Oblivion:Disposition

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Disposition describes how much an NPC, Creature, or Monster likes your character. It is value that ranges from 0 to 100, although it can be set lower in the Construction Set, and is usually set to -100 for hostile creatures and NPCs. NPCs remember their disposition towards you from one conversation to the next (although it may change in the interim, for example, if your Fame increases).

[edit] Effects of Disposition

Disposition affects many actions that NPCs take:

Disposition improves the prices you get from merchants by haggling.
Often NPCs will not tell you certain information until their disposition is greater than a certain value (the exact value depends upon the character and the quest).
If a guard has a disposition of at least 91 towards you, he will not arrest you, but instead will pay your bounty himself (as long as your bounty is less than 1000 gold).
Whether an NPC (or even creature) attacks you or not is determined by disposition. If their disposition towards you is higher then their Aggression score, then they will not attack. Enemies are programmed to have negative dispositions towards you. However, if you charm them enough (typically by 90 or more points) they will no longer attack. If charming an intelligent creature, you can talk to them, ask about rumors, and even use bribes and the speechcraft mini-game to permanently increase their disposition towards you. With enough work, you can turn them into your friend. This even works with Dremora (although their conversations are fairly limited).
If a beggar's disposition towards you is at least 70, they will tell you information for Thieves Guild quests without you having to make a donation.
Most NPCs will refuse to talk to a full (i.e.100%) vampire unless their disposition is 100.
NPC greetings and many other dialogues will depend upon the NPC's disposition, with friendly greetings at high disposition and impatient or even insulting greetings at low disposition. Example: if a guard's disposition to you is 50 or higher, when you are sent to jail he will say: "Serve your time peaceably, and pay your debt to society." Whereas if it is less than 50, he will say: "Hope you rot, criminal scum."

[edit] Increasing Disposition

There are many ways to increase disposition:

Disposition is increased by Personality: every 4 point boost in Personality increases NPC dispositions by 1 point. This benefit applies to Personality increases past 100.
Joining guilds or other factions increases the disposition of members of that guild/faction. Each promotion within the guild will further increase the members' disposition. The magnitude of the disposition increase depends upon the faction (+3 per rank for Thieves Guild, +10 per rank for Fighters Guild, +20 per rank for Mages Guild, +31 per rank for Dark Brotherhood).
The Speechcraft minigame can be used to increase Disposition, but only up to a predetermined maximum value depending on your Speechcraft skill.
Bribes can be used, but they become costlier and more expensive as the disposition goes up. Also, some characters (e.g., guards) can not be bribed.
Buying or selling an item, or a pack of items (e.g. 50 arrows for 2 gold each), worth 100 or more gold will increase a merchant's disposition by 1 point each time.
NPC dispositions will go up as you become more famous. Dispositions will increase 3 points for every 10 Fame points you acquire, up to a maximum bonus of +20 disposition (at 67 Fame).
The dispositions of a few NPCs will also go up as you become more infamous. The effect of infamy on NPCs depends upon the NPC's Responsibility. Although for most NPCs, infamy decreases disposition, for NPCs with particularly low disposition (e.g., 10), infamy will instead increase disposition, up to a maximum bonus +20 disposition.
Charm is very effective, and typically only needs to be a very brief effect (just long enough for you start talking to the NPC).
- In addition to the Charm spells that can be purchased, it is possible to acquire a free (but magicka-expensive) Captivate spell by completing the Bravil Recommendation quest.

If you want to permanently raise an NPC's disposition to above 100 without bribing them you need to:

Create a custom Instant Speechcraft spell: Fortify Speechcraft 100 points for 2 seconds on self.
Temporarily lower the NPC's disposition towards you by 10 points by drawing your weapon or fists.
Cast the Instant Speechcraft spell and immediately talk to the NPC (before the spell expires).
Play the disposition minigame until his disposition is maxed out (usually above 90 points).
End the conversation and sheathe your weapon.
Talk again to the NPC, and his disposition will now permanently be at (or above) 100.

[edit] Decreasing Disposition

You may also find that you want to decrease someone's disposition. This is particularly true late in the game if you want to increase your Speechcraft skill: if you are famous enough, everyone's disposition will already be maxed and you will have a hard time starting the Speechcraft minigame.

Talking to someone with a weapon in your hand (or even just with your fists) will temporarily lower their disposition by 10 points. If you sheathe your weapon and talk to them again, the NPC's disposition towards you will be back to its normal value.
Any method of temporarily decreasing your Personality attribute (e.g. drinking Cheap Wine or using a custom Drain Attribute spell) will also decrease your disposition score with all NPCs.
Any merchant's disposition can be lowered by pushing the Mercantile haggle slider to the far right and repeatedly trying to buy or sell an item. Each time they refuse your offer, their disposition will go down by 1 point.
Commit a crime in sight of the NPC. The magnitude of the effect depends upon the nature of the crime (assault: -10, trespass: -20, pickpocket: -25, murder: -50, stealing: -0.5*value in gold of the stolen item(s)). A crime committed against the witnessing NPC will have twice the effect of a crime committed against someone else (although the target of the crime must be someone liked by the witnessing NPC to have any effect).
Joining guilds and being promoted within those guilds will decrease the disposition of certain NPCs. In particular, guards have a -3/rank disposition modifier towards Thieves Guild members (but there is no such penalty for Dark Brotherhood membership). There are also a few specific NPCs who dislike certain guilds. One example is Ontus Vanin, who has a -5/rank disposition modifier towards Mages Guild members.
Most NPC dispositions will decrease as you become more infamous. The disposition penalty depends upon the NPC responsibility. For NPCs with high responsiblity (i.e., 100), you may lose 1 disposition point for every 2 points of infamy. For NPCs with low responsiblity (i.e., 25), you may only lose 1 disposition point for every 16 points of infamy. At even lower responsibliity (i.e, 10), you will instead gain disposition from infamy. In all cases, the maximum disposition decrease is -20.
Be cautious when decreasing the disposition of NPCs. If decreased too low (e.g., to 20 or lower), even normally friendly NPCs may attack you, depending upon their Aggression score.