When beating bandits and Imperial guards to death, occasionally they get badly wounded and often curl up and beg for mercy, saying they've "had enough". At first I would sometimes try to show compassion and maybe take a prisoner or teach them a lesson, but I've never seen an enemy surrender or give up the fight at that point. They always get back to their feet and fight to the death.

Is it even possible that some of these foes will actually surrender or at least quit fighting?

I agree. I wish that when they say "I surrender" they actually, you know, surrender. I hate how they yield and I spare them their lives and turn to walk away, only to be attacked by them moments later. Talk about gratitude.

I've seen one guy that did stop fighting. But he's not an always hostile type. So it worked similarly to sheathing my weapons.

I've seen another guy run away for a looooong period of time. But eventually he tried punching me.

You can cast a fear or calm spells see what happens.

Agreed it was a cool feature that quickly became lame when you realize they just get up and start fighting you again 2 seconds later.

They immediately become hostile again when the spell wears off.

I swing 3 more times after Im sure they are dead. I barely beat a guy at the begining, he said "mercy", I said ok and turned around and he killed me. Never again lol.

I have had an enemy run away before and I never saw him again, but that has only happened the once. They usually turn around when they get some health back and continue to attack you.

I almost wonder if it was originally intended as a way to roleplay with a moral compass, but was never included in the game. I feel like it's dishonorable to hit an enemy when he's down and claims to surrender, so it's hard to immerse myself into character if I keep finishing off every enemy even when they're momentarily disabled. Maybe it is something that could be patched at a later date.

Yeah, really breaks immersion when you leave one bandit out of 7 to survive and crawl away bleeding cause he wants to surrender. But then he just gets back up and says "Shouldn't have come here"..

I don't know, but all the ones that "quit" never really do. Wish they really did quit, though. Sometimes, I'd run into a pretty bandit girl and when she's begging for mercy, I really have the intention of sparing her. But if she's swiping at me desperately with her battle axe a minute later... well... I gots to do what I gots to do.

Usually I feel bad and let them live... but then Lydia decides to smite them before they have a chance to get back up.

Quite the opposite for me, I let them stand up just so I can give them the most brutal and degrading death possible.

Exactly. I hope they do because it was a great thing to see someone actually fearing for their life and ask for mercy and crawl away. But for them to just shrug it off and get up like it never happened is just lame and immersion breaking.

Maybe its a bug that they get up and continue fighting?

would be cool if instead of recovering and trying to stab you they instead fled, gave you stuff to spare them or fought by your side for the remainder of the dungoen depending upon a disposition marker/rank.

I dont want to be a completely brutal bastard, but they dont seem to want to learn!

yeah, aggravating at best. I tried to show two people mercy... not anymore. "Mercy is for the weak" apparently. So much for the lessons of my childhood... buh bye Karate Kid...

They need to allow more non-lethal solutions. Maybe then Speechcraft would actually be worth a damn, and not the underwhelming dead weight it has been since Daggerfall.

Yeah, first time it happened to me was with some Falmers and this pretty one got a good beating on her shield then got knocked down and said "I yield, I yield!!" and I was all for letting her go. After her buddies died, however, she got right back up and came at me. =/ kinda a bummer because the ability to spare people's lives would have been awesome.

It's not, that's how it's supposed to work, their health and stamina regenerate while they are cowering.

I'd like to see a surrender mod, when you can take prisoners in alive and receive bounty for them.

They don't all continue fighting, in fact i had several cases of a bandit being last alive of a big group fall back after he had surrendered.

edit : and others coming back to the fight if they still had allies fighting me.

But not always, sometimes it would be cool to a guy say surrender but when we turn our back, they try to kill us.. But not everytime like now, it could be Half and Half. Half of the times they surrender and don't attack you anymore, and Half of the times they are cheating bastards that are lying when they say that surrender, because when we sheat our weapon or turn our back they will attack us..


Another thing that i miss is K.O's in Brawls, everytime they just kinda fall in the floor, and stay kinda "crouched", then they stand up and talk to you or something like that, but what about if we could finish them of ? not kill them, just Knockout, then they kinds stay on the floor wounded or something like that.

I like that. Then sparing them not only becomes a moral choice, it's a practical one too. If you spare them there's a risk that they will turn on you, will you take that risk and be a good guy or will you kill them in order to protect your own life?

I also think that when you're a level 54 warrior in dragon armour lowly bandits should flee at the sight of you. I mean come on! How stupid are they? And why are commoners attacking dragons? I don't feel so much like a hero when the things I fight doesn't scare people. Everybody fled in the live action trailer and that's how it should be in-game too. The NPCs just don't have enough fear in the game.

I've had that happen twice to me actually, and both times I was impressed First time it happened I literally jumped off a mountain side into a pack of roaming bandits and absolutely decimated 3 of the 4 guys within moments. As I turned towards the last guy he took off running and screaming down the road. I never saw him after that lol He probably still has nightmares of a shadowy figure descending from the mountains upon his family and friends.


Every other time however they always get back up only to die one hit later.

It's certainly a broken system - currently it's not even remotely a valid choice:
a] You never gain any advantage by letting them live. No loot, no weapon xp from hitting them, no advantage whatsoever.
b] You do gain a specific penalty from letting them live. Fighting them now is obviously in your favour (otherwise they wouldn't be surrendering), letting them live just causes you to fight them at a later time, where you may not be in such a good position.
c] It's unnecessarily brutal.

(I've seen NPCs flee prior to combat, they can also run for reinforcements, but I've never seen one actually surrender and leave afterwards)

Things that would make sense to me:
1) If an NPC surrenders, they always leave. And never come back.
[or]
2) When an NPC surrenders they may either leave or stab the player in the back at a later time. Those that leave will send the player cash via the courier at a later time. (ideally not accompanied by 'yet another note' - but a brief popup message or something).
[or]
3) NPCs just don't surrender.