Can you get killed in cities?

BEP

Just found myself dead in the middle of a city after going away 5 minutes. Thought I was safe in the middle of the city... Death recap was greyed out as well so I couldn't see any damage source, quite neat. I just find it weird, since from what I know outside of Cyrodiil or Imperial City or duels, you can't be killed by players. No bounty no nothing, so guards are out of the question, so what was it? Strange stuff.

Soarora

What city was it? It’s unlikely but possible someone led an enemy inside, happens with wayshrines.

Necrotech_Master

if you had a bounty, and afk'd then a guard could have come up and accosted you

you only have like 20 seconds to choose an option before the guard automatically starts to attack you, and if they killed you, you would then come back and not have a bounty (because the guard automatically took gold to pay a bounty)

Soarora wrote: »

What city was it? It’s unlikely but possible someone led an enemy inside, happens with wayshrines.

yeah its going to depend, most cities with guards its impossible to do this (the guards would aggro and kill the hostile enemy), also impossible to do this if the city has an inner area (grahtwood elden tree for example)

i would also think most cities are generally far enough from enemy spawns that the enemy would tether before they got too close to the city anyway

phaneub17_ESO

There are some scripted spawns from quests like assassins and werewolves in Glenumbra main city.

Danikat

Yes you can die in a city.

Functionally they're the same as other PvE maps, the only differences are that usually no enemies spawn there and there's invincible guards who will attack enemies as well as players with a bounty. You cannot be attacked by other players unless you agree to a duel, but that doesn't mean you can't die from other things.

Sometimes enemies will spawn in cities if you (or nearby players) are on certain quest steps, they're usually not hard to kill but if you ignore them long enough they'll kill you.

SilverBride

Are you a Necromancer and did you have your minion with you when you went to town, because that will flag you?

BEP

Soarora wrote: »

What city was it? It’s unlikely but possible someone led an enemy inside, happens with wayshrines.

I was at the cooking fire at Vivec City.

SilverBride wrote: »

Are you a Necromancer and did you have your minion with you when you went to town, because that will flag you?

No, just a nightblade. Haven't made a necro yet, but in-game tips told something about necros having illegal or criminal abilites.

FrancisCrawford

My initial ideas are the same as above.

• If you commit a crime, you can wind up dead. (But I think you ruled that one out.)
• Certain quest-related fights happen in cities, and bystanders can get involved.
• In theory, enemies can come into cities. In practice it's rare, but not impossible.

Also, some cities just aren't safe zones. This includes some that you can eventually turn safe via doing a quest. Such quests seem particularly common in AD base-game territory.

Mr_Jord_Joe

BEP wrote: »

Just found myself dead in the middle of a city after going away 5 minutes. Thought I was safe in the middle of the city... Death recap was greyed out as well so I couldn't see any damage source, quite neat. I just find it weird, since from what I know outside of Cyrodiil or Imperial City or duels, you can't be killed by players. No bounty no nothing, so guards are out of the question, so what was it? Strange stuff.

It happens when you die in BG when it ends, you spawn dead in the city, it happens during DGs and you leave it in some circumstances...

Dagoth_Rac

I have been drawn into other people's criminal behavior while afk and guards killed me. That is usually a sorc pet jumping into a fight, though.

BEP

Mr_Jord_Joe wrote: »

It happens when you die in BG when it ends, you spawn dead in the city, it happens during DGs and you leave it in some circumstances...

Oh, I think this was it! I think I just finished the daily BG before going afk. Don't remember any dying at the end but maybe didn't notice with the leaderboard on the screen. Didn't know that could bug you and spawn you dead, thanks for the answer now my curiosity is sated.

And thanks anyone else who chimed in.