D&D 5E Peasant Revolts in 5e

[Bedrockgames]

We've all seen the old joke where a town has to run for its life because a high-level adventurer needs a couple of experience points to get to the next level.

Is it even possible to do a peasant's revolt in Dungeons and Dragons?

Essentially how to gamify the following historical event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kq9sbtFCR8

Also, are peasants themselves even appear in your game as anything other than the background?

and for bonus points, are there any fantasy movies or novels that star peasants? I've done some checks already and noticing most peasant stories are essentially "secret princes" and thus disqualified.

One possibility is the peasants recruit high level heroes to help in their revolt or ally with a powerful wizard

 

[overgeeked]

No, not every sage is a spellcaster. But there are no court mages or religious advisors?

Not everyone who says a prayer to a god gets magic, either. Not every noble has a pet magician. Magic is rare. An adventuring party will likely have all the magic there is in a village. A town might have one or a few people with simple, basic magic. A city might have a dozen.

 

[Faolyn]

Not everyone who says a prayer to a god gets magic, either. Not every noble has a pet magician. Magic is rare. An adventuring party will likely have all the magic there is in a village. A town might have one or a few people with simple, basic magic. A city might have a dozen.

Or there might be dozens. It depends entirely on the world and individual setting.

And also, if a city only has a dozen spellcasters (who are known to be spellcasters), then any savvy noble is going to make sure that they're loyal to the city and the nobles, if not be actual employees of the city or the nobles--spellcasters are too potentially dangerous for their loyalties to remain uncertain.

As for divine spellcasters, well, of course not "everyone who says a prayer gets magic"--but if spellcasting is a or the sign of favor from a god, then I find it odd that divine spellcasters wouldn't always be in charge of a church. Why would you have a non-caster as having a high rank in a church when the gods have clearly chosen to bless a different person? Even if the non-caster has high-level connections or influence. Unless the church is abandoning all pretense about actually paying attention to the god's desires.

 

[overgeeked]

Or there might be dozens. It depends entirely on the world and individual setting.

Exactly. I don’t know how your world works. I’m describing mine.

And also, if a city only has a dozen spellcasters (who are known to be spellcasters), then any savvy noble is going to make sure that they're loyal to the city and the nobles, if not be actual employees of the city or the nobles--spellcasters are too potentially dangerous for their loyalties to remain uncertain.

And they’re often too powerful to be easily brought to heel.

As for divine spellcasters, well, of course not "everyone who says a prayer gets magic"--but if spellcasting is a or the sign of favor from a god, then I find it odd that divine spellcasters wouldn't always be in charge of a church.

Not every god has a church. Not every church is pure of heart. Most are political organizations out for power.

Why would you have a non-caster as having a high rank in a church when the gods have clearly chosen to bless a different person?

Magical ability doesn’t directly translate to political power. Being politically savvy gets you power, i.e. a high position in a political organization like a church.

Even if the non-caster has high-level connections or influence. Unless the church is abandoning all pretense about actually paying attention to the god's desires.

Again, not everyone who follows a god gets magic. Besides, if there are only a chosen few who are blessed with divine magic, they would be of better use out fighting the church’s enemies, saving and converting the masses with magic & miracles, not pushing paper or making speeches.

James Bond. He’s a field agent, not a paper pusher. You’d wonder why Bond was behind a desk. Not wondering why he wasn’t.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

As for divine spellcasters, well, of course not "everyone who says a prayer gets magic"--but if spellcasting is a or the sign of favor from a god, then I find it odd that divine spellcasters wouldn't always be in charge of a church. Why would you have a non-caster as having a high rank in a church when the gods have clearly chosen to bless a different person? Even if the non-caster has high-level connections or influence. Unless the church is abandoning all pretense about actually paying attention to the god's desires.

Being in charge of a church is mostly an administrative job, one could imagine that people blessed with the ability to cast Cure Wounds aren't fast-tracked to management positions (where they might reach their Peter's plateau) but kept at a specific job. "The gods gave you the power to raise the dead, that's nice, they gave me the even more awesome power to successfully manage the budget, placate the board, conduct yearly performance reviews and tell you how you should use that power, praise the gods. Now go back to deadraising and drop that silly idea of applying for Deputy General Manager, errr, I meant High Priest".

 

[Tonguez]

A horde with pitchfork can't really take a dungeon. Fortifications were besieged by professional armies and often had the upper hand. With the nobles protected by their walls, and the peasants having zero siege weapons, their storage of food supplemented by a possible steady supply of goodberries, and the court wizard doing early morning sorties to send a fireball hello for his five minutes adventuring day, I don't bet on the peasants successfully conducing the siege. Especially if the food reserve of the whole willage is safely kept inside the castle. Famine decimated besiegers as well. My money is on the rightful and legitimate lord of land, barring the intervention of CE adventurers.

