Is there a way to determine NPC disposition somehow? One of my sneaky characters was doing some dungeon crawling and killed a peaceful NPC adventurer in a fort, occupied by some goblins and NPC marauders. There was no way for her to realize that beforehand, and I don't want her to become a serial killer. Using a bow, I can foresee many more of such kills, because she's not built to walk up to NPCs and ask them whether they want to fight or talk.

The good thing is that she kills them and never finds out, but I know about it and it's bothering me. Up till now, I figured everything underground was hostile and fair game.

I hope there aren't many dungeons with friendlies around.

If you have a Telekinesis spell, the lowest-end one svcks btw, because it doesn't have the range.... but if you have one of these spells, equip it, and slowly, left to right and back again, "paint" your target with your crosshairs. On 360 if you do this, their name will flash at your crosshairs, telling you who or what that is.

Those adventurers are rare, however, I try to keep them alive... it's nice having a pleasant conversation with a fellow adventurer with dead bodies all over the place.

Are you talking about the "Adventurer" dude that randomly appears in some ruins? If so, I have learned to detect him by looking at what armor he is wearing and what weapon he has. And he is always an Orc. Using Detect Life can make it easier to see him from a distance. Also, if you sneak up on him, he never reacts to it.

Of course, he also makes a great first kill for the Dark Brotherhood quest.

I'm talking about those particular dudes, yes. I looked them up on the UESP and evidently they only appear in some dungeons 25% of the time and in some other dungeons 10% of the time (he was in one of these).

Of all the ruined forts, near all the towns, in all of Cyrodiil, he walked into mine.

I have had the misfortune of shooting first, and finding out I killed one of the Orc Adventurers afterward. I always reload a previous save. That is one reason I always make a new save at the beginning of every dungeon.

Some thoughts and options:

- Orc Adventurers are rare and look like marauders. So be cautious if you see an armored dude wandering around a goblin dungeon.

- As Big Daddy said, a long range telekinesis spell (armed, not cast) and hovering your mouse over the target works.

- If you believe in the magic of command console spells, you can open the console, click on the target, note its name and exit the console.

- As SubRosa said, save first, then shoot, then ask questions.