D&D 5E Peasant Revolts in 5e

[Shades of Eternity]

I'm accepting Wesley (Princess Bridge) as a peasant done well because his success had nothing to do with his bloodline.

Also including Jabberwocky as probably the only Peasant through and through.

Other potential cases:
Dragonheart
Legacy of Gird, Elizabeth Moon.
Willow

and of course a certain scene from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

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You might be able to simulate a peasant mob by using the same characteristics that Swarm enemies have (ie. Swarm of rats) - acts as a massive enemy but can be chipped away at bit by bit.

Peasants would fight like tuckers kobolds: incredibly dirty and using what equipment they have on hand. I remember a sizable chunk of martial arts being developed in Okinawa because the locals weren't allowed standard weapons. Plus aren't a sizable chunk of polearms essentially repurposed farming equipment?

Plus I found about a nordic tradition that I do have to use in this situation: The battle cow. Essentially bull/cows trained for war. If they die, they eat well that night.

 

[Umbran]

Oh, and if you want to see peasants in fantasy...

Go to Netflix, and watch a show called "Galavant". The peasants in the show are not the main characters, but... well..

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[aco175]

I would tend to have a peasant revolt being led by someone more than a peasant. Maybe a group of thugs are stirring the pot. Also like in Robin Hood the peasants get trained by the merry men to fight and I would give them guard stats at that point.

 

[Umbran]

I would tend to have a peasant revolt being led by someone more than a peasant.

Just... make them both wise and charismatic. Or else...

 

[tetrasodium]

It depends on the setting & what you consider a "peasant revolt".

In a setting like fr, greyhawk, or darksun they would be annihilated but maybe bur down a building or two. That's largely because peasants in those settings are basically slaves or serfs who live at the pleasure of some guy who could slaughter them all with only slightly more effort than telling his or her army to do it.

In a setting like eberron things changebecause thanks to wide magic & public education you have commoners with magic items & not infrequently cantrips or ritualized magic before you even factor in the widespread martial training given to peasants during the war so they could be mobilized in response to an attack. Things are further shifted depending on who they are revolting against.... the crown/government/etc has generally little reason to be revolted against... but violent labor disputes have a history of going bad for both sides (often the boss first then later the labor).

 

[Eltab]

A few years of bad weather and poor harvests (and no Druids around willing to ritual-cast Plant Growth on all the cropfields). The peasants tell His Lordship there is not enough seed left to give him what he wants to take and eat, stock must be kept to plant the fields in spring. His Lordship hears "they told me No."
A peasant revolt !

 

[Shiroiken]

Peasant Revolt success depends greatly on your setting. In a setting that doesn't assume high level spellcasters around every corner, they'd do quite well initially (they have a history of ending badly overall, however). If every noble has a court mage that can cast a few fireballs, then it won't got well at all, since the mage would kill a bunch of peasants, causing most of the rest to flee. Since I run with very few higher level casters, a peasant revolt is something most nobility has to be concerned about.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The usual pattern, historically, is the peasants (perhaps led by some war veterans) initially have some success against the unprepared and overconfident nobility. The nobility then use their wealth to hire experienced mercenaries who brutally put down the uprising.

 

[Tonguez]

I'm accepting Wesley (Princess Bridge) as a peasant done well because his success had nothing to do with his bloodline.

Other potential cases:
Dragonheart
Legacy of Gird, Elizabeth Moon.
Willow

Wesley may have started as a farmhand but he soon became a Pirate, Bowen in Dragonheart is a Knight and Willow is a Wizard, so none of them count as peasants

Even Tom Baker of the Historic Peasants Revolt was an Land owning tradesman and not a true peasant, I'm assuming he had wilderness survival skills and some training in the militia.

Indeed you'll find that the leaders of most peasant revolts had some degree of martial training