The Persuasion minigame can be arcane for most players of The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Remastered to master, but the payoff is worth the effort more often than not. Once you have grasped the mechanics of it, you will never hesitate to try it out during NPC dialogues, and maximize your Speechcraft skill.
This guide is all about tips for winning at Persuasions in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered.
How To Succeed At Persuasions
While conversing with an NPC, you will notice the ‘Persuading’ function in the bottom left corner of the screen. Select it to begin.
This initial wheel allows you to either start or end the actual persuasion minigame, as well as Bribe the NPC for any immediate large increase to their ‘disposition’ or attitude towards you, assuming you have the gold to do so. Both the cost in gold and the disposition bonus from it are clearly displayed. Next, hit Start.
On this new zoomed-in view of the NPC’s face, you have the current disposition score in the center of the dial that is now split into four action wedges–Admire, Boast, Joke, or Coerce.
Your objective is to use these four actions that are fixed in place, to manually raise that NPC’s disposition. All the while you are engaging in active persuasion, their disposition is now steadily ticking down even without any action from you, so you need to act quickly as well. You can gauge what effect each of the four actions will have on the NPC by hovering over the wedge and observing the expression on their face, hence the zoomed-in view. A squinting, frowning expression denotes unhappiness with the subject, while raised eyebrows (or pricked-up ears in the case of Khajits) and a smile indicate joy–their emotional responses can range between love, like, dislike, to hate. If unsure, you can simply click each and observe the effect on the disposition score, before trying to win more seriously in the next ‘round’.
NPC dispositions regarding a given action will remain constant throughout the course of the minigame, as well as every subsequent time you interact with them.
In each round, you will necessarily have to use all four actions once. You can attempt to persuade an NPC for as many rounds as you like, but you will determine the sequence of those actions by a strategic selection involving the second aspect of this minigame.
Observe the concentric rings within each wedge. They will randomly and uniquely range between 1 and 4 rings per wedge. These indicate the strength of the interaction, or just how much of a positive or negative influence it has on disposition.
Once you select any action, only the rings will rotate clockwise, disabling and darkening the actions that have been used for this round. This means that you cannot, for example, use Coerce twice in a given round, even if it has the perfect combination of having four rings and making the NPC happy. Your goal is to align the fewest rings with the worst actions, and the most rings with the best ones.
After you have completed the first round, the wheel will reset to let you to either Bribe, stop Persuading, or start over with the last disposition score. This time the rings will be color-coded for an even easier way to determine NPC emotions than looking at their face itself. Red and orange indicate hate and dislike, while bluish-green and yellow denote love and like, respectively.
Begin by selecting any disliked or hated action with one or two rings, if possible. Or select a liked or loved action with three or four rings. On the rotation, once again make a determination that will have the fewest rings for disliked or hated actions, and continue till you have completed the round or won the persuasion. Between rounds, feel free to use Bribe to mitigate any bad choices that you were forced to make.
You will likely have to play multiple rounds to achieve a perfect persuasion score, even under the best of circumstances.
Speechcraft Effects On Persuading
The one skill that has the greatest effect on your ability to succeed at persuasion is Speechcraft. And in turn, Speechcraft is raised by engaging in the act of persuading NPCs, among other things. Ideally, you will raise this up to Apprentice at 25 as soon as possible, in order to benefit from the slower countdown of loss to Disposition while trying to persuade an NPC.
Novice
You have no particular perk.
Apprentice 25
Disposition decreases more slowly over time when trying to persuade a character.
Journeyman 50
You can rotate once for free when trying to persuade a character.
Expert 75
Bribes cost much less.
Master 100
Disposition no longer decreases over time when trying to persuade a character. Disposition is also less impacted by the most disliked choice.
That is everything there is to know about winning every persuasion you attempt in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered.
