Recently, I've been giving some thought to how the class dice bonuses work (particularly since finalizing the d12 bonus, in this post which covers the overall topic in great depth.) One thing I was considering is whether "attack and damage" should be the exception or the rule; it turns out those mechanics are kind of split 50/50... At any rate, I figured a big recap of the specific, individual mechanics was warranted. I also want to use this post to try and narrow down what is the most concise way to word the mechanics for each die.
There are a couple of things I should mention first. Since TNP does not use static modifiers (for example, a +3 STR mod or a +2 proficiency bonus, to your attack roll) a total roll of 20 or higher is considered to be a critical hit. This means you can score a crit on a natural 20 on the d20, or by adding to a hit (a d20 roll of 10-19.) Some people are immediately confused by the prospect of some dice bonuses being allowed to be "added to a hit" but this is the reason for that. Similarly, you can add to a miss to improve it to a hit (10-19), which is a bit more intuitive.
As mentioned in the previous post, all class dice bonuses that are not used as the attack bonus are used as a damage bonus. I'm not sure that I've been entirely clear on this point before, so I think it's worth stating here; basically, if there is an exception to this rule, it's that some specific dice can be used as the attack bonus AND as a damage bonus. You can always roll all of the dice bonuses that apply to the attack being made, but you must choose only one of those dice results to be applied as the attack bonus. (Similarly to save bonuses or skills ranks, where you may be able to roll more than one d6, but only apply the highest.) With that out of the way, let's go over each die.
The d4 bonus can be added to either a hit or a miss, and can be used as a damage bonus even if it is used for the attack bonus (i.e. "attack [hit or miss] and damage.") So for example, if the d20 result is a 9, adding a d4 roll (i.e. minimum 1) to it, will turn that miss into a hit; likewise, if the d20 result is a 16, a d4 result of 4 could be used to turn that hit into a critical hit. The special perk for the d4 is that it is treated as having mastery applied to it, but only when used as a damage bonus. This means that if the d4 turns up a 1, it is effectively treated as a +1 to the attack roll, but as a +4 to damage (mastery allows you to treat a 1 as whatever the highest number is, on the die to which mastery is being applied.) So, the d4 bonus provides a small boost to both hit chance and crit chance, as well as a small (but very reliable) damage boost.
The d6 functions similarly to the d4, with the exception that it cannot be used as a damage bonus if it is used as the attack bonus on a roll that would already hit (i.e. if the d6 is used to improve a hit into a crit.) So for example, if the d20 result is a 9, you can use the d6 as the attack bonus and as a damage bonus; if the d20 roll is a 16, you can use the d6 as the attack bonus OR as a damage bonus -- not both. The shorthand I tend to use to think of this is "miss and damage; hit or damage."
The d8 is more straightforwardly "miss or damage." On a hit, the d8 can only be used as a damage bonus; on a miss, the d8 can be added to the d20 result to possibly improve it to a hit. The special perk for the d8 is that if the d8 result and the d20 result are a tie (i.e. the d20 rolls a miss, on the numbers 1 through 8), you can treat the attack as a critical hit; since this perk is considered to be the attack bonus, you cannot use the d8 for a damage bonus if you do so -- the d8 can never be used for both attack and damage. I've always thought of the d8 bonus as sort of "raising the floor" in terms of hit chance.
The d10 bonus in this paradigm is "hit or damage" -- it can either be used to improve a hit into a crit, or it must be used as a damage bonus, only. Since this was found to be just slightly low in terms of the average damage boost, the d10 was given the special perk that (as the attack bonus) the d10 result can be used in place of the d20 result. What this means is that a roll of 10 on the d10 can be used to turn a miss into a hit; essentially, this is a flat 10% chance to improve a miss into a hit. Broadly speaking, though, the function of the d10 is to improve crit chance while offering a large boost to damage.
The d12 is essentially "hit and damage." As was mentioned in the previous post (linked above) the d12 has been given a special attack bonus function, whereby it improves all extra damage dice by treating them as having rolled their maximum result. (For this reason, if this attack bonus is used, the extra damage dice should not be rolled, to prevent mixing them up with the base damage dice, and potentially applying this bonus incorrectly.) Now, the d12 bonus is allowed to be used as damage in addition to providing this benefit, but since this special benefit counts as the attack bonus no other dice may be used as the attack bonus, when and if this benefit is applied. To wit, this means that the attack has to hit on its own merit, or the special benefit couldn't be applied to the extra damage. As an additional benefit, whenever the d12 is used as a damage bonus and the attack is a critical hit, the d12 is treated as having rolled its maximum result; this means that it pairs well with bonuses that potentially increase crit chance.
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Now, the reason that these attack bonuses exist, is because I felt that TNP really needed its own "unique sales proposition" to really set it apart from other systems -- compared to previous iterations, where TNP leaned heavily into the 'advantage' mechanic. I like that by structuring things this way, the attack bonuses are never wasted, on a a hit -- since they can then be translated into damage instead.
It's worth mentioning here, that all class dice bonuses are rolled at the same time as the attack roll. This allows the players to see the potential results of applying one attack bonus vs. another, without the mess having to choose which bonus you're aiming for, and then hoping to roll it. This has the effect of speeding up gameplay; basically, if you miss, you're looking for the smallest bonus that turns it into a hit, and if you hit, you're likewise trying to see if you can turn it into a crit. There really isn't any gambling involved, but the randomness of the dice will present different options depending on the outcomes.
Another interesting quirk of the system is how I've chosen to impliment "combat mastery." Since in 4e D&D, combat advantage was a straight +2 to hit, I wanted something that mimicked this kind of bonus. Simply applying mastery to the d20 would mathematically translate to about a +1 to hit... but it only actually did anything if you rolled a 1. This seemed a little underwhelming, to say the least. As such, combat mastery was expanded to include the attack bonus die; in most cases, this works out to roughly an additional +1 to hit. Doing this means that, for example, a 1 on the d10 bonus can be used to turn a miss into a hit (increasing that 10% miss improvement chance to 20%) while also increasing the ability of the other dice to improve misses into hits (d4, d6, d8), or hits into crits (d4, d6, d10.)
In light of this, since the d12 doesn't gain a benefit from combat mastery (since the number on the d12 result can't be used to manipulate the total of the attack roll) it might make sense as an additional benefit to have combat mastery apply to the d12 bonus as a damage roll... hopefully that wouldn't be too confusing to keep track of.
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