Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
It is really messy. Be happy that you weren't reincarnated as a Goblin or Kobold - or something even lamer from one of the old Reincarnation lists. Actually, I always thought it would be cool for a PC to become an animal from one of the old lists and that it always sucked to become a different RACE.Bagpuss said:
It sucks to NOT be the character you wanted to play through no fault of your own. Talk with the DM and see if he's amenable to being a stand-up guy and allowing you some decent measure of reparations. He might just let you get reincarnated again as Dwarf or DM's choice (Dwarf). AT WORST, he should let you abandon the character if you have no desire to play it as it exists. This is, after all, something that was INFLICTED upon you as a player.
Otherwise, if you're gonna be a bugbear, be a bugGRIZZLYbear. That is, if you're going to be stuck with this new character MAKE IT YOUR OWN.
Beyond that the spell is not THAT difficult to administer. You might even be able to talk your way out of it. After all, the first thing liable to be overlooked about the spell is that the spirit of the reincarnee has to be WILLING. If you as a player did not want to risk your character becoming some other race as a result of this spell YOU HAVE THE OPTION of refusing to allow it to work. Of course that means you're DEAD, but you're not a stinking bugbear or a twinkletoed elf either.
Drop your original racial ADJUSTMENTS and apply the ADJUSTMENTS from the chart. This is a reference to your ability scores, not anything else. In the case of your dwarf you lose 2 con and gain 2 charisma - THEN you apply the adjustments for bugbears as per the spell, which gives you back the con and adds dex and str! Nice trade, though you also lose a level.
Now, while it doesn't specify it sure seems that the intent would be for you to lose OTHER racial skills and abilities - like darkvision, stonecunning, AC bonus versus giants, etc., and then gain the racial skills and abilities of your NEW race. There's some wiggle room there for DM's to be obnoxious/magnanimous if they want to because it doesn't SPECIFY what else has to be done regarding racial-related stuff except ability scores. For example, the additional feats that humans get could (and should) be lost. Though it doesn't specify, EVERYTHING your character gained as a matter of being a given race should be lost - and then you get the benefits of your new race.
Run it this way: go to the section at the front of the PH that covers dwarves as a PC race. See everything in that page or so that it says a Dwarf gets? You don't get ANY of that anymore. You lose all that. Everything else stays. Note that class, BAB, hit points, etc., DO NOT CHANGE. You are otherwise still a ftr2/clc6 (or now a 2/5 with the level loss)with all that that now implies, meaning yes you don't have the same benefits of favored class that you did.
Your hit points DO NOT CHANGE. Your hit DICE also DO NOT CHANGE. Your skill points do not change having been based on class from the outset, not race. Also, your base save bonuses don't change as they too are based on class, not race. You are not STARTING as a bugbear monster and then adding PC levels. You don't get any more or less hit points. As per the spell. As you advance from this point you don't become a fighter2/cleric 5/bugbear 1 so you get no change in hit dice for your race having changed. You gain the hit dice of whatever CLASS you advance in at that time. This SHOULD eliminate ANY AND ALL motivation the DM might have for stupidly applying anything like a Level Adjustment. LA simply doesn't apply in a case like this. It's one of the reasons that the list was limited to humanoid, not animal forms when it was converted from 3.0 to 3.5.
As a bugbear you get your darkvision back, you move faster (30'), +3 natural armor, +4 move silently, and favored class Rogue. You DON'T get two racial feats as, again, you're not STARTING play as a bugbear and intending to add levels. And you also did get +4 str and +2 dex out of the deal.
Even with the level loss and xp penalty (until you balance out your class levels) this result means you are going to be tougher than you were.
