Let's assume for a moment that somebody out there is a gamer who doesn't like slaughtering virtual people and creatures. Will it be possible to make a pacifist run in Skyrim? Will such a player be able to finish the game's main quest line without punching, stabbing, crushing, freezing, burning or poisoning anyone at all for a change?

Pacifist runs were possible in the past games, weren't they? Just use Conjuration, Demoralize, Invisibility, Paralyze, things like that?

It's a combat-oriented game series, so it's always going to be a challenge to think of creative ways to get through the game without causing direct harm to anyone.

ummmmmmmmmmm i highly doubt it. unless your just crazy good with spells that keep mobs off of you, running from you, attacking each other. but then you still have to worry about dragons which will have to be killed since they will follow you around the world... and of course alduin.

That would be quite the challenge! I've never tried to be a pacifist in any game, considering I like sword clashing and monster hunting too much... but that would be cool to attempt! I dont think it will be very simple, but I'm sure that there is some way you can pull it off... we'll see how the main quest line looks

This seems like the way to go here, unless conjuring a skeleton to beat someone's face in goes against pacifistic beliefs?

Sure, running away works fine. But what about paying your way out of a mercenary ambush? Winning a staring contest with an Ogre and making it back away? Scaring a bandit with an Illusion spell? Just plainly making your way thought the story with diplomacy without having to draw a sword once?

I'd like to see a better ability to make it through the world non-violently - for instance, as you suggest, with more effective diplomatic skills, bribing your way out of confrontations, intimidation and so on.

I've played a few fundamentally non-violent characters in past games, but it pretty much comes down to some combination of using illusion and conjuration to make indirect kills (which really isn't pacifistic if you think about it - I have one character - an assassin - who's a ruthless and murderous SOB who only uses illusion and conjuration effects, but that's just because he can't bear to do anything that seems like work), using effects like calm and demoralize to avoid confrontation and simply running away, either to escape or to lead your pursuers to a guard or a soldier. It can be done, and depending on how broadly you define pacifism, it can potentially be done relatively easily, but there are only a limited number of ways to accomplish it. And it's pretty much impossible to play true pacifism. I have another character who's truly pacifistic - he not only can't kill, but can't feel himself responsible for a death. That means that he can't use illusion effects to get things to kill each other or use conjuration to get other things to kill things or even run to a guard, knowing that the guard will kill things. He can't bring himself to do anything that he suspects will lead to the death of another living thing, no matter what it is. He's pretty much unplayable.

I'd like to see things added to the game to make such a character playable. I don't much expect them, just because it's sort of an oddball way to approach the game - the VAST majority of characters are going to just kill stuff, so there's little reason for Beth to arrange things so that it's possible to make it through the game without doing so - or at least to no greater extent than they already have in past games. Still though, it's something I'd like to see......

It's a combat-oriented game... not focused on combat, but it's an essential part of it... not sure if a pacifist style is even possible.

I have tried it once, didn't last long. I always ended up using my sword and destructive magika. Against animals, it's self defence, and against bandits and other humans because I wasn't strong in magika to scare or deter them away, I always ended up with my sword for self defence.

While I don't attack first, I end up killing them for self defence.

You can get through a lot of Oblivion with nothing but Illusion at Journeyman level. Closing gates is easy when the enemies don't even know you are there. There are only a few points at which I'm pretty sure you have little choice but to fight... but maybe you could buff your allies instead and let them do the fighting? I'm pretty sure all the Main Quest parts where you have no choice but to fight include some kind of ally.

There was a moment in Fable, where I could pay a group of bandits a toll charge to pass through, or fight my way past. I would love to see this in Skyrim.

Fallout was a combat-oriented game. Still, you could finish the game without firing a shot and persuade the final boss to commit suicide. It wasn't even a half-assed way of avoiding murder, it was an absolutely legit way to play. Steal/Kill/Talk at it's finest.


There is a bandit in a fort near Chorrol in OB. You can pay him 100 gold, you can kill him, you can run away or plead poverty if all items in your inventory cost less than 10 gold.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Highwaymen

Fallout was also much more of an RPG than TES has ever been. TES is an evolution of old-school first-person dungeon crawlers and pretty much the entire point of every game is to explore a bit and kill things to find cool stuff to help you either look classy or kill more things easier.

that said, while a pacifist run of Morrowind and Oblivion seems like it would be rather challenging, it's probably mostly possible. the only 100% assured fights i can think of in either game are Dagoth Ur in Morrowind and Mankar Camoran in Oblivion, but while i've never attempted it myself i would think that a good command of magic, stealth and maybe alchemy (assuming "pacifist" just means "no killing" rather than "no attacking") would allow you to bypass pretty much every fight in both games.

then again, i think the current stance on dragons in Skyrim right now is "there are some you have to kill", and without spellmaking that might be a lot more difficult this time around. if some crafty player finds a way to incapacitate them without killing them, though, the fact that most of the wildlife is neutral to you would probably make things a lot easier.

