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I already have Maurice Jondrelle following me. I'm avoiding spoilers, so I didn't know he was batshit crazy and attacks every enemy on-sight. Since I'm stuck with him, and since I'm a sneak archer who can't just kill everything before he blows our stealth when I'm trying to hide from suspicious enemies, how can I keep him (and me) alive on the road?

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  • 29
    Words cannot express how much I approve of this title.
    – Ben Blank
    Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 0:56
  • 4
    I wish I could have thought of a way to make it a question, but the title demanded to be written that way and was having none of it.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 1:21

7 Answers 7

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If you enter setessential 1C605 1 in the console, he won't be able to die.

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  • aaaah I wish I have read this before. The ba***rd went to figth a bear barehanded in his first chane
    – Ander Biguri
    Commented Jul 3, 2014 at 15:32
  • FYI, there are mods for this. I recommend Protect Your People (LE | SE), which sets most unique NPCs as "protected" (can't die unless the player kills them). This may not be ideal if you want a gritty realism playthrough, but if you just want the suicidally insane NPCs to stop getting themselves killed, it's a pretty thorough fix.
    – Kevin
    Commented Mar 16, 2021 at 23:52
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To get Maurice to Eldergrove alive, the biggest challenge was the bandit towers. I did not know to clear them out in advance, because I had no idea what a huge liability Maurice is. (Do you know he even gets nasty when you use Healing Hands on him?) So what I did was sneak as close to the bandit towers as I could get, then sprinted. I headed for the nearest landmark past the towers that I could discover, which was not too far at all. Then as soon as it showed as a discovery, I used fast travel: once away and once back, to make sure Maurice and Lydia showed up by my side on the far side of the bandits.

There was also a pair of dragons haunting the Eldergrove entrance itself, but far enough away that when I stayed in sneak they and Maurice managed not to see each other.

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    mm he didnt mind me using Healing Hands on him, maybe he just really doesnt like you :)
    – TrewTzu
    Commented Nov 30, 2011 at 3:40
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In the end I needed to use the console to offset his suicidal lack of tactics and keep him alive. I clicked on him with the console open (to make his actor number the active one) and typed:

  setav health 100

This seemed to keep him in decent health for the rest of the trip, including a dragon attack. By the Nine Divines, he tried to box with a dragon...

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  • 3
    Perhaps he's simply embracing Kynareth's teachings… death is a part of life, after all. ;-)
    – Ben Blank
    Commented Nov 30, 2011 at 1:26
  • too bad he isn't marked as an Essential NPC, Otherwise I would be all for him battling a dragon.
    – alexanderpas
    Commented Dec 5, 2011 at 0:27
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It's far easier to get him there if you travel to Eldergrove before starting the quest, since then you can fast-travel there with him.

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    Specifically, why did that make it easier?
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Oct 26, 2013 at 2:00
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    @SevenSidedDie Well, duh, just fast travel directly to Eldergrove, bypassing the troubles.
    – Mithoron
    Commented Mar 8, 2021 at 1:39
  • Thanks. I rewrote the answer to say the quiet part loud. It doesn't really match the "already started the quest and am avoiding spoilers" in the question, which is part of why the quiet part wasn't actually obvious, but it's useful as a strategy when replaying.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Mar 16, 2021 at 19:46
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I found that going off road was helpful as it avoided most trolls and bandits. With that said, he only just got to that tree alive.

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At one point while I was escorting him he had an axe in his hand... I have no idea where he got it from because he usually just punched everything else. I've finished that quest now and didn't try this, but you may be able to trade some weapons with the fool like with other companions. Worth a try.

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    Can't trade with him, can't ask him to stay put. Talking to him, he just replies, "How much farther is it?" He's following you, but he's not a full-blown companion. He's just a suicidal escort quest NPC.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Nov 19, 2011 at 0:38
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    "How much farther is it?"
    – alexanderpas
    Commented Dec 5, 2011 at 0:28
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I already finished that quest without this npc, he never even approached me, so you can just kill him as others have mentioned (or let him die). However, one person mentioned that he was using an axe at one point, so maybe with a high enough pickpocket skill, you could reverse pickpocket some good armour and a weapon into his inventory?

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