[Balanor]

Important: Along these lines, do not wait to join a faction until late in your PC’s career, as your notoriety can be significantly affected. This is because faction ranks are dependent on overall notoriety and when joining a faction you will not be allowed to join at a rank higher than its initial rank. Therefore, if you switch factions or only join an established faction at high levels, it may result in a significant notoriety loss as your PC will only retain an amount of notoriety that is midway between the initial rank and that required to achieve the second rank of the faction

Question related to this, if I have a character in a temple who gains enough notoriety for the next rank, and doesn't currently but will have enough religious class levels, will their notoriety get adjusted down when they do gain enough levels in the right class?

No! Definitely not! :)
The original section quoted only applies when someone first joins a faction. After that, notoriety will not be reduced when receiving promotions in your faction (and you actually get a notoriety bump every time you get a promotion as well). It doesn't matter how much notoriety you accumulate after you join a faction; it's only when you initially join a faction that the notoriety could be reduced if you have more than what is required to reach the second rank of the faction.

[Hellstrom]

Does killing a shackled slave or letting them be killed count against notoriety? I know it only says "escape", but I'd like to be sure because I often do those things to be able to capture a "better" slave.

Do fights in arenas increase notoriety more than simply killing the same creature in the wild or in a dungeon? And if not, shouldn't they? :)

[Wids]

Does killing a shackled slave or letting them be killed count against notoriety? I know it only says "escape", but I'd like to be sure because I often do those things to be able to capture a "better" slave.

I was wondering that myself, seeing as one of my characters often captures subdued NPCs and strings them along for use as blood dolls; just switch to Subdual Mode, beat down one of the captives (again) and feed on that captive whenever the blood thirst starts nagging. But if you drink blood from the same captive enough times, the captive dies. So I was wondering if, every time that happens, my character was getting the exact same Notoriety as if she had killed the NPC in battle, or if the Notoriety was more (for being cruel and horrible enough to kill a bound captive) or less (as a bound captive is far less of a challenge than a fighting non-captive).

[Balanor]

Does killing a shackled slave or letting them be killed count against notoriety? I know it only says "escape", but I'd like to be sure because I often do those things to be able to capture a "better" slave.

No. Notoriety is only lost if you try to hold on to the 'unbroken' slave for too long and they escape.

Do fights in arenas increase notoriety more than simply killing the same creature in the wild or in a dungeon? And if not, shouldn't they? :)

Yes it does. By alot compared to what you'd get for the same kill outside the arena. But as with almost everything that awards notoriety, there is a cooldown timer for how often you get notoriety for an arena kill. So while you can spend all day fighting in the arenas, notoriety will only be awarded every so often.

[Muse]

Is notoriety gained in the same amount for everyone?
For example, I had a human fighter that did the Bell quest.
And someone else had a human fighter and did the Bell quest
Does everyone receive the same amount or is it random depending on the person.

[Balanor]

Only the PC who took the quest receives notoriety and gold. Nearby party members of the questing PC receive XP for helping complete the quest.

[Animayhem]

Is notoriety gained in the same amount for everyone?
For example, I had a human fighter that did the Bell quest.
And someone else had a human fighter and did the Bell quest
Does everyone receive the same amount or is it random depending on the person.

Only the PC who took the quest receives notoriety and gold. Nearby party members of the questing PC receive XP for helping complete the quest.

Most are aware that certain races gain notoriety faster then others. I think what is being asked that special quests like Bell, since you have to collect the same item maybe different quantities(ie one maybe 7 one maybe 8 etc) if the notoriety gained for completing the quest is the same across the board.

So if a human, elf and orc do Bell's quest separately(not in a group), would they get the same amount of notoriety or will the class and ecl (if restricted) kicked in.

[Bertram Anders]

Non-humans receive less notoriety than humans. Class and ecl shouldn't matter.

[Animayhem]

Non-humans receive less notoriety than humans. Class and ecl shouldn't matter.

Yes I am aware but ecl does affect. The question originally I believe was on static quests like Bell, if the notoriety for the quest is equal at least that's how I interpreted that.

[Balanor]

Regardless of whether the quest is a dynamic or static quest, non-humans will always receive less notoriety than humans upon completion of it. The XP reward may be affected by ECL (drow, gnolls, etc receive an ECL penalty to XP rewards). The gold reward will be the same regardless of race.