City Guards - Revisited

Casterial

So lets talk about guards.

City guards are cool, they're a god whos unkillable and eventually one shots you.

A few questions though, with necromancer out why do they usually go to kill you first instead of saying stop and ask you to pay (giving you a way to not die)
Another thing, why are guards invincible? Are they in any other Elder Scrolls game? What purpose does them being a god serve? I personally think they should be killable Why? Well, it'd add to the games immersion, give people a fighting chance back, and also it could make it so if you kill a guard you get an even bigger bounty (Like 5k, or 10k, or like 20k)

I know I'm not the only one annoyed I can't fight back... I feel like guards just being unkillable makes little-to-no sense now days. Maybe when the patch first dropped, or with the original ideas, but with the system now its just an annoying thing that chases you and does unbelievable damage and can't be stopped in anyway.

What do you all think?

Also, why do necros get such a large bounty in duels? lol

SeaGtGruff

(1) You can stop a guard with water-- run into the water and swim away from shore a bit, they won't follow you. I do this all the time, at least if a guard catches me and I've already used the clemency option that day.

(2) If you can successfully run far enough away from a guard, they'll give up and stop following you. This is usually difficult to do, since they can drag you back toward them, but if you're in the open then it isn't impossible.

(3) If you're inside, and can run away fast enough to avoid getting hit for several seconds, you might be able to escape through a door, although this could be incredibly difficult to do, especially if there's more than one guard.

(4) In rare cases I think you might be able reach a sort of "safe spot," although this may just be the same thing as (2). Once I got caught on the middle level of the Saint Delyn canton in Vivec City, and I tried to run away fast enough down one of the long corridors so I could try to use the door-- the one by the Mages Guild. When I got to the door, I couldn't interact with it because I hadn't avoided getting hit for long enough, but the guard stopped right in my face, shook his fist, then sheathed his weapon, turned around, and went back to his normal beat of walking around in a circle in the middle of the canton. I managed do repeat this a second time on another occasion, so I thought that maybe because I was standing right at the door maybe I was somehow "invisible" or safe, as if the guard thought I'd been able to go through the door. But most likely I'd managed to get just beyond the range of his "territory" so he let me go-- even though he was literally shaking his fist in my face.

(5) Of course, there's also the Timely Escape passive ability that gives you a Footpad that you're supposed to be able to interact with and be ported to the local Outlaws Refuge, but I've never been able to avoid getting hit long enough to be able to interact with him, so it seems to be a waste of a Skill Point.

(6) On the other hand, the Clemency passive ability is extremely useful, although you can use it only once a day.

(7) I think there's also some kind of monk's robe disguise that you can get from the Shadowy Supplier, which supposedly lets you disguise yourself as a monk and walk right by the guards.

commodore64

To add to the excellent post above, you can also CC guards if you're in a tight spot.

Re the OP, I can't see why we can't kill guards, we can rob them and the additional bounty idea is good.

TheShadowScout

Casterial wrote: »

with necromancer out why do they usually go to kill you first instead of saying stop and ask you to pay

Because that is how much people all across tamriel hate necromancers!!!

Casterial wrote: »

Another thing, why are guards invincible?

Because this is an MMORPG, where we would have to deal with guilds otherwise just going as a raid group and wiping out all guards in one place, and then messing with -everyone- just for the heck of it.
You know there are people like that as well as I do!

And while there would be ways to deal with this immersive-like, by just spawning more guards if one gets killed... then those gits would go like "lets see if we can make them spawn anout guards to crash the server", so... not a good idea. Also, lag.

...

Though personally I would have preferred to see the guards killable, but with a "arrest criminal scum" spell they fire off at 50% HP that wraps you in unbreakable chains to be helpless and having to face punishment instead... alas.

But... there are means and ways to deal with guards. As has been mentioned - water (guards don't swim), simply running (pop selfheals and you can most often make it!), using the pathing system against them by jumping down some ledge to gain an head start, TG clemency and footpads...
...and of course, hiding out in lawless places like coldharbour or cyrodil if you have a bounty you cannot afford to pay off.