Console commands (PC only)
PC players can use the console commands prid <RefID>
and resurrect 1
to bring a dead NPC back to life. To find the RefID of an NPC, you can look it up on the UESP wiki. prid
is a command that targets an entity, such as an NPC.
For example, for Adrianne Avenicci (the woman who runs Warmaiden's in Whiterun), enter prid 1A67C
and then resurrect 1
. You can find more information on console commands here: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console.
In cases where there is a visible corpse, another way to target an entity without typing prid <RefID>
is to open the console and click on the entity (for example, the NPC's corpse). This will automatically fill in the RefID of the clicked entity. This is useful if the NPC's body is visible and nearby.
Teleporting lost or far NPC
If the NPC is not near you or visible after you enter resurrect 1
, you can try teleporting the NPC to your location with the moveto player
console command. First, enter prid <RefID>
(if you haven’t already) to target the NPC, then enter moveto player
to move them near you. The NPC should appear next to you after this.
However, if the NPC is still missing or invisible, they might have been 'disabled' from the game (this can happen with NPCs that have been dead for a long time), which means they won't show up in the game. To fix this, enter enable
in the console. If the NPC is still not alive, enter resurrect 1
again.
Prevent NPCs from getting killed in the first place
If you are playing on PC, you can also use console commands to mark an NPC as "essential" (unkillable). To do this, follow these steps:
Enter this console command: setessential <base ID> 1
. Make sure you use the "base ID" of the NPC, not the "RefID". You can find the base ID of any NPC on their respective UESP wiki article. For example, for Adrianne Avenicci, enter setessential 13BB9 1
.
To undo this change, enter the same console command, but replace 1
with 0
, e.g., setessential 13BB9 0
.
Mods
Possibly she was killed in the vampire attacks (having dawnguard and all).
This mod makes most NPCs hide indoors when there's a vampire (or dragon) attack, instead of facing them head-on and possibly getting killed.
A small mod that makes citizens in a village or city run indoors during a dragon or vampire attack.
This was born out of frustration at seeing the citizens all trying to be a hero and rushing headlong to their doom attacking dragons and vampires. Instead, the citizens will run to safety like smart people should when faced with the horrors of giant flying fire breathing lizards (or bloodthirsty undead). NPCs who live in the attack location who own a home there will retreat to it. If the attack location has an inn, NPCs who don't live there will flee to the inn, along with any NPCs who live outdoors. If no inn is present the game picks a random interior from the surrounding area and those NPCs will flee there instead.
This should work for any NPCs added by mods as well, up to a limit of 150 in the area. After that, they're on their own. The NPCs chosen are first come, first serve by the game engine.
Guards, members of The Companions, Vigilants of Stendarr, and the player's followers/teammates will not run, they will stand and fight. Farm animals will not run either, because they're stupid. That includes your horse.
...
Vampires will be detected when the events that spawn them begin running.
Hate it when NPCs die from pesky dragon/vampire attacks? ...Well boy have I got a mod for you. This mod saves your friendly neighbors from untimely deaths. Technically, it flags certain NPCs Protected.
My mod protects:
- unique named NPCs
- all vanilla children
- named animals - all named dogs, the Stray Dog that can follow you, the goat Lucky from Dragon Bridge, Gleda the Goat, the fox Pumpkin from Southfringe Sanctum, Frost, all Hearthfire pets, Bilgemuck, Old Salty, Lord Tusk
- named creatures - Grok, Moira, Melka, Uderfrykte, Sinding (werewolf)
Allows you to customize the starting conditions for various quests. You can choose to delay the start of Dragonborn, Dawnguard, or Hearthfire quests, as well as other quest events. Or you can also reduce the level requirements allowing a quest to start earlier than it normally would.
...
Unlike the one-off quests, most of the reoccurring world encounters will allow you to adjust their settings at any time. This is the case with the Dawnguard Vampire attacks. Even if you've already begun the Dawnguard quest, you can stop further attacks by setting this value to something higher than your current level. However, I've also included settings to adjust the frequency of the random vampire attacks, which can also be used to prevent further attacks.
Dawnguard: You can stop random vampire attacks from decimating the population, or allow the crisis to build by increasing the difference between the level at which the vampire attacks start and when Dawnguard recruitment begins.
The Dawnguard DLC is great, but one thing I hate are it's relentless vampire attacks that leave merchants dead in their wake. Once dead, there's no replacing them, causing you to travel more or sell less. Well, no more!
...As your character levels up, the vampires, mages and dragons who raid the towns get tougher, but they remain weak, making it ridiculously difficult to keep them alive. This mod has three solutions for this:
(1) It protects all merchants, so only you can kill them! When their health drops to 1, they drop to one knee, and no further attacks will harm them. But be careful, because your friendly fire can still kill them. The exception to this are essential NPCs, who the game makes invulnerable to keep quests from failing. The mod adds an asterisk next to the name of each protected or essential merchant, to make it easier to recognize them.
(2) It levels all merchants to a maximum level of at least three times their starting level. So they'll level up some as your character levels up, helping them stand their ground against the onslaught of raiders and monsters.
(3) It levels all merchants who are potential followers to a maximum of level 90, so they'll be more helpful as partners when your character reaches higher levels.
UFO will allow you to set a follower to be "essential" (unkillable).
Do you worry about casting a really powerful spell, going berserk with your two-handed weapon, or taking a risky bow shot because your your favorite NPC gets in the way? Worry no more! This mod makes all followers (even animal followers) immortal, so they can't be killed--not even by you!