Thrall Thread : Living with the dead

[Ian Jones]

Long Time No Post
"That spell is dangerous, keep your distance!".This comment use grate on me.Now I see and wear it as badge of pride and honor as most of you experience Necromage.To me it underscores how esoteric and unpredictable necromancy is so I will play the Devil's advocate and say I'd leave Dead Thrall as it is.Part of the fun of NecroMaging for me is finding ways around limitations the game has for necromancers.
Right now I'm playing with the Dead Thrall variation of the scheme where you command your Follower to pick up a quest item so they will have that "floating quest marker" over their head making them easy to track and find.I do this by deliberately bugging a quest or delaying its completion,which not only make your Thralls easy to find but also permanent corpses.You can literally drop them anywhere and forget about them.Some successes so far are Boethian Cultist,Forsworn Briarheart(with Red Eagle sword),Fjola(Mistwatch),Vighar(BloodletThrone)and Savos Aren.
As for Dead Thrall storage,in Drelas' cottage I currently have
Laelette and Alva sitting across each other near a table looking passed out from too many drinks,Drelas hunched over an alchemy table from inhaling noxious mixes and Sild the Warlock asleep upstairs.All my Heartfire houses have Trophy Rooms so I use the pedestals to pose and prop my Thralls-one has an Argonian theme another an Orc theme.Sounds sick I know,Hey! I'm a Necromage,which leads to my question for my fellow Necros.

What are the other places I can take over and use as storage-home for Thralls?By this I mean without having to kill
non-hostile NPCs and doesn't reset or respawns.I know about Cracked Tusk Keep,Drelas' cottage as such.I also need confirmation on these following locations DarkLight Tower(always has 1st floor witch corpse-permanent?),Mistwatch Keep(always 2 Bandit corpses)Lund's Hut,Orchendor's Place.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Ian Jones]

Few pages back, there is a thread about Thralls not being able to travel to Solstheim.Well, they can.Using my easy to track versions (floating quest marker over head) of Fjola and Vighar, I found that after arriving your Thralls can be found floating and sloshing against the dock port side of the ship.
Skyrim maybe one of the better games around but it is also the buggiest game I've played, so I need confirmation if you find your Thralls floating in the same manner.

 

[Ian Jones]

Another clue discovered regarding the possible origins of my permanent Bandit Marauder (1h full set of steel plate).
An area just south of Talking Stone Camp was found to have the permanent bodies(stripped) of a Bandit , a Bandit Highwayman , and a Bandit Thug scattered about in a field.
I was there many real months ago but vaguely remember a random encounter open-plain fight at night involving vampires(disappeared) and some bandits.
Tested these corpses for level with raising spells and they are definitely not the level 1 "found dead" types.
So perhaps I got my Marauder there.
No idea why this particular group is permanent.

Thralled an impressive Bandit Marauder archer from WolfSkull Cave which seem permanent before doing the Solitude quest.Disappeared right before my very eyes as soon I set off the quest.So your bandit could be from a quest related location.

 

[The Phoenician]

So far Ive been impressed by the Bandit Leaders that are wearing the Nordic Carved armor. A bit buggy sometimes but good tanks.


Im going to need to restart my Necromage I let myself level to high to get good thralls.

 

[Barbarian_Shaman]

hey guys i have a question but just wana say first off i have been following this page for awhile and love it, i had no idea u could get this immersed into playing a necromancer. also a shout out to warlock adam who i see always helping people out and i love reading he's posts, some of he's discoveries feels like pages out of a necromancers journal

