Thrall Thread : Living with the dead

[Adam Warlock]

I thought I had lucked into an Ebony clad Thrall when I was attacked by a random generic Dark Elf wearing 3 pieces with steel plate boots.
Alas , like the Assasins and Thugs I meet now , he was too powerful for the spell.

 

[Adam Warlock]

I thought I had lucked into an Ebony clad Thrall when I was attacked by a random generic Dark Elf wearing 3 pieces with steel plate boots.
Alas , like the Assasins and Thugs I meet now , he was too powerful for the spell.

I never engage this guys directly when with Illia and my mages.
When the fool charges straight forward as they always do , I just do a quick side-step because I know what`s coming toward my back.
Sometimes the combined impact of ice spears, fireballs , and chain lightning will throw the attacker 30 or 40 feet away.

 

[The Phoenician]

When using bound weapons does that increase skill in their real steal counterparts are such as Bound Bow and the archery skill set.


Thanks of all of the info

 

[Adam Warlock]

When using bound weapons does that increase skill in their real steal counterparts are such as Bound Bow and the archery skill set.


Thanks of all of the info

yes , either 1h , 2h , or archery depending on your bound weapon

 

[Adam Warlock]

I still haven`t heard from anyone who has discovered non-moaning generic NPC like I have on my vanilla Xbox game ( or any other unit for that matter).
They may be only 4 Wizards and a Master Conjurer out of hundreds of different Classes and sub-types I`ve thralled , but they are a delight to travel with. Very reluctant to obtain a patch if this is something that gets "fixed".
Trying to get Battle Mage type thralls has been a trial but I`ve found a couple of sources in some Forsworn Ravagers and the occasional bandit. They moan but they are quite powerful in battle.
The Ravagers who cast will favor frost spells and can summons an Atronach. These are not specifically identified from other Ravagers so you have to watch to see who`s throwing ice or cloaks.
Bandit casters are much more rare but I did find an Argonian Bandit Marauder yesterday who threw Ice Spikes at me . After Thralling him, I enchanted his chest armor with Fortify Destruction Magic/Fortify Dest+10%regen to reduce his ice spell costs by 37%. Now he throws Ice about 6 or 7 times , then pulls his weapon and goes into melee. He comes from a site that respawns and I know his body isn`t permanent so I`m storing him at my base (where I visit often) in hopes of preventing his disappearance.
In my experience so far , the best sources for stable bodies and long term generic thralls are from sites that do not respawn after clearing like Northwatch Keep. These places are often tied to specific quests (like Ghunzul and his bandits at Cracked Tusk Keep in the Mehrunes Razor quest).
If you`ve been to a site some time before and killed the lot , then return after 30 days to find those you`ve killed still dead , then the bodies there should be stable wherever you take them. Or I guess i should say as stable as they get , since nothing appears certain in necromancy.
Named Npc bad guys who don`t respawn seem to be the most permanent of all thralls.
My current stable of named Thralls are:
Magic Casters = Orchendor , Kornalus , Sebastian Lort , and Eola.
Warriors = Ghunzul, Umana , and Deeja
Dremora Corsair =Velehk Sain
My blessedly silent generic Mages are:
Master Conjurer (Max) , Storm Wizard(Sparky) , Fire Wizard(Flamer) and two Ice Wizards(Darryl and Darryl)
Otherwise i have a Volkihar Vampire in Glass armor , a Khajiit Silver Hand , and a Khajiit Corsair as well as the new Argonian bandit.
I keep enchanted armor in storage for Forsworn Ravagers and Bandit Chiefs so I can quickly equip them if I decide to pick one up

 

[Adam Warlock]

Well , I guess I should have heeded my own advice more.
I did the quest A Daedra`s Best Friend.
Most of my thralls were at Northwatch but a few were still at Proudspire awaiting tinkering with their armor since an arcane enchanter is there along with the full-service blacksmith`s station in Solitude.
It seemed like a short quest but I must have been gone too long because Proudspire had a respawn !
My Khajiit Silver Hand had turned into a Breton and was fighting in the basement room with a Wood Elf Bandit Marauder(who was my Argonian ice caster beforehand . i stupidly had not taken the opportunity to move him when i should have) . The Khajiit Corsair had disappeared entirely. Notable that the Northwatch Guard in the same room was still there dead as always.
Such are the dangers of necromancy !
I`m not crying over spilled mammoth milk though because I returned from the quest with a Volkihar Vampire and an Ancient Vampire(both female dunmer in glass armor and boots) as well as The Mask of Clavicus Vile !

