What are the benefits of joining the Guilds?
Even if you don’t plan on doing any quests for a given guild at all, just joining all available guilds is quite profitable. Mages and Fighters Guilds: Joining the Mages and Fighters guilds is totally free, just ask (though you will have to go through a series of quests to gain access to the Arcane University). You can sleep in Mages and Fighters Guild halls, use their services and trainers, and grab most of Guild’s stuff (sometimes quite valuable) freely. Just by joining, everyone in the guild likes you more. So, members will be easier to haggle with (i.e., buying spells from fellow Mages Guild members). In most cities, the Mages Guild will contain many alembics, retorts, and calcinators. These have a base value of 50 gold each, so large quantities of these are a great way to make some easy cash early in the game. Thieves Guild: The short quest providing access to the Thieves Guild costs you one infamy point but gives you access to a fence (sell stolen stuff), a source of lockpicks, an