anyawys so im playing skyrim on PS3 um i only have watever patches installed that i needed for the DLC (im holding off on the others incase there are still some exploits i can use for role playing like decorating house and i use to be able to equipe the rueful axe as a werewolf haha) anyways so in my house i already have the corpse of sinding, right after the quest i ritual stoned him in beast form all the way to my house and i enjoy having him there, with the addition of werebears i have also been trying to add one of them to my house in windhelm. With all the npc just marked werebear i was unable however i found out there is a werebear naamed torkild, wat i did was i found him and killed him in human form, then thralled him and fast traveled back home, and i am happy to report it worked, now wat i want to do is un thrall him, then res him again using ritual stone, when i ritualed the werebears i noticed the would jump back and forth between beast and human form, but so far I have not had any success jumping torkild back into werebear (i wana do it before i enter my home so that if the time runs out and i do it again the explotion from ritual stone wont ruin all my decorations)

so anyways yeah has anyone discovered a way to deffinatly have the werebears glith back into beast form using ritual stone?

 

[Adam Warlock]

hey guys i have a question but just wana say first off i have been following this page for awhile and love it, i had no idea u could get this immersed into playing a necromancer. also a shout out to warlock adam who i see always helping people out and i love reading he's posts, some of he's discoveries feels like pages out of a necromancers journal

anyawys so im playing skyrim on PS3 um i only have watever patches installed that i needed for the DLC (im holding off on the others incase there are still some exploits i can use for role playing like decorating house and i use to be able to equipe the rueful axe as a werewolf haha) anyways so in my house i already have the corpse of sinding, right after the quest i ritual stoned him in beast form all the way to my house and i enjoy having him there, with the addition of werebears i have also been trying to add one of them to my house in windhelm. With all the npc just marked werebear i was unable however i found out there is a werebear naamed torkild, wat i did was i found him and killed him in human form, then thralled him and fast traveled back home, and i am happy to report it worked, now wat i want to do is un thrall him, then res him again using ritual stone, when i ritualed the werebears i noticed the would jump back and forth between beast and human form, but so far I have not had any success jumping torkild back into werebear (i wana do it before i enter my home so that if the time runs out and i do it again the explotion from ritual stone wont ruin all my decorations)

so anyways yeah has anyone discovered a way to deffinatly have the werebears glith back into beast form using ritual stone?

Torkild is not quite like the other Werebears.
See 1st discussion here - http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Dragonborn_talk:Werebear

Just my guess , but if Dead Thrall spell works on an NPC then the game is viewing them as human and not as a creature. I had absolutely no success(Xbox) in getting Werebears who died in human form to change to beast form afterward using Ritual Stone or Dead Thrall.
This was also the case for the Frostmoon Werewolf pack as Rakel and Hjordis could be thralled/stoned but wouldn`t transform to a beast in that state.

It is not uncommon for NPC to lose certain abilities after death. The primary example of this is how Necromancers and Vampires no longer utilize their own raising spells after they have been killed.

 

[Barbarian_Shaman]

haha and looks who's come to help ^_^ aah dang, and thank you adam

 

[Nighthiker77]

Few pages back, there is a thread about Thralls not being able to travel to Solstheim.Well, they can.Using my easy to track versions (floating quest marker over head) of Fjola and Vighar, I found that after arriving your Thralls can be found floating and sloshing against the dock port side of the ship.

This is the coolest thing I've read in a while. Does anybody have a list of items that can be used for this? And I'm assuming the quests aren't broken, just in limbo like your thrall 's soul?

That would make for an awesome simple mod to just add some quest item tracking devices.

 

[Adam Warlock]

Few pages back, there is a thread about Thralls not being able to travel to Solstheim.Well, they can.Using my easy to track versions (floating quest marker over head) of Fjola and Vighar, I found that after arriving your Thralls can be found floating and sloshing against the dock port side of the ship.

This is the coolest thing I've read in a while. Does anybody have a list of items that can be used for this? And I'm assuming the quests aren't broken, just in limbo like your thrall 's soul?

That would make for an awesome simple mod to just add some quest item tracking devices.

This sounds like a mod or a glitch.

The only times I had such events in my game(Xbox) resulted in broken quests.

Killing an NPC before getting a quest to talk to/kill them can give them a quest arrow but that quest can`t then be completed.

