best one is dark brotherhood by far

'Best' can mean a lot of things. For instance, if I had three options of having my toes cut off and fed to me, had my skin peeled off, or jumping into a pool of liquid nitrogen, I'd say that eating my own toes would be the 'best' option, but that does not at all mean I'd want to eat my toes. 'Best' is one of the several words in our language that are ever more relative than the others. As far as what the 'best' faction is in Oblivion, that totally depends on the player. One person may say it's the Dark Brotherhood while another may say it's the Mages Guild. There is no definite way to determine what the 'best' faction is since it constantly changes as the view point changes.

One has to assume that any question asking for best/worst etc. is asking for an opinion and any response should be accompanied by a reason. meaminotaur why do you think DB is the best by far?

Well ok, for my personal opinion ...
I like Dark Brotherhood the best simply because the mission they give out has its diversity and it kinda suit my play style
Fighter's Guild .. well, as you can expect ... just go out to dungeon to bash some skull.
Thieves Guild ... to rob people :| some quests are interesting enough though.
Mages Guild ... i feel like a messenger in this faction

DB is most interesting, like a suped version of the TG where killing isn't only suggested, it's required! Also interesting due to it being the most dynamic in terms of HQ, Quests, and power-structure.

As far as the rewards you receive, I would say that the Dark Brotherhood gives you some of the best – Shadowmere for one, the dagger for another, armor… it’s all rather nice. Plus you also have that option to be a vampire without working for it if you so choose.

For the Mage’s Guild, the only really useful thing you can get is your staff and only then if you wait until say lv15 to maximize it’s ‘leveled’ power. Paralyze and / or soultrap work the best, but to me that’s only one reward... yeah the alchemy chest is pretty good in the long run but all in all it’s not that impressive.

I find nothing you get in the Fighter’s Guild to be worth the effort. Sorry, just my opinion.

The Thief’s Guild is fine when you get the Cowl of Nocturnal, and it’s fun to use in many areas but of course to benefit you have to ‘wear’ the damn thing and that means ‘guard magnet”! And that’s only after you’ve completed the quest line.

So yes, for rewards, the DB has some of the most useful. If you have Frostcraig spire and Dunbar Cove, you don’t need the mage’s guild or the thieves guild for fencing and spell making / enchanting… probably why they were introduced to begin with. But I really don’t like murdering off people (except ‘whodunit’. That quest is just so rewarding! ^_^).

I prefer the Dark Brotherhood. I get some cool daggers and items and I get to kill people, which I would have been able to do anyways, but I get payed for it.

I would have to say that the Dark Brotherhood was the best faction in Oblivion. Mostly because of the quest styles. You had to stalk or trick your intended target or those close to them to recieve the full reward for the quest. The Brotherhood was the first faction i joined and all the other factions i've joined since seem mediocre in comparison. The mages guild quests amounted to little more than 'Go here and clean out (insert dungeon name here) and bring back this trinket'. I had essentially the same problem with the Fighters guild quests. I did enjoy the Theives guild however but i still wished it had a little more direction in the earliest stages rather than "Loot random stuff and sell it".

Well theres quite a few factors here...

The mages guild allows you to enchant and spellmake, which are the two most useful things in the game imo. But if you have the frostcrag spire expansion, there is no need to join the mages guild for their altars.

Considering those two circumstances I would rank the guilds as follows:

With Frostcrag Spire:
Dark Brotherhood - They have the best rewards by far...and most interesting story. Mraaj dar's spells and such are ownage.

Thieves Guild - Access to fences earns you a lot of money. Decent rewards as well if you keep the boots of springheel jak. You can make a lot of money off of fences (steal horomir's ice staff AFTER you finish the missions and sell to fathis ules ) Also the thieves guild quests were the most suspenseful and adrenaline pumping imo.

Mages Guild - Even if you have Frostcrag spire the mages guild is still incredibly useful for making money. Just join the mages guild, and raid every single guild hall in cyrodill for alchemy stuff. Then sell it! Learning how to make black soul gems is also useful.

Fighters Guild - Mostly cash rewards and the storyline is kinda meh.

Without FCS I would place Mages Guild before the DB for the spellmaking and enchanting.

