It would be cool to have a non-lethal option for completing quests, not that i would ever use it, but I am never going to argue against more options.

I think that when an 'enemy' is at 0 HP; they are 'downed' and you can choose to deal the final blow or let them live.

I always like to play a very deliberate character. Usually a thief. He has few moral codes, but does not tolerate deviation from his plan or sloppiness. If he wants to steal an item he does not like collateral damage. He kills who he intends to kill, and those he doesn’t, survive.

The ability to remove an obstacle without collateral damage would be amazing for my preferred character. So while my character is not peaceful he appreciated every tool at his disposal. :flamethrower:

Yes, maybe even the ability to interagate people for information.

maybe a few quests where donot have to kill. but not all quests.

The greatest warrior is one who does not need to kill.And does not live long.

that would make role playing an actual thief possible

in thief games I never EVER killed human being only beasts and undead (will destroyed since they are dead), even the Hammerits and Mechanistes who really deserved it.

lol i won't give kisses for dragons and undead if that's what you mean

kissing undead .... :sick:

There was a female Dunmer in Oblivion who... err, well, so how are you?

There's a lot of Nonviolent characters = thief in this thread
I've always liked games with non-violent solutions, but sneaking past shouldn't be the only way. don't get me wrong, I don't care if its the community's preferred way, but don't neglect the monk, or the merchant or the priest or the wizard.

Hand to hand -- Beaten opps shouldn't just stand up and keep fighting. there should be consequences to being downed (for PC too.)
Weapons (a mace CAN kill, rather easily, but a man that's knows he is out classed by a swordsman wouldn't fight to the death. )
Magic - damage fatigue, mind control, blindness, burden. spells should be viable.
Bribery
Reason - convince him its in his best interest to stop fighting or educate about pacifism (would add a lot to pilgrimage or religious quest lines.)
Intimidation - wolves usually won't attack something unless they're confident they can bring it down or their starving.
Sneaking - of course

Some quests shouldn't be peaceful. If your hired to kill someone, you should kill him. Tricking the quest giver into thinking the mark is dead is an option, but shouldn't be possible in every circumstance, and I would rather see an option to report him to the authorities than to see "here 'mark' take this money and leave town" or "give me your signet ring as proof your dead and I wont kill you" some (read MOST) quest givers should want to see a head. If you join the DB its too late to grow a conscience, kill or be killed.

I wouldn't mind seeing an option for peaceful warriors but you can't talk your way out of everything.

If you had high enough luck you could negotiate with bandits, high personality - normal folks, high intelligence - wizard, vampires and maybe even dragons.

The extra challenge that this provides is always welcome. If a game gives me the option, I will always at least attempt it. It was great fun going for zero deaths in Deus Ex, Metal Gear, and New Vegas.

This sounds pretty good to me. I hate killing female characters in games. And i hate killing noble warriors as well. I would find it to be just enough to beat certain people unconscious or make them crippled. turn them into authorities. things like that. Some need to be killed. like certain beast. i dont think u can have mercy on animals and monsters cuz if u injure them nature is cruel and will finish them off.

Cunning and manipulation is also for gamers . Maybe, faced with a dragon easily capable of wiping out an entire armoured division, you could bribe it to change sides. Persuade it that it's in its best interests to stay neutral. Blackmail it, by holding a close friend of its hostage (if I remember rightly there's a book in Elder Scrolls - Starlover's Log? - showing the dragons that served the Empire could form devoted friendships with their riders). Maybe trick it by making it believe it had been betrayed by another dragon.

Gamers can use their brains, as well as... well, I was going to say brawn, but how much brawn do you need to click a mouse button ?

I'd like the option of the violent or peaceful solution. I may not always be smart enough to figure out the peaceful solution, but so long as it's there I can be smug about my cleverness if I do spot it. And if I don't spot it... well, there's always the tried and tested... er... mouse clicking.

This doesn't sound anything like the Elder Scrolls I know and love. Slay them all!

You can complete Fallout New Vegas without killing anyone, but that is mostly due to how the speech system works.

