What happens if you kill the courier?

[258789553873]

Yes, I know the one that delivers those letters to you is essential, but of course there's mods that let you kill essentials.

If you were to kill him somehow, does that mean he would never reappear? That would be kinda annoying if you have quest mods that have to be started with a letter.

I thought about this because while I was browsing mods on the nexus, I found some mods for couriers that someone claimed COULD get you locked into eternal combat with him.

[marstinson]

It probably won't do much (no promises on faction reactions). It won't mess you up on whatever quest their message was trying to trigger, because you can loot the message (you can even read it by pickpocketing ahead of time in most cases). I'm reasonably sure the game spawns couriers on an as-needed basis and if you kill one, another will be generated the next time one is needed. They're all Level 1, so killing them won't be any great feat once the essential flag is removed.

[Chaosium]

There's probably a reason why he's essential though, they just wouldn't put it on NPCs just to annoy you

[258789553873]

The game doesn't spawn in new couriers every time it needs one to appear; it just teleports the same one back and forth between a cell you can't access and the game world (just like how Maiq works). This can be seen in the fact that if his inventory somehow changes, it'll stay that way throughout your entire game (there was once a bug that would cause him to unequip his clothes). Seeing as they set him to essential, I highly doubt they made him so he can respawn. Besides, even if he did the mod I use (heartbreaker) can also be used to prevent generic npcs (like bandits) from respawning. So either way, getting into an eternal fight with him would probably break a few of my quests.

[Perplex]

He would prob just spawn as a corpse on the ground with the letter in his inventory.

[258789553873]

With Heartbreaker, sometimes it deletes the corpse of npcs you use it one (there's apparently some practical reason with this that has to do with the game's code).

I guess the only way to know for certain is to try it and see what happens. It may take a while though, seeing as he often goes for long periods without appearing. Though come to think of it, there may be a way to test this quickly. Make friends with someone, kill them, then kill the courier when he comes to deliver his stupid inheritance letter. Then, kill another friend and see what happens (or doesn't happen).

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Chaosium:

There's probably a reason why he's essential though, they just wouldn't put it on NPCs just to annoy you

You clearly don't know Bethesda, they will put the essential status on anyone connected to a quest unless they are supposed to die in another. Of course there may be a reason, but I would put money on it, no matter what the odds.

[SpeedFreak1972]

not everyone for instance Rollf stone-fist in Windhelm is also essential no quest whatsoever however he's the brother of Galmar Stone-fist.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by SpeedFreak1972:

not everyone for instance Rollf stone-fist in Windhelm is also essential no quest whatsoever however he's the brother of Galmar Stone-fist.

Probably was going to be a quest, Bethesda did leave a lot of loose ends, like the bugs in a jar.

[Infinite_void]

I killed the courier and now he doesn't deliver messages. He'll do about half the dialogue before stopping. I tried pickpocketing him of his messages but they weren't there, killed him again, and tried looting his body, still nothing. If let him stay alive he'll keep trying to talk to you and it makes it hard to do anything in cities. I suggest you don't do it because I've had to deal with this for 3 playthroughs, it's quite annoying. Uninstalling doesn't help. I'm trying to figure it out right now.

[Ihateeverybody]

The one traveling the roads (Important delvieries to make, no time to chat) is meant to die. You can loot a radiant quest location (no reward) off his corpse. Its like the Treasure hunter one.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Infinite_void:

I killed the courier and now he doesn't deliver messages. He'll do about half the dialogue before stopping. I tried pickpocketing him of his messages but they weren't there, killed him again, and tried looting his body, still nothing. If let him stay alive he'll keep trying to talk to you and it makes it hard to do anything in cities. I suggest you don't do it because I've had to deal with this for 3 playthroughs, it's quite annoying. Uninstalling doesn't help. I'm trying to figure it out right now.

load a save from before you killed him and accept that you've lost any progress from after that point, and don't kill him again....

[Infinite_void]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

load a save from before you killed him and accept that you've lost any progress from after that point, and don't kill him again....

The problem is this happened almost a year ago, I can't get it to be fixed for some reason. I've also tried to use mods that change the courier but it never works.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Infinite_void:

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

load a save from before you killed him and accept that you've lost any progress from after that point, and don't kill him again....

The problem is this happened almost a year ago, I can't get it to be fixed for some reason. I've also tried to use mods that change the courier but it never works.

Then your game is toast, you will never get the courier to work again from the sound of it, start a new game and chalk it down to experience.