Elder Scrolls
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Elder Scrolls
Load image speechcraft
For other uses, see Speechcraft.

Speechcraft is a stealth arts skill that allows the Hero to influence and persuade characters to like and trust him or her, sometimes divulging vital information that they would not normally reveal to the average person.

Governing attribute: Personality

Skill levels[]

  • Novice (0–24): Can offer bribes to increase disposition.
  • Apprentice (25–49): Gains a free rotation of wedge in the Persuasion minigame.
  • Journeyman (50–74): The falling disposition in the Persuasion minigame falls 50% slower.
  • Expert (75–99): Disposition loss from "Hate it" results in the Persuasion minigame are only -100% (down from -150%)
  • Master (100): Bribes cost half as much.

Speechcraft trainers[]

Books that permanently increase the Speechcraft skill[]

General tips[]

  • You can lower someone's current disposition by 10 by having your weapon drawn while you talk to them. Persuade someone to their maximum, exit the conversation, sheathe your weapon and talk to them again. Easy +10.
  • You level up simply by choosing actions on the wheel, not by successfully persuading people. So by randomly selecting choices as quickly as possible, which should keep the disposition about the same, you can gain many levels in a short amount of time using only one person.
  • Due to their facial structure, Argonians do not smile the way the rest of the races do. Instead, watch their eyes to determine which pair of persuasion tactics the target likes. The eyes will narrow for disliked approaches and widen for liked ones.

Leveling text[]

Apprentice[]

Persuasion, wheedling, cajoling, and coercing are all tools of speechcraft. They are tools you seek to excel in. You are now an Apprentice of Speechcraft. When persuading a character, you now get one chance to rotate the response wedges without having to select an action.

Journeyman[]

Persuasion, wheedling, cajoling, and coercing are all tools of speechcraft. They are tools you seek to excel in. You are now a Journeyman of Speechcraft. When trying to persuade a character, his or her disposition now decreases much slower.

Expert[]

Persuasion, wheedling, cajoling, and coercing are all tools of speechcraft. They are tools you seek to excel in. You are now an Expert of Speechcraft. When trying to persuade a character, you suffer less disposition penalty from the most disliked action.

Master[]

Persuasion, wheedling, cajoling, and coercing are all tools of speechcraft. They are tools you seek to excel in. You are now a Master of Speechcraft. When trying to persuade a character, bribery costs half of what it would normally.

Character dialogue[]

When your Speechcraft skill is 70 or higher, characters will say: "You've got quite the silver tongue."

Potentially useless[]

  • Illusion spells can raise Personality and Speechcraft or improve the opinions of characters toward the player.
  • Speechcraft is a minigame like Security, those who are already good at one or both of those games will find the associated skill relatively useless except for generating bonus attribute points (Personality and Agility) each time they gain a level.

One purpose[]

  • Speechcraft is quickly overshadowed by the relatively low cost of bribing someone, or in the case of charm spells, zero cost. However, it is effective in raising the Personality of a character when using the effective leveling strategy.

With effective leveling, you build a character to maximize all of the attributes to 100 by gaining +5 / +5 / +5 (+1 for Luck).

In order to do this, you must study the game mechanics and master the leveling process. It takes 10 of any Major Skills to gain one level. In this process, should all 10 happen to fall under one attribute, such as Strength, then when you rest you will be granted +5 towards that attribute, in this case Strength. But doing so results in the question; If I used all 10 on Strength-related skills, where does the rest come from?

That answer, is effective leveling. Let's assume you also want to raise Endurance as well as Personality. Instead of doing at least three Major Skills and hoping for the best with +2's and +3's, you raise your Minor Skills first. If you gain all 10 Major Skills first, then anything else is shoved aside and is considered wasted. The Minor Skills really don't roll over to the next level, yet they don't tend to carry with the current. Therefore, you raise your Minor skills first. Suppose you have no Personality-related Major Skills, yet you want your Personality raised for the next level. Your options are Speechcraft, Mercantile, and Illusion. Let's assume you don't have the money or the items to use Mercantile, and you don't have enough Magicka or the proper spells to raise Illusion. Then you have one option left, Speechcraft training. Enter the chat-menu and keep playing the game, purposely keeping his/her deposition low. You can blow through ten levels in Speechcraft in just a few minutes. This then grants you the +5 bonus to the Personality for the next level. Next, do your (for our example) Endurance, then Strength and rest. And just like that, +5 Strength, +5 Endurance, and +5 Personality for your next level.

See also[]

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