Races with bonus HD

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I’m tinkering around with the rules for creating new racial classes, per Axioms no 9, especially with a view to making some monster classes. I’m looking at the rules for beastman classes in Axioms no 2, and I’m trying to puzzle out the math of the Bugbear racial category.

An XP value of 10,000 for Bugbear 0 seems like a lot, even with the bonus hit dice. My thinking is that a 1st level bugbear is comparable in power to a 3rd level human. But a 3rd level fighter, say, only needs an additional 4,000 xp to advance to 4th level. He needs 8,000 xp total, but he already has 4,000 xp.

I’m also thinking of the monster advancement rules in the Transformation section of ACKS Core. A bugbear advancing as a monster needs a total of 12,000 xp to reach 4 HD. But assuming he advanced from 1 HD all the way up to 3 HD, he would already have 6,000 xp. To go from 3 HD to 4 HD, he would only need an additional 6,000 xp.

If I want to make a new monstrous PC race with bonus starting HD, how should I go about it?

I’m also thinking of the monster size and maximum HD table on page 151 of Lairs & Encounters. If I make a Large monstrous PC race, could it reach 13 HD? If it starts with, say, 3 HD at 1st level, should it continue getting HD all the way up to 11th level (assuming its build points allow it to reach that high)?

If I wanted to give a PC race a flat hit point bonus, what should that be worth in custom powers? My thinking here is that +1 hp/level is roughly comparable to increasing the Hit Die size by one step, which is worth +500 xp in the Hit Dice Value category. What about a one-time bonus, like +6 hp at 1st level?

Thanks in advance, for any clarity you can shed on this for me, or any other tips or suggestions you might have!

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Another way of thinking about the bonus HD occurred to me, and I wonder if this is the intent. The bugbear’s +2 HD at 1st level are a sort of “advance” on those he’d otherwise gain at 2nd and 3rd level. He doesn’t have any “virtual” xp, though; he’s comparable to a 3rd level character in power, but not experience, and he still starts with 0 xp. So he effectively has to “pay back” two extra levels before he’s allowed to take another one.

This would make sense if the idea is to place a 1st level bugbear alongside other 1st level characters. He’s got a distinct advantage over them at first, but they catch up eventually.

On the other hand. I think what I was suggesting above (effectively attributing a 1st level bugbear with virtual xp, so that he levels as if he’s already 3rd level) would make more sense if the idea was to place a 1st level bugbear alongside 3rd level characters.