Maybe that will be possible in Skyrim too, but I doubt it.

Doesn't reserving the proposed non lethal measures for only stealth characters seem incredibly limited? Hell, Warriors can already disarm weapons and could potentially disable body parts (broken wrist =/= dead), and Mages can siphon fatigue and magicka to keep targets from fighting back, and that doesn't even take into account the other magic trees (*cough* Illusion *cough*).

Are most people going to fight back with no weapon and a sword to their throat? TES has always been about freedom of choice and forging your own path, and adding more options never hurt anyone.

As a proponent for a 4th specialization that would be aimed at 'commoner' things like speechcraft, armorer, hand-to-hand and alchemy, yes, I would certainly like the option to be peaceful in many situations. I think that, although the standard "Go here, kill that, pick up this trinket and bring it back" quests are certainly among the easiest to formulate, the quests that are inherently designed to be completed without violence are some of the more interesting. Out of all the quests in Oblivion, I still remember "Canvassing the castle", minor though it was, for this reason.

Non-violent quests are always more cerebral and interesting. I think that they represent the quintessence of an art form much more than hunter-killer type missions, which are almost always formulaic and boring.

Almost all the quests, not all because that is not viable, but I think you should be able to do most with speechcraft, speech etc...

Taking down someone silently but non-lethally would be awesome. As the Thieves Guild has blood prices you could take them out like in this Uncharted 2 mission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xwpDSypIm44

Do not soultrap where killing is enough

Yeah, all those suggestions are great! :goodjob:

Especially you mentioned "Mind Control" and instantly I remembered the first star wars film when in Tatooin, Ben Knooby told those storm troopers that "This is not the droid you were seeking.". or some such, and the troopers decided that they can let the group continue their way into the town.

I love perks, and I love to be able to learn skill perks by paying a teacher and maybe do some task so that he would teach me a perk for his specialized skill, but those lessons would be have so stiff payment fees that you had to choose which perk you need more and pay for that.

And perks required some requirements that your character should fill before he could learn the perk, so for instance you have to be a journeyman of the skill, and you would have to have a specific amount of an attribute, and maybe know some previous perks as well, so the perk "Dual weapon parry" should depend on you knowing "Dual weapon attack" perk beforehand.

The higher level perks would have higher level requirements, and would be a lot more powerful and rewarding than lower level perks, and this way you are encouraged to specialize in your perk selection and this would result in a lot of replay-ability.


OK, I will write a thread and will gather all my ideal about character development, soon, but why do I bring this matter up here?

If we could have such a perk system, I would love to have a branch of perks for illusion, that would be called "Mind Control" in different stages of power, that would give us options in dialogs to let us control the mind of our opponents.

Some of those would be specially designed by quest designers, in certain stages of the quests to give a powerful illusionist to twist the mind of opponents to get away by a more peaceful method.

Or some general dialog options that could become generally available for us to practice on anybody fulfilling the requirements for those dialog lines, like this:

• I can sleep here, you know, you have shared it with me, don't you remember?
  
• Hey guard, I'm your superior and you are called away to the main guard room to report for the day.
  
• Do you see that man over there, I saw him pick your pocket, and made a gesture at your back after that.
  
• Hey guard, this is a warrant that orders you to follow me around as a body guard for a while.
  
• We are old friend, pal, give me a more reasonable prices. HmmKay?
  
• Why do you want to rob me, don't you remember me? I'm one of yours.
  
• Open the gates for me right now! .... You are dismissed.
  
• Thanks for keeping my mount in a fit condition. You can give it to me now.

And these dialog options do have some requirements, and would not appear in those requirements are not met, so you might be able to manipulate those weak minded persons, but not the stronger ones, and obviously, you could not order a passing commoner to open the castle gates for you, and so on...

Wasn't there some quote about hostile NPCs entering dialogue when they encounter you? Perhaps they will make Speechcraft more important, after all.

Nonviolent and nonlethal options should definitely be more plentiful, although they shouldn't seem artificially tacked on as back doors to combat quests (Geneforge, I'm looking at you).

If this is true then you have just now made my day! :thanks: