The Dark Brotherhood and Infamy

[Tom]

My character Tom is a male Breton with the birthsign of The Thief and the class Thief. I've already completed the Thieves Guild quest line, as well as many other guild-related quest lines. Now, I am looking for a new quest line to begin, and my aim is focused on the Dark Brotherhood. I've never been a member of the Dark Brotherhood with any of my characters before, and it sounds like a fun and interesting quest line. However, before I dive right into it, I want to ask the opinion of others.

My character has 147 Fame and 38 Infamy currently, and I'm wondering if doing the Dark Brotherhood quest line will increase my Infamy higher than I would like. I understand that having too high of an Infamy amount can affect how other NPCs treat you, and I don't want to harm any relationships with the guards in Bravil (my home city), as well as the various other cities where I have "charmed" the guards in order to get away with some petty crimes. But, this is not the only thing I am worried about. I just generally do not wish for my Infamy to raise too high, and I don't know what the Dark Brotherhood will bring in that respect. I do not have the Knights of the Nine expansion, so using the Pilgrimage is out (at least until I get KotN, if I do). I know that I cannot lower my Infamy by most other means, so this would be tough if I raise my Infamy too high and then am stuck in that position. I want to continue using this character, and I do not want to ruin his fairly good reputation.

So, I am asking for anyone's opinion who knows about the subject. What should my concerns be, if any, about completing the Dark Brotherhood quest line as a level 44 character who has reached the highest rank in every other guild? Am I at the point now where the amount that my Infamy is raised in the Dark Brotherhood will not affect my character too much? I thank you in advance for your input. By the way, in case anyone is wondering, I have already read the Infamy article and my character has already received the Blade of Woe, but has not murdered anyone with it as of yet.

[Kage]

Completing the Dark Brotherhood questline would still leave your Fame over twice as high as your Infamy, but your disposition towards 'good' NPCs would still take a hit, as you know from reading the article. You'd still be able to raise their disposition back up to the levels they're on now fairly easily, I think. Completing several optional objectives also gives you some very powerful things and a way to become a vampire without fighting, if you so choose. In total, your Infamy will be raised by 28 points at the end of the questline, but at the level you are now, that won't make much of a difference. There aren't too many concerns in the Dark Brotherhood's questline, as none of your targets are members of the other factions. The biggest concern is really just getting caught by the guards; however, if you have a high enough sneak skill it is quite possible to avoid detection by any NPCs, including your targets, for the entirety of the questline. this also has its benefits, as avoiding detection will quite often increase your reward quite a bit.

[Mickey]

The total infamy for the questline is only 28, so with 147 fame I can't imagine it will affect you much at all. I have never had that much fame, but have had no problems with similar ratios of lower numbers. Plus, once involved in the story, you may very well find that you don't want to finish the whole questline. Either way I would go for it, as the DB characters alone are worth it.

[Hex Link]

Like both people before me answered. Go for it!

[Hunter22]

I would like too point out that the DB quest line is one of the best in the game if you havent done it yet
Its the most memerable for me, and i think you will enjoy it. Are you planning on getting KOTN?

[Anakha]

If you've done the theives guild quests then you have the mask of nocturnal. Slap it on every time you turn in your completed DB quest for the reward. Voila, no infamy points. It all gets chalked up to the Gray Fox's persona. All the benefits, none of the downsides. You don't have to wear it while completing the quests, just when you return to the quest giver.

[Rhys]

If you've done the theives guild quests then you have the mask of nocturnal. Slap it on every time you turn in your completed DB quest for the reward. Voila, no infamy points. It all gets chalked up to the Gray Fox's persona. All the benefits, none of the downsides. You don't have to wear it while completing the quests, just when you return to the quest giver.

Or you could wear it whilst you do the quest, but go to Armand, or S'Krivva and get your bounty cleared before you start, then the guards won't chase you, and you can wear the cowl

[Kestral]

Tom, your infamy is 148 and you're worried that it can get too high? :x

[LP Gibson]

Tom, your infamy is 148 and you're worried that it can get too high?

His fame is 147 and his infamy is 38...

[Tom]

Thank you for the replies, everyone. I'm glad to hear that this is certainly a doable quest line for this character of mine.

If you've done the theives guild quests then you have the mask of nocturnal. Slap it on every time you turn in your completed DB quest for the reward. Voila, no infamy points. It all gets chalked up to the Gray Fox's persona. All the benefits, none of the downsides. You don't have to wear it while completing the quests, just when you return to the quest giver.

Thanks, that is some great advice. In fact, it may be all I needed to know to suppress my worries about raising Infamy.

I would like too point out that the DB quest line is one of the best in the game if you havent done it yet
Its the most memerable for me, and i think you will enjoy it. Are you planning on getting KOTN?

It sounds great to me. After reading on a few forums about some of the common places that you visit for quests in the Dark Brotherhood, it made me curious about what some of the common locations in Cyrodiil hold that is special yet unknown. I'm looking forward to working through this quest line. With regard to Knights of the Nine, I do plan on getting it in the near future. However, I'm not exactly sure when that will be. I don't have a lot of time to get into a new gameplay aspect as of now (I'm actually surprised that I even have time to play Oblivion), but I may get into it when I have more time.

So, once again, thank you to everyone for your replies. Much appreciated.

[Kestral]

Tom, your infamy is 148 and you're worried that it can get too high? :x

His fame is 147 and his infamy is 38...

Oh, that was an epic mistake on my part. >.>

[Sonixboom]

the dark brother hood only gives you like 1-2 infamy per quest.

when your done justm ake a pilgramage to all the wayshrines. once your done that your infamy will be reset.

have fun

-Sonix

[Anakha]

I forgot to mention that the last DB quest gives 10 infamy points and the point at which you get them is unclear. You might want to wear the cowl the whole time just to make sure you avoid them.

[Shadow]

An alternative, after doing the db quests use the console command setpcinfamy 38
But if you don't like using console codes just use the cowl.