Speech

This skills of persuasion can be used to get better prices from merchants and persuade others to do as you ask.

"I've heard of you and your honeyed words."

Speech is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Speech is one of the 18 skills and will fall under the The Thief play-style.

This skill is a combination of both Speechcraft and Mercantile skills of previous Elder Scrolls and replaces them. Speech may also help you in quests by helping you unlock special dialogue when interacting with the A.I. therefore making your quest easier and even shorter.

Speech will directly affect the prices paid when buying from and selling to merchants, even without the assorted perks. At 0 speech, merchants will sell items for 3 times their base price, and buy for a third of their base price. At 100 speech, merchants will sell items for twice their base price and buy for half.

Note that Speech skill increases from buying/selling are gained on a per transaction basis, meaning that selling 6 items at once will net only skill increase, while selling each item separately (6 individual sales, 1 item at a time) will gain 6 skill increases. This can be a pain as for all item stacks over 5, the interface immediately attempts to sell by the stack, and so a partial stack sale of 1 item must be selected until the stack is reduced to 5.


 * Governing Guardian Stone: The Thief

Books and Quests
The following are a list of books that increase the Speech Skill
 * Biography of the Wolf Queen - Found in Belethor's General Goods in Whiterun.
 * 2920, Second Seed, v5 - Found in Sadri's Used Wears in Windhelm.
 * A Dance in Fire, v6
 * A Dance in Fire, v7
 * The Buying Game

The following Miscellaneous Quest increases the Speech Skill
 * Steal the Staff of Arcane Authority for Malur Seloth in Winterhold

Speech Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up

Ways to Persuade

 * Admire
 * Intimidate
 * Mock
 * Brawl
 * Bribe 10
 * Bribe 100
 * Bribe 1,000

Training
Revyn Sadri teaches Speech at the Common-level in his store Sadri's Used Wears on the eastern side of Windhelm.

Dro'marash teaches Speech and is found in the Khajiit Caravans.

Ogmund teaches Speech at the Expert-level in Markarth.

Giraud Gemane teaches Speech at the Master-level in the Bards College in Solitude

Power Leveling
If you have membership in the Thieves Guild, you gain the ability to bribe guards (perk not required; may be a bug). If you have a tiny bounty (say, 25 gold from pickpocketing) then convincing the guards to look the other way is pretty cheaply priced in comparison to the effort of searching out a speech trainer and then paying gold for the same effect. Succeeding at skill checks raises your speech rapidly, and bribery counts as a success. By repeatedly bribing guards you will raise your speech at a prodigious rate, as long as you still have gold to spend.

if your Pickpocketing is high enough, you can always take the money you bribed the guard with once he turns around, for that it is recommended to bribe the solo patroling guard outside of town. But this is not something that was explained in the manual.

Exploits
At the Black-Briar Meadery in Riften, you can pursuade Ungrien indefinitely to tell you the truth about Maven Black-Briar (provided you have your speech already at 25)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Skills

 * See: Skill (Skyrim)