This has happened to me twice.

First occasion was after I killed Telrav and his henchmen at Nilheim and later got a Jarl`s Bounty Letter from the Rift to kill the Bandit Leader there.
Discovered a dead "Bandit"(obviously a Telrav respawn) with such a marker but can no longer receive those Kill the Bandit Leader quests from any Hold or any other Jarl`s bounties from the Rift.

Second time , the Ship Captain Kjar in Windhelm sent me to kill the already deceased Linwe (who has the arrow but is now leveled beyond Dead Thrall limit). The captain`s quests are now blocked.

However , I am able to track my living spouse Ysolda this way using a letter from her I found on an Orc named Ulag. I just avoid talking to her about the note so she doesn`t take it from me.
I suppose if I was able to kill her(she`s essential) without giving up the letter , then she could have the marker as a thrall.

Fjola(permanent corpse now labeled Bandit Leader) and Vighar(respawns) are NPC who also have now exceeded the Dead Thrall level limit for me. Hoping the poster will explain how this was done.

 

[Barbarian_Shaman]

Few pages back, there is a thread about Thralls not being able to travel to Solstheim.Well, they can.Using my easy to track versions (floating quest marker over head) of Fjola and Vighar, I found that after arriving your Thralls can be found floating and sloshing against the dock port side of the ship.

This is the coolest thing I've read in a while. Does anybody have a list of items that can be used for this? And I'm assuming the quests aren't broken, just in limbo like your thrall 's soul?

That would make for an awesome simple mod to just add some quest item tracking devices.

about bringing bodies from solthiem, for my necromancer house i needed a skeleton and thought about if there were any named ones, then i remembered haknir deathbrand, with the aetheral crown i was able to walk he's body anywere on the island (didn't wan't random fight to hit him and then have him burst into a pile of bones, I avoided this by marking huts/cripts/ect that would trigger a loading screen, it has him teleport to be standing behind you) anyways unfortunately whether i fast traveled or payed for the boat trip back deathbrand stayed behind

next i wanted a werebear to sit next to sinding, on solthiem I killed a pack of werebears, when I ritual stoned them and fast traveled/boat, didnt work. dead thrall them in human mode + ritual/boat..... still nothing =_=

however I was able to thrall torkild and bring him home, as well as a carved up body named "sacrifice" here are my theories

1) they were uniquely named corpse

2) I didn't collect "torkilds letter to wulf" so he still had a quest marker on him, when I fast traveled to windelm I looked into active effects and i still had him thralled, and i still had a quest marker, we was in the woods just bast the docks and he ran up to meet me

so if you are trying to grab a corpse from soulthiem give one of these a shot (ps3, only have patches from before DLC release)

 

[Adam Warlock]

T

Few pages back, there is a thread about Thralls not being able to travel to Solstheim.Well, they can.Using my easy to track versions (floating quest marker over head) of Fjola and Vighar, I found that after arriving your Thralls can be found floating and sloshing against the dock port side of the ship.

This is the coolest thing I've read in a while. Does anybody have a list of items that can be used for this? And I'm assuming the quests aren't broken, just in limbo like your thrall 's soul?

That would make for an awesome simple mod to just add some quest item tracking devices.

about bringing bodies from solthiem, for my necromancer house i needed a skeleton and thought about if there were any named ones, then i remembered haknir deathbrand, with the aetheral crown i was able to walk he's body anywere on the island (didn't wan't random fight to hit him and then have him burst into a pile of bones, I avoided this by marking huts/cripts/ect that would trigger a loading screen, it has him teleport to be standing behind you) anyways unfortunately whether i fast traveled or payed for the boat trip back deathbrand stayed behind

next i wanted a werebear to sit next to sinding, on solthiem I killed a pack of werebears, when I ritual stoned them and fast traveled/boat, didnt work. dead thrall them in human mode + ritual/boat..... still nothing =_=

however I was able to thrall torkild and bring him home, as well as a carved up body named "sacrifice" here are my theories

