Oblivion:Crime

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There are many illegal activities available to the criminally-minded in Oblivion. If you are caught doing something illegal, however, you are liable to be punished, both by the law (the City Guards) and by any guilds or other factions you have joined. Nevertheless, NPCs will often commit crimes such as stealing or pickpocketing.

[edit] Crime

If the icon for an action is red, it indicates that performing the associated action is considered to be a crime. For example, a red hand means that picking up the item would be stealing. If you are witnessed performing this action, you will receive a bounty. In addition, the disposition of the witnesses is likely to decrease. Successfully sneaking while committing a crime will prevent you from being detected.

Even if you're not caught, your journal keeps track of all your criminal activities.

The penalties for various criminal activities are summarized in the following table. These values are all determined by settings that could in theory be adjusted by mods (see TESCSWiki).

Crime Bounty Disposition*
Trespassing 5 -20
Pickpocketing 25 -25
Assault 40 -10
Jailbreak 50 0
Stolen Horse 250 0
Murder 1000 -50
Theft 0.5** multiplied by ItemValue -0.5 multiplied by ItemValue

* These disposition modifiers are only applied if the witness liked the victim of the crime; if the witness is also the victim, these modifiers are all doubled.

**Bounties always round up when the value is an odd number, and if the value is zero, it will always be at least one septim.

There are a few specific incidents, such as during quests, where these normal bounties do not apply or where different bounties may be assigned.

[edit] Stealing

Picking up an item (or taking an item from a container) when the icon is red is considered stealing. See the Burglary page for tips on thievery. The stolen item will be permanently marked in your inventory with a red icon; see below for details.

Notes:

  • Being caught picking the lock of an owned container results in a 5 gold bounty, even if nothing was taken.
  • Anything someone has in their inventory becomes public property after their death, and can be taken without penalty.

Actions not considered stealing:

  • Viewing the contents of an owned container - as long as it was not locked when you first activated it
  • Reading a book or handbill without taking it
  • Taking an item out of an owned container that you placed in there earlier

Some items will never be marked in red, but will still be added to your Stolen Item count in your journal. This appears to occur particularly in cases where later in the game (after completing a related quest) you will legitimately be able to take the item.

Some quests will actually require that you steal — even for the "good" guilds (i.e., the Fighters and Mages Guilds). If you want to play a character that does not ever steal, you may be unable to complete several quest lines. Besides the Thieves Guild quests, the quests that require you to steal are:

[edit] Pickpocketing

While sneaking, instead of having the ability to talk to an NPC, the icon changes to a red hand, and you have the option to pickpocket them. This will open their inventory window showing you everything the NPC is carrying (with the exception of any items the NPC has currently equipped). Viewing this window is considered pickpocketing, and can be detected by the NPC, however unlikely. The chance of being detected is determined by the total weight of the items stolen and your sneak level. Gold, although weightless, has a relatively high chance of being detected.

All NPCs, including Dremora, can be pickpocketed. Creatures, on the other hand, can never be pickpocketed.

[edit] Tagged Items

Stolen items in your inventory will be marked with a red hand. As long as this tag is present, the item is considered stolen. Any stolen items in your possession will be confiscated and retained by the guards if you are arrested. Furthermore, most merchants will not buy stolen items. Only merchants whose responsibility is less than 30 will buy your stolen stock, specifically:

If you wish to keep a tagged item, but want to remove the tag, options include:

  • Sell the item and buy it back (although you will always lose money in the transaction unless you have 100 mercantile).
  • Enchant the item.
  • A potion made from stolen ingredients is not tagged as a stolen potion.

[edit] Trespassing

If you go through a door with a red icon, you are trespassing. (Note that not all locked doors have red icons.) In most cases, you will first be told that you are not supposed to be in that area, and then be told to leave. Once inside such an area, you have thirty seconds to complete your business and then leave. After thirty seconds, you are trespassing (this applies as soon as you enter the cell, not as soon as someone sees you).[verification needed — Confirm that this is how the game actually works. Do NPCs wait until after 30 seconds before telling you to leave?] At this point, NPCs may attack you.

