I would like to know how Skyrim determines whether I was detected killing someone. For example: There is this temple in Markarth, where there are some women down below the main hall. I lockpicked my way there, they stopped me and things ultimately led to a fight. I killed them, nobody was around to see it, yet when I came out of the temple, the guards were all over me...
I wasn't in stealth when fighting, because there were no witnesses whatsoever, so why was I still considered a killer?
34 Answers
I've found that if you attack some one and they survive the first hit, they some how telepathically tell the guards, at least in towns.
A "stealth kill" is really any situation where you one-hit kill someone and no-one sees.
This is normally done while sneaking as you will get the damage multipliers (i think its X2 for bows and X3 for melee without perks) which make it a lot easier to do.
It's 3x for bows, 6x for one handed, 15x for daggers, and 2x for anything else with the relevant perks (Deadly Aim, Backstab, Assassin's Blade)
4I believe that any witnesses to the crime, even if they do not actually escape to tell anyone, cause you to gain a bounty.
Even if someone tells the guards, the guards will first go and check this. Maybe someone heard you after you entered, and ran to tell a guard, and then the guards saw the bodies. Or the people you killed were guards and it's automatically adds to you a bounty, and then even killing the guards won't help.
Other NPCs know when you enter somewhere, so if you commit crime inside and someone discovers it later (i.e. sees dead body) they will suspect you and the guards will come. Actually, if you hold e in front of a corpse, you can 'pull' the corpse around. You can hide it somewhere unnoticeable or throw it down a cliff or something if you're outside, and no one will ever find out.
Guards outside can hear the shouts/calling/screams. The closer you are to the entrance (when committing crime), and the closer the guard is to the door (from the outside), the more likely they will hear you.
If there is any witness, it immediately adds to your bounty. Killing every single witnesses will remove the bounty.
This also applies for killing outside. So if you're in the middle of nowhere and attack a group of people (especially guards/soldiers), it will add to your bounty and the attacked people with very low health will try to run to town. If you leave them, your bounty remains, but if you hunt them down in time, it will say that the last witness has been killed and your bounty is removed. Also, if you attack guards in town, as long as the guards cannot identify you, it doesn't add to your bounty. So you can shoot them with arrow from very far, or use spells like fireball, and kill them from a long distance, and there's good chance that you won't have bounty on you.
