I resurrected Vilja

[Slash]

Yeah *facepalm*, I forgot to set Vilja to invulnerable. So- shortly AFTER she became a Bard, I was doing a short side quest and she disappeared off my radar. At the end of it, I summoned her to the outside of the cave we were in and (sob) she appeared... as a dead body. So, I resurrected her using the console command.

When I did that, most of her personal inventory was gone (lute, flute, new weapons, unique clothing), she had her original sword, and she was butt-naked. No clothing, no armor in her inventory. Well! I gave her something to wear and some better weapons. And went on to do other Bard College side-quests.

Now I happened to think... will the disappearance of all her unique stuff affect her story line... or should I go back to a previous save- before she got killed? I gave her a new lute and flute and she played them. Is there anything else that could cause an issue with her quests and/or scripts?

[valandril]

You should DEFINITELY go back to a save before she died, *any* unique NPC who dies, you should not resurrect, even the much less complex vanilla shopkeepers and so on, the game fires certain scripts when any named NPC dies and it will cause issues if you resurrect them. For Vilja, I can only imagine it's far worse, especiahttp://emmates.proboards.com/post/new/2663lly if you're still in the middle of her quests etc. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

[Slash]

Yeah, I kinda figured that. I was only into 3 side quests after she died so just back-tracked to where we got her last chant book. LOL- first thing I did was make her Essential. GAWD- I can't believe how bad I felt when she was dead... Geeeez- it's only an NPC

[valandril]

Yeah - every time I think "I should play with non essential followers this time, risk of losing them would make for a great story!" Never happens, I'm too much of an old softy!

[wotan]

I've played with Vilja forever. She's only died once, and that was in an overwhelming fight against bandits on Wyrmstooth.

[Slash]

Vilja's been so effective in combat that it never occurred to me that she wasn't essential. But then, she's always fought next to my side.

I think this was Halted Stream Camp- I ran ahead to clear the mine and lost track of her. Apparently she got ganged up on behind me. Totally took me by surprise because usually she's pretty effective with her dual-wield axes. Hell, half the time she steals my kills

[amgepo]

When not essential, she is protected. That means that in theory, only player can kill her, but a protected NPC can also die when getting damage while knocked out. This usually isn't a problem as NPCs didn't attack other NPCs in this state, but a spell or poison could keep doing damage for a while after the K.O.

[Slash]

I wasn't aware of that... thanks. I always wondered what the difference was in the CK between Essential and Invulnerable- Unique is obvious. I would assume they have the same effect.

But, in a previous game (before Vilja) I used to always marry Sylgja (cutest vanilla partner). One day at Lakeview Manor, Sylgja was slaughtered by a group of bandits. If I could'a put their heads on a pole, I would'a. BUT- Sylgja, like Vilja, is Unique and not essential. Yet the bandits cut her down before I could get to them. If I remember correctly, she was killed by a 2-handed sword. So in that case, NPCs DID attack and kill a unique NPC. After that, I gave Sylgja a beefed up weapon and some kick-ass spells in the CK. I even gave her the F*** Y** spell, which sends people flying, puts an ice spike in their chest, and sets them on fire for 20 seconds. Ain't nobody gonna mess with Sylgja anymore (Vilja doesn't get the FU spell, in case she fries me with it, but I did make a couple of Akatosh War Axes, which are 3x more powerful and she dual wields them like a champ!) Heehee- I even gave my 2 daughters a Dragon Priest Dagger (yes- the game allows that) in case they run into Skeevers.

I love Lakeside Manor but I make sure my Steward and Spouse have the very best weapons there... it's a bad neighborhood

[valandril]

I believe "invulnerable" means "takes no damage at all" (I think this applies to children?)

Unique NPCs are not generally Protected, usually they're either Essential (cannot die unless something bugs out or you remove the essential flag - mostly applies to important quest NPCs and, like, Mjoll?) or No Protection (think that's the correct term) ie can die to anything (pretty much everyone else, including a few minor questgivers).


Protected mainly applies to followers *while they are following you*, as I discovered when I punched Nazeem, intending to back down and pay the fine, I'm not really one for straight up murdering NPCs, but sometimes a bit of a biff is okay, I think. Faendal was my follower at the time, and apparently he doesn't like following people who start illegal fights in the street, so he left my service, losing his Protected flag. Unfortunately for him, by the time I'd had a chance to yield to the nearest guard and offer to pay my fine, he'd picked a fight with the next nearest guard (apparently he also didn't like guards who pull swords on people for starting illegal fights...) and he was cut down, being but a humble woodcutter who'd automagically changed out of his armour to head home...

(Also, some follower manager mods (AFT type thing) allow you to set your recruited followers as Essential, but this also only seems to apply while they are actively following you - found *that* one out when I wondered why Erandur wasn't at Nightcaller Temple when I went to hang out with him - no sign of him anywhere. A dozen or so hours of gameplay later and I found him lying dead near a suspiciously well-fed mudcrab in the little pond thing about 100 yards from Lakeview  He must've died a few minutes after I dismissed him, now I escort everyone home, even totally Essential custom followers... Unless I'm not that bothered about them.)