Title. Why this hasn't been fixed yet is silly, but I can't clear camps out, the Legate is unkillable even though I'm a Stormcloak.

I have to agree, I was trying to clear all the stormcloak camps after the legion completed the civil war and the stupid commanders cant die. Though some of the camps I found were totally abandoned.

Annoys the crap outta me, I take advantage of it though, paralysing them and torturing them with magic and other offensive actions, to level my skills.

I love it when they scream

lol, cant say I am quite that involved in their screams but I do use it for training sometimes

Mod to fix that if you're on pc; lingering question as to why if you're on 360 or PS3. :-/

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/487750470014437405/0C7FADFDB99A4C12A80830CB3710958006EB300E/

It just straight up makes me mad when I can't kill the legate. Ulfric Stormcloak told me that if I ever come across an imperial camp to kill every imperial there, but I can't ever follow my orders.

Don't think you will get too many arguing against this. Although this is always possible "I killed all the stormcloaks, now I can't sell my stuff to their quartermasters. Why you ruin this for me Beth?" The list of essentials is http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Essential_NPCs, but the camp commanders are definitely the most annoying example.

Yep.

Has bethesda explained WHY the camp leaders are immortal?

Probably made them essential for both, intending to only make them essential for the side you ally with. Just an oversight, most likely.

considering no matter what side you choose, your tasked with killing any camps you find. Its odd that in fact you can't.

This does need to be fixed.

just wanna say, there is way too many oversights in skyrim, and i feel all NPCs should be killable

Anyone involved with any quest is essential (e.g. Zaria in Falkreath, she is involved in no quests except possibly a basic alchemy tutorial, yet is essential because of this). Why? God only knows. All the commanders do is tell you about 'join the ....', along with loads of other npcs.

What are the chances of breaking your game by killing everyone who can start these quest lines for you, before you start the war, if the essential tags are removed? Not very large, even if people who go around killing indiscriminately and then get annoyed when they can't do quests should be taken seriously (which imo they shouldn't).

Only explanation I've heard is that they originally intended to have radiant quests for the SCs/Legion much like the other factions, the camp commanders would've been the ones giving out the jobs so they were made essential for that reason. The CW radiant quests didn't make it into the final game but the essential tags weren't removed and it was just an oversight.

I'm all for user-proofing a game, but I really feel anyone who engages in indiscriminate slaughter should expect at some level "if I kill everyone, no one can give me quests."

I agree too. I hate how they tell me to kill any Imperials/Stormcloaks I find. But you can't kill the Legates at the camps. So it defeats the whole point of doing it. Hell I find the whole you can't kill certain NPCs thing stupid.

What if they are going to be important characters in upcoming DLC?

them you would have to start a new game to the their quest because they are DEAD, in morrowind when you kill an essential npc to the main quest the game tell it to you and ask if you want to continuing your jorney aimlessly or load a previous save, actions have consequences, if i kill some one that would give me a quest it's obvious that a can't get that quest and this would be amazing if come back *-*

(i really really really want to totally destroy the thieves guild, slaughter them one by one with my might knight >D)

Not sure of the exact number, but there are (very roughly) about 670 named npcs, and (again very roughly) about 200 are essential, at least for some of the game. That's about 30%. They can't all be important for future add-ons.

They need to be killable full stop, you don't even take the orders from stormcloak officers during the questline, it's always Galmor. I can't speak for imperials as I've never done that questline.

The best thing they can do is allow you to choose how to play, three options:
-Essential characters, like they have now.
-Essential to enemies, but killable by you.
-Killable by anyone.

Everyone's happy.

/Signed.

Absolutely frustrating when I roll through a Stormcloak camp, leaving no survivors in my wake.

..Only to catch an arrow in my ass and hear "For the Sons of Skyrim!" as I walk away.