This is why morale mechanics are needed, its not actually necessary to entirely defeat and slay the nobles inside the fortifications in order to ‘win’ the revolt - it just needs a good persuasion check to get the wizard to refuse to kill his fellow citizens (sure they’re peasants but they are our peasants) and then an intimidation check to force the noble/king to surrender or flee

 

[Zardnaar]

I don’t understand the sentiment in this thread that the peasants would have no hope. Due to bounded accuracy, any creature can be a threat to any other creature in large enough numbers. As long as you have enough peasants, they’ll stand a decent chance of winning, though they will certainly suffer heavy casualties.

My bad ignore soz

 

[Krachek]

In that case and all others, don’t put rules over fiction.
If the DM want a revolt as a key event in the fiction, it happens.
If the players want it, after succeeding enough challenge it will happen too.

 

[Faolyn]

Being in charge of a church is mostly an administrative job, one could imagine that people blessed with the ability to cast Cure Wounds aren't fast-tracked to management positions (where they might reach their Peter's plateau) but kept at a specific job. "The gods gave you the power to raise the dead, that's nice, they gave me the even more awesome power to successfully manage the budget, placate the board, conduct yearly performance reviews and tell you how you should use that power, praise the gods. Now go back to deadraising and drop that silly idea of applying for Deputy General Manager, errr, I meant High Priest".

In the real world, no clergy can actually cast spells, so of course being in charge of a church is administrative. But in a world where there are spellcasting clergy, I have zero reason to believe that mere non-spellcasting administrators would be put in a position of authority over them.

And they’re often too powerful to be easily brought to heel.

They don't have to be brought to a heel. They can be offered lucrative positions, land, or titles, or just outright bribed with cash.

Not every god has a church. Not every church is pure of heart. Most are political organizations out for power.

I'm not sure what being pure of heart has to do with anything. But if the god is favoring some individuals over others, is it really smart to not at least offer those individuals rank--assuming that the gods don't directly send divine messages about it?

Magical ability doesn’t directly translate to political power. Being politically savvy gets you power, i.e. a high position in a political organization like a church.

As I mentioned above, in the real world, clergy don't cast spells. What would political savvy be like in a world where such a thing is actually possible, though? People in the real world have gladly put up with bad rulers just because they have the right bloodline. In a fantasy world, then people may very well be willing to put up with bad rulers because they can cast spells (and especially if they can cast harmful spells).

Now, obviously, this is world-dependant. In a setting where the gods rarely interfere or aren't obviously real but must be taken in faith (Ravenloft, Eberron), then sure. In a world where maybe almost nobody has any levels, sure. But in a more typical world, where magic is more common?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

In the real world, no clergy can actually cast spells, so of course being in charge of a church is administrative. But in a world where there are spellcasting clergy, I have zero reason to believe that mere non-spellcasting administrators would be put in a position of authority over them.

We're certainly threadjacking here, but while I can see your point, it seems to apply only when "ability to cast spell" directly equates with a special favor from the gods. There is no reason to assume that a church with very active gods wouldn't have them directly intervene and say "you, you're a miracle worker, while you, over there, you'll take charge of making sure my churches are managed well". Make an analogy with engineers and highly qualified technicians. They have "powers" that managers don't have, and generally, when promoted to management, it doesn't work very well and not everyone of them is happier (because sometimes you want to be engineer, not a manager). In real life, appointment to position is... organic at best. In a church with an active voice of the gods, the god-appointed Manager will have every reason to hold authority over the god-appointed miracle worker. As an analogy, the Pithyas in Delphi (indeed a divine spellcaster) weren't in charge of the temple of Delphi. Their qualification (uneducated celibate girls of low-class origin) was extremely different of the qualification needed for an administrative charge. I would say that a fantasy church with an easy access to divination spell would ensure, when they select a new High Priest, that their choice is god-sanctionned.

I'd say its heavily setting-dependant: in "silent gods" setting and in "very talkative gods" settings, I think my version would make sense, in "intermediately silent gods" settings, where the ability to cast spell is the only sign of a special link to the god, yours would make sense, as people would be awed by the spellcasting ability.

I hear that you say that IRL the church-leading business is administrative since there is no competition by spellcasters and you're right, but it's a job nonetheless, a full time job that wouldn't necessarily intersect with other jobs of equal importance. Doctors don't run hospitals [well, maybe in the US they do since apparently House MD's hospital is run by Dr Cuddy, but it's not true everywhere]. If one was given the power to bless crops and heal the sick, you'd want them to be doing that full-time, not just on Friday morning from 10am to 12am, with the rest of the week spent doing high-level management work.