Quote from Aanx >>

• Long-Limbed. When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

Long-Limbed of the bugbear, it is not only an advantage for the monk, but I would say especially for any class that has weapons with reach. 15 feet of reach during your turn to attack and 10 feet to attack in reaction.... Absurd.

• Surprise Attack. If you surprise a creature and hit it with an attack on your first turn in combat, the attack deals an extra 2d6 damage to it. You can use this trait only once per combat.

Surprise

A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations, one side of the battle gains surprise over the other.

The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.

If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren't.

I don't understand if Surprise Attack can be used on multiple creatures in the same Surprise turn, or even for any attack made during that turn (even on the same creature). But on the text it is written in singular and so I guess it can be done on only one creature.
If this racial ability is used for every attack it is absolutely abnormal. The monk and the fighter could actually take advantage of it.

I can only infer from this that it is one of the strongest races in the game and an excellent choice for any melee combatant.

 You think it’s only for melee fighters? This also works with bows, eldritch blast, and scorching ray!

For Surprise Attack yes, but since it is usable only at the beginning of the encounter it is less important than Long-Limbed.

Quote from Aanx >>

 

For Surprise Attack yes, but since it is usable only at the beginning of the encounter it is less important than Long-Limbed.

 

 

 Not if you cast scorching ray at 5th level and shoot 6 rays for 4d6 each

If you are looking for nova damage as a bugbear monk you might try going F2 (unarmed combat style)/monk x(>2) unarmed that would give you 2 attacks (using action surge) each followed by 2 additional attacks (FOB) for a total of 6 attacks each for 1D8+2D6 (10 damage average) for a total round 1 damage average of 60 points. All done from 10’ away so they can’t even retaliate without giving you an additional OA for another 10 points (average). All by character level 4.

Quote from Wi1dBi11 >>

If you are looking for nova damage as a bugbear monk you might try going F2 (unarmed combat style)/monk x(>2) unarmed that would give you 2 attacks (using action surge) each followed by 2 additional attacks (FOB) for a total of 6 attacks each for 1D8+2D6 (10 damage average) for a total round 1 damage average of 60 points. All done from 10’ away so they can’t even retaliate without giving you an additional OA for another 10 points (average). All by character level 4.

 Only 4 attacks. Action surge doesn’t add another bonus action. But 40 is still a lot before extra attack.

What is convenient about this race is especially the long limbs that allows the monk to solve his disengagement problem and the advantage it brings to his movement during the first turn and his number of attacks.
A monk at 2nd level could attack 3 enemies and make 1d8 + 4 (+2d6) to the first enemy and 1d4 + 4 (+2d6) to the remaining two while avoiding oppurtunity attacks.

That in itself is very strong, but that doesn't solve the monk problem at the higher levels....