Skyrim talk:Ash Shell

A kill that isn't a kill

I accidentally hit a lone Vigilant of Stendarr with an Ash Shell spell from long range. The result was that I received a 40 bounty, cancelled immediately with the note that the last witness had died. However, the Vigilant wasn't dead, or even that annoyed, it seems. After the ash wore off, I went up to her -- she merely said, "I hope you're not planning to attack me again" and we parted peacefully. It definitely seems glitchy to register a kill when the "dead" person or animal is going to get up again perfectly all right -- for one thing, it means you could be credited with "killing" the same person multiple times. 174.6.51.17 21:54, 17 March 2013 (GMT)

Well, it wasn't registered as a "kill" at all - that would net a bounty of 1000. 40 is the bounty price for an assault - you'd get the same by casting Paralyze or some other hostile but non-lethal spell at someone. I think what happens is that when you use Ash Shell, that NPC is temporarily removed from the game and replaced by a frozen physics object, so you can't attack or pickpocket them or anything else while they're down like you can with Paralyze. So the last "witness" was the target itself, who by being disabled is technically dead for the duration of the spell. When the spell wears off, the object is removed and the NPC is re-enabled. If you sheathed your weapon/spells afterwards, it would count as yielding, and you'd potentially be forgiven for the assault. — TheRealLurlock (talk) 22:28, 17 March 2013 (GMT)

Ash shell makes NPCs permanently invulnerable

You need to use Ash Shell on any person (I've tried it on my companions - Aranea Ienith and Lucien Lachance), then exit through any door to another location. After that reload the autosave, that has been just created, or press F5-F9 and return to your test subjects. You will see that the spell effect has already expired. And they will be fully invulnerable. You won't be able to heal them or to deal them any damage (neither will others). Also, they won't be detected with Detect Life or Aura Whisper anymore. You will be able to literally cast spells through them and hit your opponents. And however, they will fight and deal damage as usual.