Monks for D&D 5th Edition

I recently purchased the D&D 5th edition Player's Handbook and with enough reviews out already, I'll just say I like it. I played first edition in the 80s, and tried second for a few years before moving on with life and computer gaming. The OSR movement brought me back onto RPGs, but the idea of getting in on the ground floor of a new edition was definitely appealing.

Monks have always been one of my favorite classes - in theory. Way back in First Edition, Monks were basically unarmed super heroes with critically low hit points- a risky proposition for low level characters.

The Fifth edition Monk character has some nice abilities but it doesn't seem over powered given the amount of special features given to all the classes. Which might be a matter for discussion, but I probably missed that debate by sitting out third and fourth editions.

Above, three monks. From left to right, a Reaper monk, a Ral Partha from the late 80s, and another Reaper. The RP is bigger than 25mm to the eye, which the standard then. Nonetheless, he's still shorter than modern minis which are now pushing 30 to the eye. Scale creep...whaddya do about it?

Throwback Thursday - Female Barbarians

This is a true throwback.  Not only is a pair of miniatures from the 1908s, the paint job is from that decade as well.  The figure on the right is a 1984 Ral Partha from the stamping on the bottom.  The other one's marking is unreadable, but I suspect it is of similar vintage.

I probably painted them around 1989/1990 when I was in high school.  Of course, I am a bit embarrassed by the quality. On the other hand I was using mostly Testor's paint because nice Citadel paint was hard to come by in the small town South 25 years ago.  I also had no magnifying lamp, but I did also have 20/20 vision so that's probably an even trade-off.  All in all, it's nice to hang on to them as a time capsule.

And obviously, it's babes in chainmail bikinis.  What 15 year old (or 40 year old) doesn't occasionally like to paint up a little cheesecake? If anything, the figures are a bit restrained by today's sculpting standards.