsword now does a d10 But no Str mod to damage.
So thoughts?

Funny.  I was just thinking about this and other possibilites.   Your idea doesn't seem so bad.  

One problem with straight die rolls for damage is that there is now a possibility to do only 1 point of damage on a hit.  That might be a bummer.

In another thread I added the idea that perhaps all weapons should be given a min strength to use effectively score.   1d4 and 1d6 pretty much anyone can use.  1d8 needs a 13 strength.   1d10 needs a 16 strength.   1d12 needs a 17 strength.   But still, you can do only 1 point of damage and feel like a loser unless we just make weapons deal average damage.   But then there is less excitement for the damage roll.

I was even thinking that we could do average damage but if you roll a 17, 18 or 19, you do average damage +3.   Critical hits do average damage +6 plus 1/level.    Just kicking around ideas.   Unfortunately, these ideas become more complicated.   

Going back to weapon determines damage, we could just change the damage expressions for weapons so that each weapon does 2d (or 3d) damage.  That would give each damage roll a more bell curvey feel.    Let light weapons do 2d4.    Let martial weapons do 2d6.   Let really heavy weapons do 2d8, while the most damaging weapons do 3d6 or something like that.



     

             

Mike more or less stated that a +5 strength bonus at level 1 makes a much greater difference at level 1 than, say, level 10.  By boosting damage dice of a weapon by a step, you'd get an average of about +1 damage per round, which wouldn't fix the problem at all.  In fact, it would make it worse by giving less of a mechanical advantage.

Nov 10, 2012 -- 3:30PM, LadyBlackwell wrote:

Mike more or less stated that a +5 strength bonus at level 1 makes a much greater difference at level 1 than, say, level 10.  By boosting damage dice of a weapon by a step, you'd get an average of about +1 damage per round, which wouldn't fix the problem at all.  In fact, it would make it worse by giving less of a mechanical advantage.

My idea wan't meant as a fix but as an option. This is in the vein of experimenting, as they mentioned.
The intention being a more consistent bonus along with providing a damage boost for a high ability score. 
I think it would be a simple and elegant solution. That is if it worked.