 

[Adam Warlock]

Well , I guess I should have heeded my own advice more.
I did the quest A Daedra`s Best Friend.
Most of my thralls were at Northwatch but a few were at Proudspire awaiting tinkering with their armor since an arcane enchanter is there along with the full-service blacksmith`s station in Solitude.
It seemed like a short quest but I must have been gone too long because Proudspire had a respawn !
My Khajiit Silver Hand had turned into a Breton and was fighting with a Wood Elf Bandit Marauder(who was my Argonian ice caster beforehand) in the basement room. The Khajiit Corsair had disappeared entirely. Notable that the Northwatch Guard in the same room was still there dead as always.
Such are the dangers of necromancy !
I`m not crying over spilled mammoth milk though because I returned from the quest with a Volkihar Vampire and an Ancient Vampire(both female dunmer in glass armor and boots) as well as The Mask of Clavicus Vile !

Do you think that a Dunmer`s natural resistance cancels out a vampire`s weakness to fire ? If so , that would affect the enchants I plan to place on their armor.

 

[Adam Warlock]

It`s my belief that the silent generic thralls I`ve found are caused by a glitch related to a particular package of vocal clips that some mage NPC use when alive.
This explains why they are all mages although of different types and probably why they are all males.
One thing all my silent thralls have in common is their similar trash talk in combat.
To test this I went to Fellglow Keep and found an Ice Mage Adept and a Fire Mage Adept who talked this way and upon thralling them , they did not moan !
Listen for :
"Fire, frost , and lightning ...You will suffer at my hands"
"Don`t you see ? I am Master of the Arcane !"
"You can not conceive of the power I wield !"
These guys will be the ones you want to thrall when you find them. A good test for the silent trait is to cast Frost Cloak to deactivate them , and if you don`t hear and see the captioned "Uhhh" when they die , then you have a non-moaner !
I don`t know if this only works on the vanilla Xbox game or not , but it`s worth a try if you`re interested in such a thrall .

 

[Adam Warlock]

It`s my belief that the silent generic thralls I`ve found are caused by a glitch related to a particular package of vocal clips that some mage NPC use when alive.
This explains why they are all mages although of different types and probably why they are all males.
One thing all my silent thralls have in common is their similar trash talk in combat.
To test this I went to Fellglow Keep and found an Ice Mage Adept and a Fire Mage Adept who talked this way and upon thralling them , they did not moan !
Listen for :
"Fire, frost , and lightning ...You will suffer at my hands"
"Don`t you see ? I am Master of the Arcane !"
"You can not conceive of the power I wield !"
These guys will be the ones you want to thrall when you find them. A good test for the silent trait is to cast Frost Cloak to deactivate them , and if you don`t hear and see the captioned "Uhhh" when they die , then you have a non-moaner !
I don`t know if this only works on the vanilla Xbox game or not , but it`s worth a try if you`re interested in such a thrall .

I can`t believe it took me this long to figure it out. Probably because I have a shot of Sleeping Tree sap with a skooma chaser each morning with my breakfast sweet roll .

 

[Adam Warlock]

After testing I`m going to let the Adepts go despite the lack of moaning because they(at 192) have just a bit more than half the health of a Wizard(367).
Good on offense , both Adepts defeated a Briarheart from range and the Ice Mage Adept beat a Forsworn Looter and a Hagraven on his own.
But one swing of a door trap and both were dead.

 

[Praise Dark lord Anakin]

Okey so...
Mister thread starter, you seem to have used a LOT of conjuration

I have a few questions mainly about volkihar vampires

-At what level do they start appearing?
-Have you any tips on how to trigger the random encounter?
-I can not find a location on google, I'm guessing that this is the only way of finding one,
Unless, perhaps if you know of any caves where they like to spawn and hang out?

I've only recently realized what cool parties you can have by getting two Mage/necro thralls using shock spells and hire the guy in riften (also using shock spells).
Then heading to Winterhold to create three storm atronac staffs for them at the Atronac forge.
Equip one to each of the three.
Suddenly there is a group of 7 (including dovakiin) all shooting lightning left and right all over the place.
It's quite a sight!

But now I've become more curious about the real powerful thralls like the Volkihar Vampires.
So any tips you got on hunting them down would be great!