NPCs can become very confused by trespassing. If you actually have a legitimate reason to be in the area (i.e., a quest has sent you there to talk to someone), the NPCs can alternate between being friendly (giving the normal quest dialog) and being hostile. So, for example, one moment a NPC might tell you "Stay right there" and the next moment say "You must leave at once".

The front door of the house for sale in Bravil will always have a red icon even after having been purchased, however entering the house never counts as a crime.

The Trespasses counter in your journal never changes from zero, no matter how many times you are caught trespassing or in what circumstances.

[edit] Assault

Assault results when you initiate combat with an NPC, whether by directly attacking them, or using a spell with a negative effect on them (including, for example, Absorb Attribute). Attacks by your summoned, commanded, or reanimated allies also count as assault. Sneak attacks are particularly likely to be counted as an assault, as long as the NPC is not hostile at the moment of your attack. For example, if you sneak up to a bandit undetected and attack him, it will be an assault; attacking the same bandit if he first detects you and turns hostile is not an assault. Therefore, if you are role-playing a lawful character and wish to not have any criminal record, you may have to avoid taking advantage of sneak attacks.

Witnesses to assaults, unlike theft or trespassing, will run to a guard to alert him of your actions. Also, the person you attack will cry out, alerting everyone around, even if you are sneaking. Because of this, sneaking doesn't help in your escape. If your attack is witnessed by any NPCs with a responsibility of 90 or higher (most notably, any guards), you will receive a bounty of 40 gold. Conversely, you will not receive a bounty if no high responsibility NPCs observe it (for example, attacking a Necromancer in a cave before they attack you will not result in a bounty). If you don't receive a bounty, you will probably only be aware of your 'assault' if you check your journal.

If an NPC initiates combat with you, it is not considered assault to fight back. Guards will, if they witness any assault, defend the person being assaulted. This means that if you're being assaulted, guards will come to defend you. If you assault someone, guards will first attempt to arrest you, then defend your victim.

Accidentally striking an allied NPC is also considered an assault. Unless you have installed the version 1.2 patch, this includes striking your horse. Pay attention to the dialogue for warnings when you strike an ally. Friendly NPCs will usually yell "I'm on your side!" the first time you hit them, "That's TWICE you hit me!" the second, then "Hit me once more, and I'll kill you!" the third. After the fourth hit, an ally is likely to turn hostile towards you. If their disposition is still high enough, yielding should suffice to stop them.

Attacking creatures is not normally considered an assault, although there are some exceptions:

  • Attacking a Summon of a friendly NPC
  • Attacking an NPC's owned animal (Pet, horse, livestock, etc.)

This applies to your own summoned creatures, and, unless they attack an NPC, it is not considered assault to attack them.

A good rule of thumb is: the only way to never assault anyone is to wait for them to attack you first (for example, using Frenzy). Unless absolutely necessary, let the guards do their jobs.

[edit] Murder

If you initiate combat then kill the NPC, it is murder. Whether or not your actions are reported, the murder is always recorded in your journal (on the Accomplishments page). If witnessed, you will gain one infamy point, and receive a 1000 gold bounty, which will cause guards to arrest you on sight. If you kill a guard, regardless of whether you were unseen or resisting arrest, you will receive a murder bounty.

An act is considered to be a murder if:

  • The dead NPC was not hostile towards the player.
  • The NPC's health dropped to zero because of:
    • Physical damage (including sneak attack bonuses) from the player's weapon, or
    • Damage from the player's spell/scroll/staff.

Cases that are not considered to be murder include:

  • If the NPC's health drops to zero because of the Poison or enchantment on a weapon.
  • If your actions indirectly cause the NPC's health to drop to zero, for example, if the NPC is pushed off a cliff, walks into a trap, or eats a Poisoned Apple.