I'm so glad this thread had a reasonable definition of pacifist. (Having a summoned creature kill the opponent for you is not a pacifist strategy.)

The Morrowind main quest was possible, and I might even say designed, for a pacifist character. You didn't need to kill anyone except Dagoth Ur. Will someone dedicated to non-violence finally kill in order to save the world? An excellent moral dilemma for a pacifist.

Tribunal, Bloodmoon, Oblivion, and Shivering Isles were completely unrealistic for a pacifist character. There was no backdoor method to avoid killing multiple people.

I played two pacifist characters in Morrowind. Neither would kill or cause the death of any NPC. One had no qualms about killing animals, monsters, vampires, ash vampires, and corpus beasts. That was almost trivial but when he discovered that those corpus beasts were really diseased men or mer he felt extremely guilty. The second avoided killing anything that didn't have to be killed and had that wonderful final decision about Dagoth Ur.

I would love it if Skryim at least allows us to complete the main quest without killing anything except at handful of dragons.

Summoning someone else to kick somebody else's ass isn't really pacifism, you know. And in every game, you always had to kill someone to finish most of the quest lines. Even going the "back path" for the MQ in Morrowind required you to murder Vivec.

I loved doing this in Fallout, but since it's never really been viable before in TES it just doesn't seem likely to suddenly happen.

There's another path in Morrowind. Do every little quest you can that doesn't involve killing. When you're famous enough, Vivec asks to meet with you. But it's definitely easier if you take the traditional stance that killing animals is allowed because there are a number of quests that involve killing animals and without mods you'll need them to get famous enough.

Organised crime > one measly highwayman. I want to actually need to pay them at the lower levels.

Don't doubt the power of a true pacifist. Even Doom and Doom 2 have UV - Pacifist speed runs for them. While dragons most likely will need to be killed a certain points in the game, I'll bet the player could lure them to guards, or guards to them, in order to take care of them. As long as the player themselves does not engage in combat, then it counts. Copious amounts of illusion and conjuration (useful for command spells. Alternatively, one could intentionally use low level summons to soak up damage while you run away. The reason you use low level summons is to ensure that the enemy will not die) would definitely be required, but I'll be it could be done. I believe it was possible in Morrowind, and in Oblivion as well. Its just really...weird.

Heh, this reminds me of this pretty enjoyable "pacifist" (lol) Oblivion run on this one message board: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?511632-Where-I-Play-Oblivion-%28as-a-Pacifist%29

do you realize how odd that sounds?

an assassin, not a mage... learning how to control magic to such an extent he never needs to use a blade... because he feels having to slice someone's throat is too much work?

first, a non-mage would have a much harder time using magic, i would think, in a roleplaying view... and mastering it to a point where he never needs to fight... that would require even more work than simply being an assassin, which he supposedly is.

also, i dont think he can be much of an assassin if he only uses illusion and conjuration, thats more of a mage-type character.

now, i suppose he could be a nightblade, magic users with sinister reputations, who can be assassins... but focusing entirely on illusion and conjuration isnt their way, so i doubt thats it... infact, nightblades dont use conjuration at all.

eh, suppose im thinking about this too much, but still... seems odd if ya think about it for just a moment.

anyway, back to the topic... i dont really see how its possible to do a 100% pacifistic run in skyrim... the dragons are going to be relentless, and i highly doubt alduin will simply bow down to your scary beard, or "intimidating" look.

alduin being a god that supposedly devours the world, he's definitely gonna require some force to take down.

...atleast, i hope this will be an actual boss battle.

seems like we never really need to fight the bosses at all, does it?

lets see, in arena... instead of fighting jagar tharn, you touch his magic ball, cause ya can kill him in battle, apparently.

i havent seen the end of daggerfall yet, so... dunno how that works.

morrowind, you... beat up a giant magic heart. :mellow:

oblivion, you... get a priest who is the lost son of uriel septim to transform into akatosh who banishes mehrunes dagon back to oblivion.

so, in short... uh... are we even the freakin heroes? we beat up inanimate objects. :facepalm:

i assume the same will happen with alduin, so maybe you CAN be a pacifist, who knows?

maybe we'll need to... whale on his dragon balls to release his life essence and break the dragon.

yes, i realize how dirty that last part sounds, and i totally intended for it to sound like that. :shifty:

I don't think you should be able to go through the whole game without killing anyone. I mean it IS a combat centred RPG. A true pacifist wouldn't put themselves in this situation. It seems pretty dumb if the great heroes (as in adventuring and questing heroes, not politicians or whatever, since that's not what you are in TES) trying to defeat a great evil were able to do so without at LEAST killing the big bad and knocking a few enemies out. IMO.

Intentionaly killing people indirectly is still killing people.

Actually, you have to have already completed the Corprus cure quest to get to that stage. And to do that you have to kill Dagoth Gares.

Go play Zoo Tycoon