1) they were uniquely named corpse

2) I didn't collect "torkilds letter to wulf" so he still had a quest marker on him, when I fast traveled to windelm I looked into active effects and i still had him thralled, and i still had a quest marker, we was in the woods just bast the docks and he ran up to meet me

so if you are trying to grab a corpse from soulthiem give one of these a shot (ps3, only have patches from before DLC release)

The problem with Ritual Stone is that although it can raise a higher level NPC than Dead Thrall , it is also subject to a time limit.
NPC raised with the Ritual Stone can fast-travel but starting point must be so close to the destination that you could have traveled there normally(time passes equally either way).
This is why Ritual Stone won`t allow trip from Solstheim to Skyrim.

One of the other problems with Solsteim is that most of the named NPC bad guys and many of the stronger other characters will scale past level 40 limit of Dead Thrall.
Another issue is that unlike Orchendor , Kornalus , Umana , etc. , none of the Solstheim baddies have permanent corpses without anchoring.

So is there a worthy NPC for your cadre of quality permanent thralls to be found in the ash and snow ?
Consider these.

Slitter- His level is radiant but if you are lucky enough to get the top level (25) version , he is the equivalent of a light armor Bandit Marauder who can be made a permanent corpse by anchoring. Pay off Mogrul for his quest and both Slitter and Mogrul will lose their essential status.

Mogrul - level 30 and has similar stats to a Bandit Marauder and seriously good combat skills.
Permanent with anchoring.
Despite his default War Axe , his class is CombatWarrior 2H.
Suggest ignoring enchantments on his clothes and using Dark Souls perk to boost his health by another 100 hp.
Much more effective than you would think for an unarmored fighter if his 2H weapon has a health absorb enchant . Pretty good with a bow too.

Talvas Fathryon - You COULD thrall and anchor him , but WHY ?
He can be much more powerful and useful as a living follower.

 

[Adam Warlock]

After a lot of time thralling Solstheim NPC , my clear favorite is the Reaver Marauder.
These are mirrors of the Bandit Marauder from Skyrim.

The variant I`ve found most effective is the 1H melee fighter in a full set of Heavy Chitin armor. Only needs Elven Smithing perk for improvement boost to armor that is as strong as Steel Plate but lighter.

Enchant chest with Health#1 , Fortify Heavy Armor#2(if u have perk)
Gauntlets w/Fortify Heavy Armor
Boots w/Stamina , Resist Frost , or both.
Shield w/Health , Resist Magic

They don`t moan and both genders are available.

2nd place is tie between Reaver Marauder (wizard) and the top level Reaver Lords(males only).
The primary factor is that they have the combination of both Destruction magic augment perks in all three elements !
Not only are their variety of spells enhanced by this , but the Chaos Magic weapon enchantment gets a HUGE boost in their hands.
A Stalhrim (x) of Ultimate Chaos for example will have a 50% chance of inflicting 101 dmg of frost/fire/shock.
Bandit Marauder mages also have these perks but they moan(Argonians the most tolerable moan imho)

Pirate Captain #3- equivalent to a Nord Bandit Chief. Moans.

I routinely find one of these thralls , take them to Skyrim , and use them until I need/want to discard them.
I save their gear in a house container so I can quickly get and equip a new thrall when I want.

 

[Majir-Dar]

I need help. I've mastered the conjuration school (in the sense that it's at 100). Every time I permanently bring someone back to life they disappear. The NPCs keep saying stuff like: Keep that spell away from, etc. I wouldn't mind the NPCs, but I don't even have my thrall. In the active effects menu it says they're there but in reality they're nowhere to be found. Is there a way to fix this, or maybe prevent it from happening? I'm on an Xbox 360 so mods aren't possible (sadly).