These rules result in several common situations where the player may unexpectedly receive a murder count:

  • If you kill an ally in combat.
  • If you kill an enemy NPC using only undetected sneak attacks. Even if the enemy would attack you on sight (e.g., a bandit, an Arena combatant), as long as that enemy has never detected your presence his/her death is a murder. Generally such a murder is not reported, and therefore does not result in a bounty, but it will show up in your accomplishments.

If you have committed any murders, even undetected ones, an internal flag (IsPCAMurderer) is turned on. This has two effects:

  • The Dark Brotherhood questline is initiated, as indicated by a message on the screen stating that "Your killing has been observed by forces unknown."
  • Imperial Legion members will randomly greet you with: "You. I've seen your kind before. You've got blood on your hands. Keep your blade sheathed, you murdering bastard, or I'll put you down myself."

For detected murders there are several additional consequences:

  • 1000 gold is added to your bounty
  • The Disposition of any witnesses is decreased by 50 points. This has many possible implications: the witnesses may attack you, or may just treat you differently next time you talk to them.
  • Your Infamy is increased by 1 point (because of the 1000 gold bounty). One implication is that the disposition of many NPCs, even those who did not witness the crime, will be decreased.

Other than the Dark Brotherhood initiation quest, there are no quests in the game (including the Shivering Isles expansion) that require you to commit murder. Even the rest of the Dark Brotherhood quests do not require you to murder (although you may lose contract bonuses if a death is not a murder). In any situation where an NPC must be killed, you can avoid murder by ensuring that the NPC attacks you first (for example, using Frenzy spells).

[edit] Punishment

When you commit a crime in sight of a guard or townsperson, a price will be added to your current bounty, and a guard will immediately try to arrest you. You are unable to fast travel while the guards are looking for you.

[edit] Alternatives to Punishment

Other than getting arrested, you have two options for how to get rid of your bounty:

  • As a member of the Thieves Guild, you can get your doyen to bribe the local guards and dismiss your bounty. This will cost you half of the amount of your bounty.
  • If you have increased the Disposition of the arresting guard to be greater than 90 and your total bounty is less than 1000, the guard will say "Looks like you are in some trouble. Since we are friends, don't worry. I'll look the other way and take care of that fine for you." Your bounty will disappear and he lets you go.

[edit] Getting arrested

Unless your bounty is 500 gold or higher, guards won't try to arrest you until you get their attention by speaking to them. As long as you have a bounty, speaking to a guard will result in being arrested.

When you are arrested by a guard you have several options:

[edit] Pay your bounty

  • You will be transported outside the nearest town castle
  • All stolen items in your possession will be seized and placed in the prison's Evidence Chest, where they will remain until you retrieve them.

[edit] Go to jail

Your jail sentence is equal to one day for every 100 gold in your bounty. Serving your sentence will:

  • Get rid of your bounty
  • Cause all of your items to be removed from your inventory and placed in the evidence chest, except one lockpick. You are given a set of Sack Cloth Shirt, Pants, and Sandals that you keep after you leave jail.
    • Even after you serve your sentence and get back your items, your stolen items will remain in the evidence chest unless you go retrieve them.

To serve your sentence, simply sleep in the bed in your cell, and you'll sleep through your entire sentence. For each day you serve in jail, one skill is chosen at random. If it is Sneak or Security it will increase by one point; any others will decrease by one point. However, no matter how large your bounty, skills will be decreased no more than ten times on a single trip to jail.

  • Jail can be exploited to allow your character to level up past your character's maximum level. Each time a major skill is decreased by serving jail time, you have an opportunity to train that skill again. If your major skills are decreased by ten points, you will be able to gain an additional level. You can keep getting sent to jail as many times as you want and continue to gain additional levels.

[edit] Escaping

In jail, you have the option of trying to escape. If you open your cell door, the Jailors will try to kill you on sight (Jailors do not accept yields). To successfully escape, you need to make it outside (and presumably then to your Thieves Guild doyen to get rid of your bounty). There are countless methods, some easier than others, of escaping, but all will result in a 50 gold increase of your bounty. A few examples are:

  • Use your lockpick.
  • Pickpocket the guard for his Jailor's Key.
  • Cast a custom "Open Very Hard Lock" spell on the cell door.
  • Summon a creature within your cell and provoke it, causing the guard to enter and defend you, then sneak out behind him.
  • Drop lockpicks in the cell ahead of time.
  • Skingrad's prison, outside the cell, has a "Strange Candle" which you can activate and open a secret passage to the Skingrad Wine Cellar.

