help with character creation and reincarntion

[Kol Korran]

hi. a player in the group i DM wants o make a new character, and i'm trying to decide on his starting level (the rest are currently level 9). the basic concept is a human ranger who got killed and reincarnated as a bugbear. so a few questions:
- does he lose the extra human feat? what about extra skills points? will it affect LA?
- though he doesn't gain the racial HD and all that entails, he does get some very nice ability bonuses (+4 str, +2 dex, +2 con) and +3 NA. how much is that worth in terms of LA? can you give me a comparison to a creature of the same LA? i'm currently thinking +1- similar to a goliath, though no big build.

thank you
Kol.

[Urpriest]

Hmm...aside from Str/Dex/Con adjustments, nothing in the Reincarnate spell specifies losing any of the old race's racial traits. So they would keep the human bonus feat and skill points.

It does seem roughly equivalent to a goliath: maybe a little better, but without powerful build.

[Kol Korran]

so. how what sort of an LA should a bugbear with no cha penalty, an extra feat and the human bonus to skills have? i have compared to the goliath and poisondusk lizard folk and other LA +1 creatures, and i feel that this reincarnation should be LA +2, but i'm not sure.

thoughts?

[Greenish]

+1 LA sounds good enough, unless he's getting the bugbear RHD (in which case no LA is needed). The stats are neat, but for +2 LA to be reasonable you'd need something special, say, large size or the like. Goliaths have Powerful Build (which is pretty much always worth +1 LA) and Mountain Movement, Poison Dusk Lizardfolk have no Str penalty and 30' move as small critters, set of natural weapons and so forth (and are still a tad weak for LA).