Disable Essential NPCs

[nfatcheese]

For nefarious purposes I want to disable all essential NPCs. I've tried three different mods that claim to do this and the same thing happens every time: I walk into Dragonsreach, suck the soul out of Balgruuf and drops to one knee and gets up a few seconds later. But some essential NPCs do die. For example, I can kill Proventus and Commander Caius and raise them as my undead thralls. But Balgruuf and Iraleth act normal.
Am I just using the wrong mods, is there something I'm doing wrong? Tell me if there is a mod that works for this.

[Mr. Mannperson]

I had the same problem with the whiterun murderer. He was flippin invulnerable once when I was supposed to stop him and all the console commands I tried didn't work.

Bethesda should do a thing where if they're essential, a player is still able to give the finishing blow. Like OMFG, in Morrowind you just got a message saying you doomed tamriel if you killed an essential, and guess what you just had to find another way to beat the main quest.

But in Morrowind, all you really gotta do is kill the devil and stab the giant meat robot in the heart. They just didn't care how you ended up doing it. You can jump there from Seyda Neen and complete it in roughly 4 minutes.

[newrentor]

You can use the console. First go to:

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Essential_NPCs

... click on name of the NPC you want to attack. When their page opens, look on upper right side. There should be both a REF ID and a BASE ID... you want the Base ID.

So to go after Aela the Huntress (of the Companions), you would press tidle key (~),
then type:

setessential 0001A696 0

You could also use this code to set NPC followers (or especially horses) to essential by using a 1 instead of a 0 at the end.

( 0 = mortal; 1 = immortal/essential )

In some cases, you may not be able to kill an essential, regardless, if they are required for an important questline, but usually once the quest is over, they become fair game. In Aela's case, she is considered to be essential until 'Glory of the Dead' is completed, at which point she becomes mortal AND marriable... so you could have her for your wife.... then kill her. How nefarious is that ?!?

[nfatcheese]

Originally posted by newrentor:

You can use the console. First go to:

http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Essential_NPCs

... click on name of the NPC you want to attack. When their page opens, look on upper right side. There should be both a REF ID and a BASE ID... you want the Base ID.

So to go after Aela the Huntress (of the Companions), you would press tidle key (~),
then type:

setessential 0001A696 0

You could also use this code to set NPC followers (or especially horses) to essential by using a 1 instead of a 0 at the end.

( 0 = mortal; 1 = immortal/essential )

In some cases, you may not be able to kill an essential, regardless, if they are required for an important questline, but usually once the quest is over, they become fair game. In Aela's case, she is considered to be essential until 'Glory of the Dead' is completed, at which point she becomes mortal AND marriable... so you could have her for your wife.... then kill her. How nefarious is that ?!?

Ah, that's probably my problem. I've done very few of the quests related to people like the Jarl, and I plan to kill literally everyone in Skyrim with my necromancer character.

[HDZK]

sorry to necro this thread but would you happen to know after what quest jarl elisif can be set to non essential and become killable? or is she just special essential for all eternity

[smr1957]

Originally posted by HDZK:

sorry to necro this thread but would you happen to know after what quest jarl elisif can be set to non essential and become killable? or is she just special essential for all eternity

She is flagged as always essential.

[Automaton_18477 in disguise]

Originally posted by nordicfatcheese:

For nefarious purposes I want to disable all essential NPCs. I've tried three different mods that claim to do this and the same thing happens every time: I walk into Dragonsreach, suck the soul out of Balgruuf and drops to one knee and gets up a few seconds later. But some essential NPCs do die. For example, I can kill Proventus and Commander Caius and raise them as my undead thralls. But Balgruuf and Iraleth act normal.
Am I just using the wrong mods, is there something I'm doing wrong? Tell me if there is a mod that works for this.

I DID IT! I FINALLY DID IT!!
Use: setessential (base ID) (1/0)
set 1 for essential, set 0 for mortal

By installing SkyUI you can see people's base ID in the lower right corner under "Base ID: xxxxx"
HYEEAAAYYEAAAAAHH!!
I once accidentally made all Vampires in my game essential, FINALLY a solution, and it looks like it is effecting every one of them!

[Vallinax]

Now I can kill Delphine!

[seanriddolls]

Originally posted by Vallinax:

Now I can kill Delphine!

Now there's an application I never thought of.