Wow finally finished the main quest today, now I can have fun doing side quests.

So I've decided that playing the game the way I have (doing all the guilds before the main quest) is a bad idea. I've finally started the main quest and I'm already completely sick of the stupid gates. I think I've closed 6 or 7 and I'm at the point where I'm just running through and grabbing the stone without bothering to kill anything.

I think the problem is that since I started the main quest at past level 20, every gate since the 1st is going to have the same types of enemies and weapons/armor for me to loot. If I had started the main quest at the beginning I would have seen things level up with me which would have made things more fun. I'm currently on the mission where That's not far at all into the main story and I'd rather just go back and do all the side stuff I haven't finished yet rather than continue and close more gates.

Also, I just enchanted all my armor so my strength is up to 131. Having strength at 131 + Goldbrand = any enemy they can throw at me dead within 3 to 4 hits. I also enchanted my deadric bow to do 22 points of fire damage for 2 seconds. I can take out pretty much anything with 2 to 3 arrows now too.

So, yesterday I was playing and out of the blue, I got a message saying that I was kicked out of the Fighter's Guild and that I had to go talk to someone.
The quest I had in my current quests was gone, and replaced by the one to talk to a certain person.

That person told me to gather 20 bear pelts, and the quest changed to reflect that. I collected the 20 pelts and gave them to that person who told me that I was back in the guild and to go talk to one of two ohter people for missions.
The quest updated to reflect that, but it is still an active quest. I would have thought that once I was back in, that would have changed to a completed quest.

The quest that I was given is different then the one I had previously. Will I ever get that one back again? Is it going to cause me problems in finishing the Fighter's guild questline?

Well, I finished my last guild quest last night. Fnishing off all of the guild quests probably took me about 25 - 30 hours. People rave about the unique Dark Brotherhood quests, but I'd have to say I prefered the storyline of the Thieves guild and the Mages guild more. I will try to rank them for those wondering how they want to invest their time.

Longest to Complete:

1. Fighter's Guild
2. Mages Guild
3. Dark Brotherhood
4. Thieves Guild
5. Arena

Best Reward(s):

1. Dark Brotherhood
2. Thieves Guild
3. Fighter's Guild
4. Arena
5. Mages Guild

Most Entertaining:

1. Dark Brotherhood
2. Thieves Guild
3. Mages Guild
4. Arena
5. Fighter's Guild

Most Lucrative:

1. Fighter's Guild
2. Dark Brotherhood
3. Thieves Guild
4. Arena
5. Mages Guild

A few tips as well:

1. Wait until you get to level 10 to start the Thieves Guild & the Dark Brotherhood Quests. The unbreakable lockpick helps tremendously for all of these quests.
2. Finishing the Mages Guild is recomended before starting the Thieves Guild. There are two instances where you will be stealing from the Mages Guild and it's much easier to already be the top dog in the guild.
3. The Arena is a great place to raise your fame in case you are looking to buy property or get certain quests.
4. Pertaining to a Fighter's Guild Quest, the Honorblade of Chorrol can be stolen back from the queen by raiding her quarters at night. Don't be afraid to return it, as the reward for giving it back is excellent.

I found that funny too.

I thought the thief final reward was awesome, so i'm really stoked for the brotherhood reward!

I haven't finished the Fighters guild or Arena questline, but some of the Mage rewards are quite nice if you are playing a mage. I still use the robe I got at an early level of that questline. The bonus boosts are too nice to not keep using it.
I swap out between a few other items depending on what I am doing. Usually swap my feather ring if I have a lot of look. I have a magicka ring that I normally wear. Or a night vision ring if I am dungeon crawling.
I use the Dark hood from the DB questline. Or the item for completing the Thieves Guild quest if I am doing something sneaky.

The brotherhood awards are spread throughout the entire questline. By completing each task in a specific manner, you will get bonus stuff usually in the way of badass equipment. There is a final reward in terms of an upgrade, but it's really more of an accumulation of cool stuff rather 1 ultimate reward like in the Thieves guild.

Ah ok. Yes the DB rewards have been very good so far so i was hoping for some awesome thing at the end. Especially if you thought it better than the thief item which i think is great. Then again, like Canis said the mages stuff is good for a mage, the top thief item serves my thief very well.

Yep. Miyu, when you do the DB stuff, make sure you do the mission right to get the bonus. The bonus items are where it is at. Though one bonus reward is just gold, I think. But for the most part, the bonus reward is a nice item.
I see you got further in the DB storyline,

I've done all the missions perfectly for the cool rewards - althought the scales were kind of lame.

That was actually my favorite mission of all the Brotherhood ones. It was an awesome plot twist, some moderately difficult fights, cool ways to do things (with the apples), and was relatively contained. I liked it better than Whodunnit.

Now if i can just keep from killing my horse, which i have almost done his health is so low.

The scales aren't too bad. And its a no weight item that gives you a stat boost. Well, it does give -2 personality, I believe. But I have another item that gives +2, so it balances out.

I've done the first of the dead drop missions and starting the second now. The Rose of Sithis was cool and i carry it around just for show now. I don't like getting missions the way i am now though - i like the personal aspect of having them given to me by a person instead of just written down somewhere. I did have a good laugh at the necromancer mission though. It was so ridiculously easy my friend and i were like, "That's it?!"

Oh the scales are a great item. It was more the fact i do this cool assassination and the guy is like, "Oh hard hearted scary assassin person, here are some magic scales!"

I just knew my vampire character was thinking, "What the hell? Scales?" Plus the image in my head of them carrying these scales around in one hand cracks me up.

Yeah.. I can imagine a big bad vampire carying a set of scales around. I still use them too.

Hrm, well hopefully soon then.



Some of the schedules the NPCs keep (according to the guide) are so ridiculous i can't imagine trying to figure them out on their own. So what did you think of how big and tough that necromancer was?

I hate tracking down NPCs when I need to fense or buy a spell and they aren't in their usual spot.

Actually now i need to find a shopkeeper who will buy big ticket items. I have several magic armors and weapons and such to seel but the Best Defense in Imperial City caps at 800 gold they will pay per item. Any big spender shopkeepers?

I haven't played the main questline since I had to go back into the sewers to get the book. What I'm doing now is going from town to town, buying a house and outfitting it by doing dungeon raids or closing the gates. After about 2 or 3 gates in a row I kind of get sick of being in Oblivion and do something else.

Oh, and xmiyux: A Fighting Chance pays 1200 I believe.

In imperial city, I like going to the staff shop....I forget his name. I always get good prices for him and my rep with him is 100 (not sure why). I know I sold something for $1200 to him.

Repeat customers increase in rep over time. Although, I'm not sure rep has much to do with mercantile skills. I did an experiment where I started w/ a trader at about 47 rep, and maxed out my haggle to buy at 60%... Then I maxed out my disposition with him at 100 and still wasn't able to increase my buy level beyond 60%. Then I insulted him all the way down to 0% and I still could buy at 60%. I couldn't move the line any higher until I went up in mercantile level.

That's too bad, as I'm doing mostly Fighter's Guild and Arena, and trying to play the game straight-up, without doing anything "illegal", which would keep me from doing Thieve's Guild and Dark Brotherhood stuff, and being that my character's a knight, would keep me from being an effective thief anyways...

if you have loads of extra gold you can "loan" a shopkeeper money, from that point on he'll be able to pay you at least that much everytime you want to sell something. You lose money at first but if you have a bunch of big ticket items it will work out in your favor.

Horse armor is up for download on xbox live.

Do you have to pay for it?