You mean 1/3rd of the npcs in game.

1) They are named
2) It does break the game experience when you can't kill camp leaders when you're specifically instructed to do so. I do not really mind if I can't kill em before/during Civil War quest line. But after?

For skillups?

I wondered what happened to her. Does it actually mention her in the Stormcloak ending? I assumed she just ran off into hiding to avoid being killed.

When clearing a camp after the civil war campaign I just beat the officer up and then use the console to 'disable' him. Cheap trick I guess but at least I have an empty camp when it's all done so I feel like I accomplished something.

At the end of Stormcloak campaign Ulfric instructs Elisif to continue ruling Solitude. He gives some explanation why that I forget.

Don't really know, honestly. I was spoiled when I read stuff in UESP. She's not replaced, that's for sure. Well, best to have a hot chick to negotiate with than some old guy like Thongvor, or that granny Morthal Jarl, I forgot her name

You can use bEssentialTakeNoDamage = 0 in the .ini if I remember correctly. Disables their "kneeling of immortality", and allows you to actually decapitate the bunch

People who make stupid decisions in Skyrim should have been forced to live with them. or reload.

Exactly.........If weren't instructed to wipe them all out then it wouldn't be a big deal. But it svcks to find a camp, try to wipe it out only to have the legate still alive in all of them.

But I've noticed while on walkabout when not a member of either faction, that the Imperials are really a bit edgy and downright nasty. I could walk into a Stormcloak camp and trade with their blacksmith. Try doing that with a Legion camp? I get within 30 yds. "That's close enough." So I walk away about 20 ft. to pick some berries and flowers. "Alright, you asked for it." And I'm taking arrows in my butt. So not wanting a fight try to get away, and the whole camp descends like white on rice. So everyone dead except the Imperial Legate in charge of the camp. Now they were in Stormcloak territory, which they of course view as theirs, and I'm just on a walk in the woods near my Riften home. So if the head on the block was strike one and two against the Empire, this was strike three. The Legate of course is essential, and crawled back to their camp, muttering "Stormcloak b****!"

Now I just avoid the Imperial camps. They'll get theirs soon enough. I think this is going to get fixed in a post Civil War DLC where either the empire withdraws (Stormcloak victory) from Skyrim, or the Stormcloak camps just disband and go home (Imperial victory). There will have to be a treaty signed between Skyrim and the Empire. This along with a new adventure, and I'm hoping it's as long as Tribunal.

And again, I ask, so what? Why is it so important to you to be able to kill these people off that it affects your enjoyment of the game? I'm honestly not trying to be snarky, I really would like to know, as I don't see how this could possibly be all that such of a much.

Ah I see. (BTW I've never gotten that far in the CW questline yet) I have to ask then, does not being able to kill these people make it impossible to finish the quest? If it does, then yes, I could see that as being a problem.

As the person who started this thread, all I wanted to know was if there was a reason why they were essential. Like maybe I first needed to accept a quest from someone to kill a certain legate before I could.
I'd like to kill them, but it's no big deal that I can't. Plenty of other stuff to kill

I agree.

In a Bioware game I understand not being able to kill (or even attack) npcs. They are rpgs on rails which isn't bad or good its just different. In a gamesas game and a TES game more specifically I expect freedom. It's supposed to be a sandbox rpg, which means I should be able to kill whomever I want. This is the way it was in the past and it should continue to be.

So yes not being able to kill those Legates does hurt my enjoyment of the game. It reduces player freedom, and brings TES games closer to a Bioware style Rpg on rails which TES is not supposed to be, or at least wasn't supposed to be.