 

[Adam Warlock]

I need help. I've mastered the conjuration school (in the sense that it's at 100). Every time I permanently bring someone back to life they disappear. The NPCs keep saying stuff like: Keep that spell away from, etc. I wouldn't mind the NPCs, but I don't even have my thrall. In the active effects menu it says they're there but in reality they're nowhere to be found. Is there a way to fix this, or maybe prevent it from happening? I'm on an Xbox 360 so mods aren't possible (sadly).

Please describe the circumstances of the disappearances.
Do all of your thralls always vanish or just some of them ?
Did they wink out in front of your eyes or fail to show up after a loading screen ?
Were these thralls randomly encountered or quest targets ?

Common disappearance problems are usually fixable.

1. If thralls are not with you after fast-travel , they may have gone to a nearby location instead.
Cities are notorious for this problem since the thralls will 1st appear at the nearby stables and then work their way to you if they can.
Fast-travel to Dragonreach from outside Whiterun with a thrall and they won`t seem to be with you.
But go look down the steps toward the park and in a minute or so you`ll see the thrall running up.
Travel to Mage college , thrall goes to winterhold and must travel the bridge on foot.
Travel to Blue Palace , thrall appears in market square.

Most times simply engaging the fast-travel to the same destination a 2nd time or entering a door will "draw" the thralls to you.

If thrall truly can`t be found , erase Effect by casting a temporary summons to replace that slot.
Summons Arniel`s Shade or Whirlwind Cloak also work

 

[Majir-Dar]

They don't show up after loading screens, sometimes they die and the game doesn't count them as dead, and if I sprint and they get too far behind, they won't catch up or reappear.

Most of my thralls disappear but not all of them, and all were randomly encountered.

 

[The Phoenician]

They don't show up after loading screens, sometimes they die and the game doesn't count them as dead, and if I sprint and they get too far behind, they won't catch up or reappear.

Most of my thralls disappear but not all of them, and all were randomly encountered.

I’ve had that problem a couple of times. I’ve even had some disappear from a previous save.

 

[Adam Warlock]

They don't show up after loading screens, sometimes they die and the game doesn't count them as dead, and if I sprint and they get too far behind, they won't catch up or reappear.

Most of my thralls disappear but not all of them, and all were randomly encountered.

I’ve had that problem a couple of times. I’ve even had some disappear from a previous save.

There`s a discussion on this page about disappearing thralls:
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Dead_Thrall

 

[Adam Warlock]

They don't show up after loading screens, sometimes they die and the game doesn't count them as dead, and if I sprint and they get too far behind, they won't catch up or reappear.

Most of my thralls disappear but not all of them, and all were randomly encountered.

I’ve had that problem a couple of times. I’ve even had some disappear from a previous save.

There`s a discussion on this page about disappearing thralls:
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Dead_Thrall

Here is my Xbox experience with vanishing thralls:

1. Some months ago , I posted about my efforts to thrall and keep the Thalmor patrols that would sometimes appear near Knifepoint Ridge.
They would very quickly disappear and I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment getting them to take just one trip to the Thalmor Embassey.
NPC who are randomly encountered in the countryside(not the ones at camps,etc.) are extremely unstable as thralls and usually disappear no matter you do.

2. NPC who regularly respawn at forts/dens and such are more stable during travel as long as you allow them to remain in the area where you are located before fast-travel.

3. Many NPC that only appear during specific quests can also vanish when you conclude that quest.

4. Sometimes after battle , your thrall may appear OK but when you go through a loading screen they die and remain on the other side of the door you used or back at your fast-travel point of departure .
Go back and check for their corpse.
Healing your thrall before loading screen or deactivate/reactivating will help prevent this.

5. Thralls with permanent corpses are the Khajiit`s meow for the Skyrim necromancer ! Even if they happen to get lost , you have a shot at discovering them again.

 

[Ian Jones]

I’ve had that problem a couple of times. I’ve even had some disappear from a previous save.