I'm not going to comment, because that's your opinion. I'd just like to point out that Sigil Stones are better than Enchanting Altars in every conceivable way.
One: Sigil Stones are free, while Enchanting Altars are quite expensive.
Two: Sigil Stones have much higher power. Example: an Enchanting Altar with a Grand Soul Gem will give you 10 points of shield, while a Transcendent Sigil Stone will give you 20 points of shield
Three: Sigil Stones can be used by anyone, while Enchanting Altars require that you already know the spell.
Four: Sigil Stones can be used anytime, anywhere, while Enchanting Altars can only be used at the Arcane University during business hours after you become an Apprentice.
Five: Sigil Stones are roleplay-friendly. If someone is roleplaying a Nord barbarian who hates and despises magic, but would like enchanted gear, (s)he can use a Sigil Stone without breaking character, but joining the Mages Guild would.

Completely true, but you forgot something...weapons. Also, I've never seen a sigil stone with a chameleon enchant, which is what I mainly use enchanting altars for in the first place.

For example, the weapon enchants you can make with a grand soul gem are far superior than a sigil stone one.

Sigil Stone: 20 fire damage on strike
GSG enchant: 14 fire damage 1 second on strike, 14 shock damage, 14 frost damage, 100% weakness to magicka on strike, 100% weakness to shock / frost / fire on strike, soul trap 1 second on strike.

With the sigil stone one, you have an easily resistible and boring enchant, with the one I mentioned using an altar...you have one that can kill most enemies in less that 8 hits and can be constantly recharged using azuras star and the soul trap effect.

Although I do agree for armor, enchanting altars are only really useful armorwise for 100% chameleon sets. With the sigil stones you can have +50 magicka on a bunch of the pieces and you will have a TON of magicka.

And spellmaking / black soul gems are >3 imo

There are Sigil Stones that offer chameleon. In fact, the Transcendent Sigil Stone give 30% chameleon per stone!
Sure you may get more powerful weapon enchantments, but tell me, how many hits do you get before you need to recharge? 10, 12, 16? With a Sigil Stone, you get (I think) 70 hits!
Also, weapons enchanted with Sigil Stones can be recharged with Azura's Star, why would you think otherwise?


If I knew what ">3" or "imo" is, I may understand what you're trying to say. You do realise, though, that Black Soul Gems are exactly the same as Grand Soul Gems in every way except that the former can trap human souls, right?

Thats great, but id rather have +50 magicka, and its really easy to get 2 rings, a necklace, and two other pieces of armor to make a 100% chameleon. To using a sigil stone would be a waste of a dungeon.

And OF COURSE I know azura's star can recharge anything, but you totally missed my point. The weapons I suggested has infinite charges because of the soul trap ability. And if you have azura's star in your inventory then you can constantly recharge the weapon.

The weapon I suggested has around 20 charges btw...but monsters will die in about 2-4 hits and bosses usually less than 8. But the amount of charges doesn't matter since if you have azuras star the soul trap ability will keep refilling it.

Yeah, have fun with your 20 fire damage...hell id rather just use umbra or goldbrand if I wanted a boring weapon like that.

Yes I DO realize that black soul gems are the same as grand. Its better for lazy people like me to have black soul gems because humans are way easier to find than goblin warlords, minotaur lords, and such.

And for the reference, Y0(_) |\|33|) 70 5|O3|\||) //\//|23 71//\//\3 0|\| 7|-|3 1|\|73|2\\/\\/3|32 1|= Y0(_) (4|\|'7 (_)|\||)3|2574|\||) "1|\| //\//\Y 0|O1|\|10|\|" 0|2 >3

^^just to piss you off

You can use the university enchant / spellmaking alterse anytime, day or night. I don't know what you're talking about - I think you were confusing that with "spell buying" or "recharging".




You can't wear two rings of the same enchantment. Go ahead, try it. Make two "sheild" rings and try to equip - only one is allowable. Or simply find two identical rings and try to wear them both - one will de-equip. So you're just speaking in terms of "this may work, I've never tried it but it sounds like it should".
The context of your point is valid, but it's just silly when taken literally if one is familiar with game mechanics.