Also note its incredibly annoying to aggro invincible npcs and not have a decent way to win the battle, just for kicks commit a crime in the main hall at Dragonsreach. You'll have at least a half dozen or so invincible npcs chasing you forever. It's really lame

The problem is consequences. Take Delphine. Do I want her gone. Yes. She's 1) annoying as hell. 2) stupid 3) thinks she knows it all 4) annoying as hell. She's essential to the main plot. So if I kill her before I complete the main quest my main quest is broken and I cannot complete it. Then I come to the forums and b****, moan, and complain about the fact that Bethesda made a game that cannot be finished. Well, it's not just me, it's many many others. It's people writing reviews in magazines. Then the parents get involved and I really don't want my 102 yr old father having to call up gamesas and complain about how his daughter couldn't finish a game because they didn't program it right. Not just that but he probably couldn't hear them that well anyway. And he couldn't hear because he doesn't use his hearing aids. Yes he's still alive.

So because of stuff like that we get "plot" characters in Skyrim. Handling plot characters and changing them to non-plot and when to do that requires special scripting, and one has to make sure these days whether or not there is going to be any expansion that is going to use them, like in this case maybe a "Broken Blades" DLC (I know Fallout 3 ripoff, but you get the point).

The same reactions are had in Stormcloak camps if you're pro-Empire, though. I can walk into Imperial camps and get high-fives, but if the Stormcloak camp people even see me on the horizon they ring the alert like an entire Legion was marching at them.

One last thought on my part, and this is strictly IMO. If the NPC's in question cannot be killed and that somehow breaks the game, that is indeed a problem. If it doesn't break the game, then complaining about it seems like extreme nit-picking to me.

I guess a reasonable correlation would be having a drauger in each tomb being unkillable. The CW quests do not include attacking the faction camps but the commanders do suggest 'hurting' the enemy, which is a pretty good motivation to raid the camps. The unkillable commanders seem to serve no purpose but to frustrate the player.
Broken? Nah. Severly sprained, though.

Except the npcs who NEEDED it, such as Lod. Either they are sadistic, or just being ironic.

My favorite is that Lod has been dead for 40 levels, before I knew what he was for. Yet, I can't finish
Blood on the ice because calixto is "essential" when I am supposed to KILL HIM.

In the future, I recommend playtesting.

^Your first paragraph..is actually one of the best guesses i have heard so far. Makes perfect sense.

I too, tried to get rid of those Legates that would not die, but decided to wait and see what the game had in store, and not try to comsole kill them or anything, if they would not die normally. Yet, i will be glad if they are just left-overs from the Civil War that don't know the war is over. LOL

(Anyway, i really do hope the Imperials Legions do not come back to Skyrim in a DLC. It was great getting rid of them, but a repeat of more of the same would be boring. I had already had it with them. I tried to clear them ALL out, but when these Legates would not die, i too wondered if they might be planning a comeback, whilst i was finally enjoying my Character's freedom so much. Ah ..finally freedom from their haughty Imperial oppression and bloody Thalmor puppet masters. Glad it is not the case, that the Thalmor/Imperial oppressers will be back at it again, any time soon. LOL Having too much fun with my Talos honouring friends now! What would be fun in a DLC is to see is the High Elves having a Civil War to overthrow the Dominion, just like the Stormcloaks overthrew the Imperials and the Thalmor Overlords. It would even be great to play an Elven character helping to do that.)

because they give you free cookies and are blind in one eye- dont question the power of cookies

^
support!
the stormcloak questline was really epic, and im a high elf! i just loved kicking imperial butt all the time, makes me feel good

Actually, yes.
There should be no immortal NPC's in the game.
Any immortal NPC kills the gaming experience.

I would rather have them respawn when the game needed them, then have them be immortal.
It just goes against the entire premise of an open world in which youre free to do what you want.

Seeing as they aren't apart of any quests and you are actively TOLD to go and kill them I highly doubt that.

So in your opinion it is not right to complain about a "broken" game mechanic.
RPG's like Skyrim are also about immersion.. If a side tells you to get rid of the remaining opposite side, and you're unable to.. it sort of breaks the game for those who want to play it like that.
If Beth. didn't intend this.. then don't market it as such..