Keep in mind that to get your items back, you'll have to loot the evidence chest on your way out, which is also locked.

  • Breaking out of jail has one significant glitch: quest items are not returned by looting the Evidence Chest (they are returned if you are released from jail after serving your time). If this happens, the only way to get the quest items back is to go to jail again, and this time serve your sentence; the quest items will then reappear. You also cannot drop quest items beforehand, for safekeeping.

[edit] Other Consequences of Jailtime

Being sent to jail is one way to initiate the Thieves Guild questline. After your first jail sentence, you will be approached by Myvryna Arano, who delivers an invitation for you to join the Thieves Guild.

During your time in jail, it is possible for various quest-related creatures or NPCs who have been following you (sometimes without you realizing it) to catch up with you. These creatures or NPCs will be waiting outside the jail when you are released. Furthermore, they may be hostile to the guards or to each other, causing fights to break out when you are released. Quest characters who are likely to show up outside jail include:

[edit] Resist arrest

Resisting arrest will instantly result in:

  • The guard will attack you.
  • Any other guards in the area will join in the attack.

After resisting arrest, NPCs with a high disposition towards you will fight the guards with you, and most likely die. It's a good idea not to resist arrest unless you know you can escape. Attacking a guard after resisting arrest does not count as an assault. However, the death of any guards will count as murder.

If you change your mind, yielding to a guard will give you same arrest options as initially.

[edit] NPCs

NPCs with low responsibility will resort to stealing when they need to eat, either by taking an owned item or pickpocketing. If caught stealing, the guards will attempt to arrest the NPC. However, NPCs do not have the option of being sent to jail: they can either pay their bounty or resist arrest. Generally, NPCs will not have enough money to pay the bounty, which means that getting caught results in the guards killing the NPC, even for a petty crime such as stealing a loaf of bread. An exception is when a guard has a script specifically to send the NPC to jail, such as the Thieves' Guild quest The Elven Maiden.

If you want to (or need to) prevent an NPC from being killed by the guards, some options are:

  • Place food near the NPC to make sure he/she has an easily available source of food at mealtimes.
  • Steal any owned food that is in the area yourself so the NPC does not have any items to possibly steal. However, some NPCs in the area may regenerate food at mealtimes, so in some cases it is not possible to remove all food from the area.
  • Bribe an NPC to supply them with enough money to pay any possible bounties. Typically, an NPC will need to have 50 gold to cover each crime committed.
    • However, a scripting glitch prevents NPC bounties from ever being reset to zero, even when they pay the fine. Therefore, any NPC who is ever caught stealing will need an ongoing supply of gold.

[edit] Crimes against Guilds

If you are a guild member and you are caught committing a crime against that guild, your guild membership will be suspended. To rejoin and resume your career in the guild, you must go to the guild leader (or his/her representative) to request forgiveness. Generally, you need to complete some sort of menial task as penance. The Thieves Guild is the only guild that allows you to be reinstated indefinitely; all other guilds will permanently expel you with no chance of rejoining after two or three offenses.

See the relevant quest pages for more information:

[edit] Differences from Morrowind

There are several key differences between the Oblivion system and the Morrowind system.

  • The action icon turns red for any illegal act. (In fact, there is no action icon in Morrowind, only the crosshair)
  • If you pay your bounty you will be transported to the nearest castle/prison instead of staying at the place you were.
  • When you choose to go to jail, you can try a jailbreak.
  • NPCs will no longer stay in their house when attacked, but instead run away and find a guard. The guard will find you in the house if you stay, and you will have an assault bounty (40 gold) on your head if you escape.
  • If you attack an NPC in a place like a store, and he runs, but you kill him before he leaves the cell, guards may still come to arrest you.
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