And do NOT use net speek here. It was cute in '89, but it's only adolesent and childish today - oh unless you're playing some MMORPG where the forum is littered with immature people with superiority complexes *sigh*

This one is a difficult decision, let's look at the facts:

Mages Guild: One of my favorite guilds, it gives you the ability to enchant things without the use of mods, plug-ins, sigil stones, command console ect. (I.e. with Soul Gems.). You also get access to an enchanted chest the multiplys standard alchemy ingredients. But nothing else (I managed to save my poor Nirnroot just in time!) and some don't work, which can be confusing. You also get access to your own spellmaking and the mystic archives (which can be quite fun with an area effect shock spell ). As for rewards, you get the staff of worms, that has a unique enchantment. You also have access to the HUGE amounts of valuable things just lying around. You also get the ability to have an apprentices follow you around.

Fighters Guild: The questline has minor rewards scattered throughout, and once you become master, you get a salary every month. You can also get some training and all the items in the guild hall.

Theives Guild: At the end, you get the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, it's pretty good, but to be honest, I've never bothered to use it that often. you also get to use the guild hall in the Imperial city. I also found that the questline, especially the waterfront raids, were probably the most fun out of all the guilds. There's also a good bit of gold to be made.

Dark Brotherhood: A good guild. I suppose, if killing is your characters kind of thing. You can get the scales of pitiless justice, Shadowmere, Shrouded Armor and Shrouded Hood, Black Hands Robe + Hood, The Blade of Woe does quite a but of damage after it's enchanted, you gain access to poisoned apples, an opportunity to become a Vampire, Access to multiple unique items through M'raaj-Dar, as well as 200 gold a week and the ability to have murderers follow you.

So in the end, I'm going to go with the mages guild.

Thanks for the correction. I haven't done the Mages Guild in so long that I didn't remember if the doors locked. Either way, though, my point is still valid.


Do you know what you're saying? That's five pieces for 100% while a sigil stone can get you 90% with just three. (100% has little difference from 90%. In fact, you could easily get away with only 60% if you have an alright sneak skill). If you're talking about wasting Sigil stones, there are 60 Oblivion Gates in the game. I doubt you're ever going to use that many Sigil Stones.


That's fine for facing one or two monsters, but what happens when you run into a cave and find 6 goblins, a goblin warlord, and a goblin shaman? The goblins would take 3 hits, the warlord 6, and the shaman 4, just as an example. 3*6=18 18+6=24 24+4=28 28 is more than 20.



Your reasoning is flawed. You say you're too lazy to find non-humans with grand souls, but your willing to venture off to find one of the few scattered altars, wait until the moon is right, and make your black soul gems? That is just as much, if not more, work than just finding a non-human with a grand soul.


Wow...you are such a noobish moron.

Ok, we do our own ways. You keep doing boring dungeons while I just get what I want right off the bat.

And excuse me for the 2 rings thing...Ive always used the ring of the khajiiti and a grand ring of shadows for chameleon. Never actually enchanted rings.



I like how you act like you know everything but you don't realize you can just recharge midfight.



Not necessarily, I can easily collect a bunch of grand souls once a week...the only soul gem I have in my inv is azuras star. (besides when Im soul gathering a couple of grand souls)
1. Go to arena and get 3 grand souls there
2. Same day (if its the 9th, 17th, or 25th) then get black souls and kill some random people.

You easily get a bunch of grand souls.

And seriously, its not like im gonna have to get many anyway since armor is better when enchanted with sigil stones (after getting a cham set of course)

So we have one vote for the Mage's guild as best faction but numerious for the dark brotherhood.


as most are going with "the rewards", which is valid. Others say "it's in looting the place dry for funds" and that's okay but consdier that's only okay for the first part of the game. Later, money is a non-issue (just find some bandits / muraders, and kill - loot - rinse - repeat

So perhaps for early game, mage's guild is powerful (though your mage's staff is 'leveled' in its ability, so it's 'gimp' unless you hold out until lv.15+ for it)
and archmage's chest only creates 10 from 1 (10 ingredients is NOT a lot and we're talking about vanillia game, not modded game )

but for usefulness throughout the game, DB probably wins.

Edit:
we should open a new thread about "enchanting vs. sigil stones" as that is going off - topic now, and I'm sorry I contributed to it in this thread.

For sure I can say which guild is the worst one: Fighters' - the storyline is really disappointing.