 

[Praise Dark lord Anakin]

Oh and one more thing, have you ever noticed your thralls changing appearance?
Just a while ago when I was playing I whent into dragons reach with my a dead dark elf and one dead high elf,
After accidentally using fusrodah on the guards...
It caused my thralls to go into combat so I hurried and paid my bounty instead, them I got teleported to the entrance of dragons reach.
So again, I head inside, keep my finger away from R2 and head towards the enchanting table.
Then I notice that every one (including tge jarl and his whole court) in the room is still randomly hostile towards each other, and one of my thralls.
After killing the thrall it they just kept on walking up and down the stairs, in and out of combat, beating the crap out of each over and over...
Glitchy idiots i thought to myself as i wslked over to put my thrall back up.

Then I notice that my dark elf vampire had changed hairs and color to orange, it had also found and equipped an Orcish armor and boots.
And the high elf conjurer had turned into what looked like a Breton or possibly a nord with long white hair + beard.
Both still seem to be the same level still, only appearance has changed.

I guess it was all randomness combined with glitches but I think that paying the bounty quickly while they wear still in combat triggered it.

 

[Adam Warlock]

I

Okey so...
Mister thread starter, you seem to have used a LOT of conjuration

I have a few questions mainly about volkihar vampires

-At what level do they start appearing?
-Have you any tips on how to trigger the random encounter?
-I can not find a location on google, I'm guessing that this is the only way of finding one,
Unless, perhaps if you know of any caves where they like to spawn and hang out?

I've only recently realized what cool parties you can have by getting two Mage/necro thralls using shock spells and hire the guy in riften (also using shock spells).
Then heading to Winterhold to create three storm atronac staffs for them at the Atronac forge.
Equip one to each of the three.
Suddenly there is a group of 7 (including dovakiin) all shooting lightning left and right all over the place.
It's quite a sight!

But now I've become more curious about the real powerful thralls like the Volkihar Vampires.
So any tips you got on hunting them down would be great!

According to the Skyrim Guide , Mistwalkers are level 28 , Ancient Vampires 38 , and Volikhars 48. They may appear sooner than that but I came to Conjuration after level 45 so I can`t say for sure.
Bloodlet Throne , Shriekwind Bastion , and Morvath`s Lair are some places to hunt for them among other locations. There`s a quest you can do for the Jarl of Morthal that involves Morvath and vampires that will help make you Thane of the hold.
They may also be met in random encounters . I once ran into a Volkihar feeding on a goat at a farm just outside Solitude. Another time I found one on the open plains west of Whiterun. Use the Detect Dead spell to scope them out from a distance. This spell is also handy to locate your thralls if lose track of them.
Master Vampires are the strongest other than these and they are set at different levels according to when you meet them up to level 42.
If you like lightning , you`ll love the Volkihars and their Life Drain spell is like little red blobs of magic blood being sucked out of their target.

 

[Adam Warlock]

Oh and one more thing, have you ever noticed your thralls changing appearance?
Just a while ago when I was playing I whent into dragons reach with my a dead dark elf and one dead high elf,
After accidentally using fusrodah on the guards...
It caused my thralls to go into combat so I hurried and paid my bounty instead, them I got teleported to the entrance of dragons reach.
So again, I head inside, keep my finger away from R2 and head towards the enchanting table.
Then I notice that every one (including tge jarl and his whole court) in the room is still randomly hostile towards each other, and one of my thralls.
After killing the thrall it they just kept on walking up and down the stairs, in and out of combat, beating the crap out of each over and over...
Glitchy idiots i thought to myself as i wslked over to put my thrall back up.

Then I notice that my dark elf vampire had changed hairs and color to orange, it had also found and equipped an Orcish armor and boots.
And the high elf conjurer had turned into what looked like a Breton or possibly a nord with long white hair + beard.
Both still seem to be the same level still, only appearance has changed.

I guess it was all randomness combined with glitches but I think that paying the bounty quickly while they wear still in combat triggered it.

Yes, if you are arrested outside city walls and elect to pay the fine , when you are moved to the city`s cell for processing , your thralls will be respawned. Likewise a follower will lose all their special equipment and revert to their default outfit.
It is possible to take the highest thrallable vampires through this process safely by commiting a non-violent crime in front of a guard (like lockpicking), getting arrested , and paying the fine. Some players use this glitch to upgrade a Master or Volkihar Vampire to a Volkihar Master Vampire who at level 53 is otherwise unthrallable. I tried this with an Ancient Vampire and it didn`t improve so I suggest reading up on it online before trying it.

