An ambitious goal, going an entire game without killing anyone.

[LordSarcasm]

I've got a plan for an upcoming playthrough that is pretty ambitious and kinda awkward. My character will be a strict pacifist, that means I will not kill any people, even in self defense. If I know that a quest will require me to kill someone, I will turn it down, that means just about all daedric quests, and of course the Dark Brotherhood, and the Civil War. Falmer count as people, as do most daedra, except for atronachs maybe. Animals and undead, excluding vampires cause they're people too, will not count, I will not spare THEM my blade. To be clear, this means I will not directly kill anybody. If my followers or summons do it for me so be it.

 

That leaves the Main Quest, if you don't want to count Alduin (for roleplaying I'll say that this was the hardest decision of my character's life). The thieves guild requires you to kill some people, like Mercer frey, so I may have to let my summons do it for me. Same with the college of Winterhold, which I will need access to for high level spells.

 

As for how I intend to do this, I planning to invest heavily in the illusion, restoration, and sneak trees. And smithing to outfit my followers and to protect myself.

 

So, are there any other ways to do this, and is it a possible if not realistic goal?

[AnkhAscendant]

I actually tried this, and I managed to get to level four :P I couldn't get into Bleak Falls Barrow without having to fight the bandits ^^; (I didn't have any Calm spells, just Frenzy... which I used and they mostly killed each other, but I still got wiped out by the one that was left. (And making them kill each other is really pretty unacceptable from a pacifistic stance.) And of course, at level 4ish, your Sneak skill is pretty poor, certainly wasn't good enough for me to get past the ones inside.

 

So advice for a pacifist playthrough: spend several levels on purely Sneak and Illusion and don't try to do anything until you're level ten or so. :P

[AnkhAscendant]

--double post-- Edited October 10, 2012 by AnkhAscendant

[Pentigan]

Easiest way I can think of: Get a follower as soon as you can (Faendal in Riverwood doesn't require any combat-related questing), give them any weaponry you obtain, rush in and aggro and kite your opponents while your follower slashes them to bits, upgrade to a better follower/armor/weapons when applicable.

[luzburg]

Thats not pacifist lol. Thats just a cold blooded puppermaster who doesn't want to have to personally get bloody. You are still causing people to die. A pacifist won't fight at all.

 

The only way to play a true pacifist is to do collecting quests lol.

[SFBryan18]

Seems like a waste of time, but if you really didn't want to kill anyone, then you'd run through the Helgen Keep and after leaving, simply make your way to a town and live there permanently. You can't do any questline without killing someone. Followers and summoned creatures are still killing in your place. You have to face the facts that the quests are set up for a hero who has to kill. It's that simple. You might be able to sneak by most enemies, but there will always be one quest where someone is required to die.

[AnkhAscendant]

Booooo to saying it;s not a worthwhile goal. :P Murder-free playthrough should be an option, and if it's not an option there should be a mod to make it one.

 

...and as I thought that I thought of a mod that I got (after my failed attempt) that would make it much easier. The Speech Tree mod allows you to actually yield and accept yields from NPC's - and, at a high Speech level with the right perk, people as well of you want it. That makes it much more possible a goal.

 

Honestly if you actually want a pacifist playthrough you shouldn't use Conjuration, followers, or the Frenzy effects, because if you do your morality's still broken there; you caused their deaths and it should tear you up inside as much as slaying Alduin. On that note, though, you can join the College and do everything up to defeating Ancano without killing anyone (technically can, in that it's not a quest objective to kill anyone), so you can get your spells without murder (unless they require you to be archmage, which I wouldn't think...)

 

I also realized you can't really become the thane of anywhere. Whiterun, Winterhold, Dawnstar if you don't mind killing Giants... The rest require killing people.

 

I also decided I would like a mod that made accepting a person's yield count as "defeating" them, so that you could finish the College quest mercifully, especially if you could capture and drag people back to the jarls for jailtime for execution (like bandit leaders you're required to kill for thanehood). Complicated and not a discussion for here though.

Edited October 11, 2012 by AnkhAscendant

[Deleted3507349User]

I wholeheartedly agree on the yielding issue. It always struck me as totally wrong that someone who yielded would get back up and it's right back on. Why did Bethesda bother with it to begin with then?

[BrettM]

These people are bandits, evil mages, vampires, etc. They have adopted a way of life in which they rob, steal, kill, kidnap, enthrall, and perform unholy rituals using unwilling victims. Yet you expect them never to tell a lie about yielding because that is just wrong? :D

 

Anyway, one can play a game free of murder but not one free of killing. The two are not the same. A true pacifist may not do either, but that doesn't mean the terms are synonymous. Killing a person in self defense is not murder even if a pacifist still refuses to kill for that reason.

Edited October 11, 2012 by BrettM

[LordSarcasm]

Actually you can become thane of most holds without killing giants. Dawnstar does have a giant-slaying quest, and also requires to fight your way through the Vaermina quest, one of Daedric quests that requires you to kill a lot of people.