There`s a discussion on this page about disappearing thralls:
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Dead_Thrall

Here is my Xbox experience with vanishing thralls:

1. Some months ago , I posted about my efforts to thrall and keep the Thalmor patrols that would sometimes appear near Knifepoint Ridge.
They would very quickly disappear and I remember feeling a sense of accomplishment getting them to take just one trip to the Thalmor Embassey.
NPC who are randomly encountered in the countryside(not the ones at camps,etc.) are extremely unstable as thralls and usually disappear no matter you do.

2. NPC who regularly respawn at forts/dens and such are more stable during travel as long as you allow them to remain in the area where you are located before fast-travel.

3. Many NPC that only appear during specific quests can also vanish when you conclude that quest.

4. Sometimes after battle , your thrall may appear OK but when you go through a loading screen they die and remain on the other side of the door you used or back at your fast-travel point of departure .
Go back and check for their corpse.
Healing your thrall before loading screen or deactivate/reactivating will help prevent this.

5. Thralls with permanent corpses are the Khajiit`s meow for the Skyrim necromancer ! Even if they happen to get lost , you have a shot at discovering them again.

Here is a true but funny(at least to me) bit of FAQ.Dead Thralls
have the same Fast-Travel A.I. as horses.When you fast travel
(which I never do-kills RPG element) they appear at the city stables then go to you.Logically, if you need to fast travel to a city and keep track of your Thralls click on the city stable.

 

[Ian Jones]

I Will BlOrck You Or Why Chief Yamarz Gets No Love:Analysis and Solution

Chief Yamarz-level 20 Orc Chief, Largashbur ,The Rift

Despite having over 1200 hitpoints he still can't get much love as a thrall and from my observations not without reason.His combat A.I. can be describe as "cautious" relative to the super-aggressiveness of a Volhikar vampire or a Briarheart warrior who literally rushes to face his quarry.By "cautious" I mean defensive and by defensive I mean he has a tendency to block too much.

This in itself is not a bad thing as anyone who has used a "Bandit Chief" or "Umana" will testify to but compared to them his Block level(34) is low.Low enough that he is easily "staggered" and staggered and staggered and staggered and staggered and stagge...well, you catch my drift.A barrage of regular swings from heavy weapons(2Hdr) will stagger him nevermind the power strikes from both 1Hdr and 2Hdr with the result of him being "on his knees" much of the time without having a chance to strike back and since he still receives damage while blocking-then throw in one or two more enemies and it's game over orc.Giving him a two-handed weapon or a torch is ill-advised because he will use both like a shield.Yup, a frakin "torchshield"!Segue to the obvious solution,force him to dual-wield via a Forsworn ax or sword given that his highest combat skill level is 61 One-handed.Curiosly, he has 46 Marksmanship-wasted skill points which should have been place in Block or 2Hdr.

I equip him the way I do my Briarheart warrior with an ax and sword both enchanted with absorb health for 20 points and paralyzed for 1 second.Paralyze for 1 second has the same effect as staggering the enemy anything longer will make your thrall miss,stop hitting,and wait for the paralyzed target to get up before attacking again.

Granted, Yamarz doesn't attack with the same speed and fury as a Briarheart warrior but his armor and high HP compensates for his lack speed.A Briarheart warrior needs all that speed to quickly dispatch its targets because he is essentially fighting without any armor.Hence the absorb health weapon and the reason why they have some trouble dealing with enemies with strong long range attacks.

Yamarz does great with this set up .The only occasion I've seen him overhelmed is in Liar's Retreat against 7 falmers consisting of mage,archer,and warrior type.One againts seven,he did pretty damn good in a scenario in which even a player character probably cannot survive.


My PC:Lvl.32 BretoNecromage
Main Skills:Conjuration100,Enchantment100,Restoration100
Speech35(selling stuff levels it,Bleh!) other skills between 15 and 20.