The questions are unrelated, but I figured both of them will get answered by people who come in here and saw no need to make 2 threads.

Dead Thrall Spell
I've heard that it can create issues, but have never seen it laid out all in one place so let me see if I have this correct. When Dead Thralls 'die' they do not become ash piles and instead become permanent corpses. If you have too many of them in any given cell (like when some of y'all 'collect' corpses) it will create lag because of the live NPCs and other possible permanent corpses that are coded as such by Bethesda? Also, it seems that the generic NPCs you take will have replacements respawned at their origin causing more lag there, too?

Can you have a Dead Thrall (or a few) and a follower?

Are Dead Thralls 'permanent' or are they timed? I know UESP says "...permanently...", but I wanted clarification because it also mentions "86313600 secs". If so, that's lame because it's not even 3 years.

While Dead Thralls are 'alive' do all of the generic NPCs just make that zombie groan or do they speak normally (ie will any of the Bandit-types do their monologues)?

Since some of the reanimated NPCs with specific dialogue continue that dialogue can Ranmir's quests be completed?


Reverse Pickpocket Arrow Generating
I tried to reverse pickpocket Daedric arrows to the Solitude guards practicing archery, but had a 0% chance - reported and in practice. My character is 70 with Pickpocket skill at 98 (plus 4 pieces of gear of Fortify Pickpocket +40%). I selected all the perks up to Misdirection and still got the 0%. So WTF?

FWIW: I had Mjoll with me, but had her wait in Proudspire so IDK if her being 'attached' makes a difference.

Yes, you can have a dead thrall (or two if you have the lvl 100 conjuration perk) and a follower.

They are timed. The time listed is probably correct, but it's pretty much forever because they'll either die or get lost well before then. If your thrall gets lost instead of dying, people will continue to talk about your "deadly spell" until the spell expires, which can be very annoying because it's all that a lot of people say.

There is a lot of information on dead thralls http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Thrall, including a huge list of notable thralls and a list of thralls that keep their dialog when they die instead of moaning and groaning. I don't think that any of them have any actual conversations; they just talk instead of moaning, so you wouldn't be able to use a thrall to do a quest like you mentioned.

Velehk Sain might be pretty funny.

The effect lasts exactly 999 days to the second.

Yeah, I converted the seconds for the hell of it. I wonder if it would last forever if you were actually able to keep the Dead Thrall animated for more than 999 days because the years don't actually count up do they? I just assume the months keep rolling, but the year doesn't change.

Take off some of the pickpocketing gear your chance essentially rolled over to 0.

If you are on PC, there's a mod that greatly increases how many arrows vendors sell.

I've heard of this, but I first tried without the gear and it was still 0% then I went to retrieve it from Honeyside (because I don't always carry it). Also, when I checked with the lesser arrows the percentage goes up as the damage and value of the arrow goes down. Ebony Arrows were also 0%.

"Does moan", i found this incredibly amusing.

Did you try just a single arrow? the projected % assumes the whole stack. And make sure your hidden.

Yeah, that's hilarious...poor Skjor.

Yep, just one - they're too expensive to give them a stack. Tried it 2 ways: hidden under normal Sneak circumstances and with Invisibility spell.

I even dropped one in front of him hoping he might pick it up.

I've been using http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=12522. Its been pretty useful.

You need the final perk, I think. the one that allows the taking of equipped items. Those archers have their arrows equipped. I was able to give them one (1) daedric arrow and remove the 15 steel arrows. I did not use invisibility, either. You are plainly in sight of any number of guards and obviously Aldis (?) who's watching the archers.

BTW, the one on the left is usually doing all the shooting while the one on the right stands ready but doesn't shoot. Walk up to him and get in his face (but with your back to the archer that's shooting). He'll back off a pace. Leave him alone and now he'll start shooting, too. Stand between the targets and gather your arrows.

Edit: I reread your post. I didn't have any pickpocket bonus gear on. Just my DB gear and muffled boots. Pickpocket at 100. I don't remember what the chances were, though.

Try it with only 1 in your inventory?

I'll try it again a few different ways and maybe dismiss Mjoll. What is so weird to me is how the Success %-age goes up for the lower-grade arrows. o.O I'm at 98 Pickpocket so the 2 more points shouldn't go from 0% to 60% chance for success. I'm thinking it's Mjoll's lack of Sneak that may be doing it...even though she was in Proudspire on my one attempt.


Edit: I'm on PS3 so no mods for me.

Pickpocket success is determined by price, so it makes sense that the better arrows are harder to plant.

And your suggestion of trying it with just 1 in my inventory makes sense because I have like 300 of them and like 400 of the Ebony ones so that would jack up the overall value.

XD same XD
I actually laughed my face off XD

Lol

Yep, that did it - thank you.