How the persuasion system works in Oblivion Remastered

The Elder Scrolls 4’s infamous persuasion system is back in Oblivion Remastered and is still as confusing as ever. While a few subtle improvements make it slightly more approachable, you can still struggle to grasp how it works and waste all your gold. 

Although persuasion in Oblivion Remastered is optional, being successful can provide valuable information about NPCs and quests. As such, in this guide, we explain how the persuasion system works in Oblivion Remastered. 

When you select persuasion, you’ll find the option to start the mini-game and bribe the character. You’ll also notice the base disposition number of that character in the middle of the circle.

The only way to win a persuasion mini-game is by reaching the maximum disposition for that character. For most characters, it’s over 65. If you manage to cross it, the next time you try to persuade them, you will find a new text description on the left-hand side of the screen stating, “You have reached the maximum disposition for this character.”

Every character will start at a different disposition number, and depending on whether it’s low or high, you may or may not want to bribe them in the beginning to get a headstart.  Once you begin persuasion, you will have to choose four options – Admire, Boast, Joke, and Coerce.  

It’s a time-sensitive game, which means the base disposition number will decrease every second. The NPC will react differently to each option, ranging from slightly happy to happy and angry to really angry, which you can learn from their facial expression. 

The trick is to select the happy options when they can maximize the disposition you gain and use the angry options when the disposition loss could be minimal.

Before we get into that, notice the bars next to each category. These can range from 1 to 4. Every time you select something, the circle will move clockwise, so you will notice a different amount of bars every time in front of each option.

If you select a happy option with more bars, you will gain more disposition in that turn. Likewise, if you choose an angry option with fewer or single bars, you will lose less disposition. 

The same goes the other way around. If you select a happy option with fewer or single bars, you will gain less disposition. Additionally, if you pick an angry option with more bars, you will lose more disposition. Keep these in mind and act accordingly to get better at persuading in Oblivion Remastered. 

Your second or more attempts at persuading an NPC might be easier as you get more visual clues. Bars will be color-coded, ranging from green, yellow, brown, and red. Here’s what each color means:

These visual clues should save up a bit of your time from analyzing all facial expressions and losing disposition numbers. And that’s pretty much all there is to the persuasion system in Oblivion Remastered.

While you can play the persuasion mini-game with every NPC in Oblivion, they won’t all benefit you equally. Every time you indulge in it, you will at least improve your Speechcraft. So unless you’re eager to improve your Speech quickly for any reason, using this repeatedly could be tedious.

Instead, we recommend using persuasion mostly on NPCs that can provide information on other characters or help progress certain quests in the game. For instance, persuading a beggar will allow you to learn about the whereabouts of Gray Fox, the leader of the Thieves Guild. 

Likewise, one of the early Mages Guild quests requires you to find an NPC named J’skar. Instead of taking the long route, you can persuade a fellow Mages Guild member, Volanaro, to provide intel on his whereabouts. 

Please note that not every NPC you persuade will be willing to give you information for free. Therefore, it’s best to pick your battles carefully. That said, it’s still fun to find people and coax them into providing details about a completely unrelated quest that you might have forgotten about.

You can improve persuasion by leveling up your Speechcraft in Oblivion Remastered. Doing so can reduce bribe costs and improve disposition. Below, you can find all the perks you can gain by improving Speechcraft

Playing the persuasion mini-game is the most efficient way of doing that. However, you can also find Speechcraft trainers all over Cyrodiil who will improve it for a fee. Unless you’re rolling in gold, we don’t recommend going for the latter option.  

That said, below, you can find the location of all Speechcraft trainers in Oblivion Remastered, in case you do have plenty of gold to spend. 

That's everything you need to know about the persuasion system in Oblivion Remastered. For more on the game, stick around on esports.gg.