In my opinion the best guild in the game is by far the Dark Brotherhood. While the argument of which perks each faction gives u throughout the game, all in all, favours the Dark Brotherhood, isnt due to this that i believe the best guild is DB.

The thing about DB is that it actually lets u be creative in more then a couple of quests(expecially when u want the bonus rewards), i suppose this has to do with the more Stealth\combat oriented quests, it seems its the only side of the game where u can really aproach things from different ways.

Its a guild where u see time after time a real impact on the universe that surrounds you, both in the actual brotherhood that has the only decently dinamic evolution of any guild( power strugles, conspiracys, big mirroring in the consequences of your own actions towards the guild) and also in the world, even if the impact in the world is albeit of a limited type( people die) you hear about it, u stop seeing those ppl in the streets, the assassinations you prepretated have an impact on the npcs around, like that Nord bodyguard in Bruma that becomes a melancolic drunken after you killed his lord. That feedback you receive from the actions you do while on the Brotherhood makes imo the more enriching guild.

"help the Lady Rogbud. And whipe that smile off your Face!"
Beside some funny comments, the Fighters Guild is boring.

The Thieves guild is somewhat annoying. You have to wait till its midnight in that Garden. After that, you have to wait in front of the door of the house that cat. She wont give you quests until its time, but then likes to rush you.

After that, you have to wait until the Morons of the Gray Fox get to you -.-
And this Amusei bugger annoys me to hell and back. He wants to join the Thieves guild, loses the Competition against me and is now a Freelance thief.
And then ,after i free him from Skingrad dungeon, he says that "the Guild types arent to bad afterall!" and decides to join the Guild. Who in the World came up with this?

Dark Brassahood: It has some of the best quests ingame. Summitmist Manor is great.
The Cat in here, i want bother trying to spell its Name, has some good spells. The Night Eye is good. The "Baranoffs Bloody Icicle" is bad. It cost more mackiga then the same Spell made with the Spellmaking Altar.

Which brings me to the Mages Guild. Spellmaking is great. You can make some good Summon spells there. You can make speed buffs for your Horse.

I would recommend both Brotherhood and mages guild. The Guild quests are boring, but spellmaking and enchanting, plus the neat Wormsking robe and staff, are well worth it.

After you have played the Brotherhood Questline, you can no longer use the lucky old Lady statue. When the Questline is finished, You have some Bonuses running, like the Night mothers Blessing, but thats pretty much it. No Cool Device that lets you craft your own stuff, whatever that might be.
But the Brotherhood has some missions that you just have to play. Period.

Dark Brotherhood > Thieves Guild > Fighters Guild > Mages Guild

Dark Brotherhood was the best overall, even though the end of the questline was a little anti-climactic. I'll just say I've had tougher fights with random zombies.

Thieves Guild is almost as good as the Brotherhood. Final quest was amazing.

Fighters Guild and Mages guild...ugh. It's not that I'm biased toward stealth play, it's that these two guilds are just boring. Going to random caves to kill goblins and trolls in search of some idiot's diary is not creative and not fun.

*edit*

Knights of the Nine is really awesome. IMO it counts as a faction, it's just like doing faction quests except you're founding the faction and you're the leader. I'd put that #2 below Dark Bros and above Thieves.

Dark Brotherhood and Mage's Guild i like, i also like that M.O.E. Vampire Clan mod

Definitely the Dark Brotherhood. Your fellow Sisters and Brothers are interesting characters in their own right, with their own personalities and histories. They are welcoming and you really get the feeling that they care for you. The quests are varied and require some thinking as to how to accomplish them. You can also ask your family members for advice on a contract and some of that information can really help you get that bonus. The sanctuary really seems like a home, not just a generic guild house. Also, I like how new rumors are generated after each contract; I really felt like my actions made an impact in the game world.

The Thieves Guild quests -- the special missions -- were interesting, and had an interesting plot. However, the "independent theivery" was a little too directionless for my tastes. I have gold coming out my ears, so there is little point in scraping and scrounging a house for a handful of silverware, books, and clothing. Upon becoming guildmaster, you are told that you have the run of the guild and how it is operated, but in reality no such authority is implemented in the game.

