So I'm doing a no-kills run, right? Doing the Thieve's guild path, since it would seem like the best way to do it.

Or so you'd think. While a guest killing a foe is fine, apparently when the guest happens to join you on your quest and sneak and all that stuff, all those draugr they're killing? Counts as you doing it.

Really? I mean, come on... all this effort to stay out, and you put me in a situation with a thief who wouldn't know what stealth was if it walked behind him and slipped a note in his pocket - so, what seems like on purpose even, he's going in and getting all these things to fight... I back off, he takes them on, and - What do you mean, 18 undead killed?!

So, what am I supposed to do? Calm the guy, then run and pray I don't die?

A mountain top and three words...fus....ro....dah

If you went to a draugr cave without any intention of going on a murderous rampage, then you are a poor old sap.

If you don't want to kill, learn some Restoration spells and support your follower. If your beef is with the fact that followers won't stay in sneak mode when you want them to, I hear you, but that's why I leave them at home with a bowl of gruel until I return.

What part of "My forced guest's kills are counting towards mine" did you not understand?

Mercer is also important at this point - I can probably only bring him to a knee. If I CAN kill him, I ruin the thieve's guild questline. Helpful. Be more of it.

No need to be rude, just be more concise about what you expect in an answer.

Not sure what you can do. Don't you still have the option to have him wait somewhere? Do that and leave him for good.

I can understand your irritation upon the subject. It's an interesting way to go, that's for sure.

But if you don't like the fact that the kills are counting toward your own tally, just don't pay any heed to the statistics and go by what you know happened.
Sometimes however, it might be necessary to kill someone/thing.

I hope you have fun doing what you're doing!
A bit tempted to see if I can give it a go myself.

@lord: I don't like having to repeat myself. It should be rather obvious that if I'm doing a no-kills run, I'm not killing things. I also specifically said in the first post that his kills are counting towards mine. What I do need are suggestions to help me get through here. What I don't need are smart alec replies.

I don't think so. Have you done the thieves' guild questline before? You need him at the end of the place so he can unlock the puzzle. He's got to go with you, and he's not a companion, he's a guest. You can't equip him, tell him to wait, or anything like that.

@T'vash: I was actually inspired by a no-kills run put up on kotaku. The whole point is to have straight 0s going down the stats page. It's not easy at all - and that's part of the fun. Figuring out ways to get through. I used him before to clear out some areas, and it worked like a charm, but when I went to continue the quest line suddenly the kills count as mine. Thus, the problem.

Pretty much this.

Since there is nothing you can do just ignore those kills, It can't be helped.

Hmm...not sure what you can do then. Bethesda did a poor job of making Skyrim favorable for passive gameplay. The game is very combat oriented and it sounds like what you need to do conflicts with how you want to RP, but Skyrim just doesn't allow it.

What I think I'm gonna do is grind Illusion up to 90 and make it so I can Frenzy the Draugr.

Frenzy them, Calm Mercer, and just calm whatever extras there are.

*sigh* I'm way higher level than I'd like to be... ah well. I'll report back later and say if it worked. Gonna be a while, though - gotta run to the store real quick, then Grind up Illusion, then pray that no Death Overlords show up, since this quest has a habit of trolling thieves....

Just tell him to say home.

I should slap you.

That's not so bad. Illusion is great as a sneak character and if you're concerned with only the undead, it might be easier to just use Restoration and make them flee. I don't think your followers initiate combat when enemies flee.

Hahaha. I'm almost certain he/she typed that on purpose.

Well, I did scout some pretty good sniping spots for my spells, so a combination of frenzy and fear should work. I'm nervous about restoration, though, because I'm trying to be careful with my perks - don't really want to throw them in something that's too situational. If push comes to shove, I'll go ahead, but...

...Actually, I should be able to find some scrolls too... that should help. I just hope they're not too high level for it... I've seen up to scourge so far, so I think I'm alright...

@zenzi: Thus my very fitting morrowind reference.

lol that would have been my solution

a good suggestion: you really should smile more.

I should also mention that I have yet to speak to the Jarl of Whiterun... no Fus Ro Dah.

The best solution would be to just ignore the stats, as others have said. I've done plenty of no combat characters (That includes calm, frenzy, buffing followers with Restoration, etc.) and still got kills in my records. But I know I didn't kill anyone and I'm not playing to set some kind of record or compare with other players so what it says happens doesn't matter.

That's not an option. As mentioned before, the whole point of this run is to have that screen as full 0s. To do that is to admit defeat.

To whom or what, exactly?

Imma go out on a limb and pretty much say trying to be an adventurer in a land where there are vicious hell-beasts with mouths full of nasty sharp pointy teeth that want to kill you, and trying to do it as a pacifist, is probably not gonna happen.

I would imagine it's all part of RPing. If I could realistically go through Skyrim and not kill anyone, I would do that too. Bethesda didn't realize that a good thief stays in the shadows and doesn't murder. Sneaky types who kill are called assassins and that's what the Dark Brotherhood is for.

The whole point of a Self Imposed Challenge is to follow the rules. If you don't like it, too bad. Basically, the challenge here is to go through the whole questline, then through the whole civil war, and then through the main quest, and get a final kill count of 0. You have to come up with interesting ways to get out of jams. Mercer providided that at first, but then his kills started counting when I went to continue the questline. This means I have to come up with a solution to the problem...

But at the same time, why was Bathesda inconsistant with whether or not their kills count?

@Gram: I'm not a pacifist, I'm a thief. The trick is not to kill them yourself, but to make them kill each other, or lay out traps so that they fall for them. Skillful use of Calm, Fury, and a ton of bear traps can solve any situation - so long as the traps are available.

Also, MAN I wish I could pick those up. It'd be nice to carry around and set up your own traps...