I understand your point.
But why not just slash him and get done with, what's with all this fisting...
The only persons i like to punch are archers. And that's irrelevant to their level.
But a poor peasant with his scythe ? Just kill him fast, maybe he'll show you his blocking skills. If not, he'll try to block next time. But punches are not blockable if you hold a weapon, so the peasant doesn't learn anything from it. Except the hard reality, ofc, that there's old frustrated players, who vent out their anger and their past hardships on the newcomers.
Guess i am a carebear. It's true i'm not one of thoses "alt+x" fan, pretty much in favor of permanently banning thoses people who find it funny...
Edit for below : I thought it had. Since you spoke of your own peasant experience, getting bumped by an elephant. If you yourself have it hard as a peasant, then you tend to also be hard on the new peasants. Unconsciously maybe. But not all are as strong willed as some of our players, thinking "i'll grind and show him".