The Mages Guild: I'd have to say enchanting is rather useless compared to Morrowing enchanting. Also, you can find plenty of items that give better and multiple enchantments. Aside from having access to pre-made spells, and the enchanted chest, there are very few long-lasting benefits to being in the Guild. The quests were rather unfulfilling, and there are absolutely no new rumors generated, so it feels like my accomplishments were petty and useless in the grand scheme of things.

The Fighters Guild: an interesting plot, with some funny moments (Morveyn's crayon drawing, for instance), but in the end it feels a bit stunted.

I should mention my character was a very high level when I joined those three guilds, so I didn't find the combat parts to be particularly challenging.

I was surprised at the change of the role of guild houses. In Morrowind, each guild house had a leader, who in turn had a fistful of quests for the player to complete. In Oblivion, there are only really three individuals in the Fighter's Guild that the player can recieve quests from. In general, I just feel like there were too few quests for most of those factions.

I have to defend the enchantments a bit. Sure, there are some weapon with multiple effects, gigantic charge, but some of them are useless. There is no weapon ingame that does as much damage as the enchantment can do, with weaknesses, mind you =)
weakness to magicka, weakness to fire, 1 second Soultrap and the rest of the charge goes to fire damage. With azuras star, you can recharge your weapon after almost every Kill in midfight and wont mind the quite small charge.

Well, there are some things to be said. The charge of the Soulgems is quite small. Sure, with that you can make the deadliest weapon ever seen, but am i to believe that larger Souls, like the ones every Bandit has after reaching a certain level, cant be captured in any Way?

Another thing, how did people make some of those enourmos charges on some Weapons. 6000 is the highest i have seen so far if i remember right. I want to have a soulgem like this.

Spellmaking. It does serve a purpose. While you cant make any useful light spells, you may want to have a 100 point charm on touch for 1 second spell. Can be done as a novice and will help you greatly if you still dont have enough money after plundering every magesguild house =)
Every Summonspell is a bit to short in my Opinion. While the 120 Second limit is quite short and makes selfmade lightspells useless in comparison to Daylight, this 2 minutes are the longest summon you are going to get. Without modding, that is =)

Furthermore, when you play a breton with atronach birthsign, with some Gear enchanted with 50+ magicka, you could make yourself some devastating nuke.

Fully agree on that, enchantement is definitively useful.



I understand that the Daedra Lord could dispose of special items and use them in their unique artifacts (Goldbrand, Ebony Blade,...), so I'm not so surpirsed to find 3000 charges in them.
But, hey, after my first mission in the mages guild I am given a staff with 6000 charges (!), made by men. WTF, are they more powerful than the Daedra Lord ?



Agree with you, I would also mention that you can add soultrap to your fireballs and mix effect from various schools (ex: invisibility + fortify speed to escape, paralysis + elemental damage,...) to obtain quite handy spells.

Just a few words on the Mage's Guild. Making my own spells is the most powerful aspect in the game. A +100 Merchant with+100 Charm spell is the perfect trade easing spell. A 100 point shock + 100 point fire damage with 100 drain health spell will kill anything in one shot during low levels. I never did bother going past level 1, never saw the point with enemies being level tied to the player. I remember fondly going on "Guard" hunts where with a couple of good spells, whole contingents of guards lay dead at my feet and I'm just happily skipping along minding my own business. Either using 2 level 25 frenzy for 120 seconds spells or just one good massive damage spell, the likes of which I've mentioned. The largest amount of damage an disenchanted blade can deal is like 30 right? Ill have to go check. Then there are the restoration spell school sets. Stacking em can make you feel godly, if for only 60 seconds at a time. To finalize, I am a bit confused about why people think spell making is so ho hum. It makes the amount of damage one can do in the other guilds pale in comparison. Any comments are of course welcomed. Mag

That's great man, lol (I just now read it)
Well....I like the Thieves guild because like Ninja said my style of playing (stealth).
My favorite games are the Thief games so I don't go around killing innocent characters.

You frogt frost damage in your superspell, and the weaknesses

Everones favorite Sword, Umbra, can be hammered to 125% health, as everything else, with an expertlevel on armorer. With this, you'll have 33 base damage.

You frogt frost damage in your superspell, and the weaknesses

Everones favorite Sword, Umbra, can be hammered to 125% health, as everything else, with an expertlevel on armorer. With this, you'll have 33 base damage.

Being a mage, I favor the mages guild. I also like the Dark Brother Hood