My son made me a little mod that has his race in different leveled lists as enemy NPCs. LOL, as he likes to make his mod creatures and enemies a bit uber, I tend to play in God mode when playing his mods.

Anyway, I have encountered several times now where when his NPCs start throwing spells at my character from a distance or after running up close, and I have my character respond by swinging her weapon at them, then I get the "crime has been reported" and nearby townspeople start attacking.

There is nothing unusual about the way the NPCs are entered. What causes this?

Is it that my character is in god mode and so hasn't taken damage yet? I thought it was the start of aggression that flagged an NPC as an OK to kill enemy.
Is it that there are passive NPCs nearby? I have been attacked by DB assasins and the battles with them have never triggered the "crime reported" thing.

Also, she was only swinging her staff and used no spells that might have accidently hit a nearby NPC, sot that couldn't have been it. And no passive NPCs were near enough to be accidently hit by her staff.

Any ideas?

from my experience the attacker has to land a hit other wise a crime will be reported, also there is possibly the guard thing if an npc has guard in it's name you will get reported if seen. my 2 cents

What's the fight level for the NPCs that are attacking you? If it's over 90, you shouldn't get a bounty for hitting them.