 

[Praise Dark lord Anakin]

If My game doesn't constantly freeze today I'm gonna go get me that detect undead spell and then go Volkihar hunting

Anyways I've read about that glitch where you go trespass or steal an apple then paying the fine.
But what I did was quite violent of a crime, inside city walls inside a building.
And I've never read anything about thralls changing race / appearance completely?
It's still a bit wierd to me..
Also, if I were to find me a nice vampire that I might want to upgrade with this glitch, how can I tell if it worked or not?
It's not like they go from let's say for example bloodied vampire to master vampire right? They remain the same but stronger, but how do I know?

Thanks for all the answers to my previous questions, detect undead will be excellent!

 

[Adam Warlock]

If My game doesn't constantly freeze today I'm gonna go get me that detect undead spell and then go Volkihar hunting

Anyways I've read about that glitch where you go trespass or steal an apple then paying the fine.
But what I did was quite violent of a crime, inside city walls inside a building.
And I've never read anything about thralls changing race / appearance completely?
It's still a bit wierd to me..
Also, if I were to find me a nice vampire that I might want to upgrade with this glitch, how can I tell if it worked or not?
It's not like they go from let's say for example bloodied vampire to master vampire right? They remain the same but stronger, but how do I know?

Thanks for all the answers to my previous questions, detect undead will be excellent!

I don`t bother with the upgrade attempts any longer because only the immediate tier below Volkihar Master can be upgraded from what I understand.
Last night I took my newly equppied Volkihar and Ancient Vampires( 2 destruction cost reduction enchants on armor and resist fire/frost on boots) on a bounty mission to kill an Ancient Dragon at Bonestrewn. I went invisible when the dragon took to the air and watched them kill the beast in a little under 3 minutes on Master difficulty.
Volkihar are the best regular thrall in the game for power with an insanely high base health of 823(Ancient Vampire583) and Chain Lightning spells. The plus is that they are reusable. If you upgrade to a level 53 Volkihar Master you get another 100+ in health but if that thrall ever dies , you can`t revive them with your Dead Thrall spell.
Not worth all the trouble imho

 

[Adam Warlock]

It may be only Master Vampires that can be upgraded. What I think happens with the Vampires is that after some point in the 40s levels , the game no longer produces Master Vampires but only Volkihar Master(V.M.) Vampires as mini-bosses in Vampire dens. I`ve never seen a V.M. outside.
Since the arrest gimmick is relying on a respawn , the Master Vampire is replaced with a V.M. because that`s the only character on the game`s template at the time for that slot. Since all other classes are still available , they don`t improve.( at least not on a predictable basis)
If you read my earlier posts in the thread, you will see that respawned thralls are never the same ones you started with even if they are from the same class

 

[Adam Warlock]

If My game doesn't constantly freeze today I'm gonna go get me that detect undead spell and then go Volkihar hunting

Anyways I've read about that glitch where you go trespass or steal an apple then paying the fine.
But what I did was quite violent of a crime, inside city walls inside a building.
And I've never read anything about thralls changing race / appearance completely?
It's still a bit wierd to me..
Also, if I were to find me a nice vampire that I might want to upgrade with this glitch, how can I tell if it worked or not?
It's not like they go from let's say for example bloodied vampire to master vampire right? They remain the same but stronger, but how do I know?

Thanks for all the answers to my previous questions, detect undead will be excellent!

If you were inside Dragonreach during the incident you describe, then that`s considered outside of Whiterun for the purpose of processing a fine. As for houses , idk since I`ve never encountered a guard in one. Your fine is paid in the Whiterun cell before you are released. It`s the temporary transport from one cell to another that triggers the respawn.
Getting arrested for a violent act can result in your respawned thralls remaining hostile to guards even after the fine is paid so be cautious if this happens again.

 

[Adam Warlock]

I would note that I occassionally get a more powerful character by respawning bad guys in a house as I have explained earlier. A Fire Wizard might change into a Pyromancer for instance or a Bandit Marauder can become a Bandit Chief . But this is not reliable and you can just as easily end up with a weaker class as well

 

[Adam Warlock]

One method to get a Volkihar once they begin to appear is this :
Go to Vampire den.
Do manual save of game.
Now go inside and see if there`s a Volkihar there.
If not , return to that save and try again.
The den will produce different antagonists each time you do this since entry into the den triggers a new random respawn from the template list for that location and level.