Speech

Speech is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas skill.

In Van Buren, it was divided into two skills - Persuasion and Deception.

The ability to communicate in a practical and efficient manner. The skill of convincing others that your position is correct. The ability to lie and not get caught.

Fallout and Fallout 2

 * $$\text{Initial level}=25\%+(2\%\times\text{Charisma})$$

Example: A starting Charisma of 5.


 * $$25\%+(2\%\times5)=35\%$$

The Speech skill was in the first draft of Fallout Tactics skills, but was eventually left out.

Fallout 3

 * $$\text{Initial level}=2+(2\times\text{Charisma})+\left\lceil\frac{\text{Luck}}{2}\right\rceil$$

Example: A starting Charisma of 5 and Luck of 5.


 * $$2+(2\times5)+\left\lceil\frac{5}{2}\right\rceil=15$$

During dialog with characters, you may be presented with a Speech Challenge. A Speech Challenge is a response preceded by the word "[Speech XXX%]", XXX being the percentage chance of success (e.g., [Speech 25%]). Speech Challenges open up additional possibilities in dialog with characters, such as getting them to reveal information they would otherwise keep hidden or pay larger sums of caps for a task. Not every Speech Challenge will have the same chance of success, since some characters may be harder to persuade than others. If failed, a Speech Challenge cannot be repeated.

The percentage of success is determined by various factors. The primary factor is your Speech skill. The higher it is, the better the chance of success. Your base Speech skill is 2 * Charisma. Charisma itself also has an affect on your percentage of success. A character with a 1 in Charisma and 100 in Speech will be less effective than one with a 10 in Charisma and a similar Speech level. Having a weapon drawn will have a slight effect on your possibility of success. Finally, succeeding in a Speech Challenge with a character will make future Speech Challenges with that character easier to pass, if applicable.

Certain Speech Challenges are not checked against your Speech skill, but against other factors. These can include your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. statistics, certain perks (Lady Killer/Black Widow, Child at Heart, etc.), or your Karma. In these cases, "[Speech]" will be replaced with the relevant item being checked against ([Strength], [Karma], [Toughness], etc.). Such checks will occasionally override normal Speech Challenges. Note that these options, unlike a Speech check, will automatically succeed since you have met the requirement. Karma is an exception, as being evil or good will influence the response.

Speech Success Chance
The precise chance of success appears to be Charisma Bonus * Speech Skill / Difficulty, where "difficulty" depends on the particular Speech Check, but not on game difficulty level. Thus, doubling your Speech skill doubles your chance of success, and Charisma gives a non-linear bonus according to this table:

Sample difficulties for early Speech Checks are 215 to convince Lucas Simms to increase your reward, 147 to convince Gob to give you information, and 111 to convince Jericho to talk to you. Thus a 5 Charisma, 50 Speech character has a 66 base ability, and has a 31%, 45%, and 60% chance with these checks respectively. Having a weapon raised increases the difficulty by about 10%, so with a weapon up the chances would be 28%, 41%, and 54%.

Lucas Simms is actually a fairly hard sell; few Speech Checks are harder than about 170. The hardest Speech Check in the game involves the AntAgonizer, and is about 420.

Speech in quests and exploration
See Fallout 3 speech challenges.

Strategy
In addition to counting towards the Silver-Tongued Devil achievement, successful Speech Challenges in Fallout 3 can yield the player any number of benefits though experience is always rewarded for a successful speech check and is influenced by Well Rested status and the Swift Learner perk. Other rewards may include: a significant increase in caps for completing quests, keys or passwords, karma, additional items, or even the chance to peacefully resolve some quests without the need for violence. However, a strong argument can still be made that -- due to how speech challenges are presented and implemented in the game the Speech skill itself is the least important in the game.

Unlike Barter (which will affect a great many transactions in the game), Speech skill will only affect specific dialogue options for the NPC's that present speech challenges in the game. Putting a large number of skill points into Speech, or selecting it as a Tag Skill assures that your character will be very, very adept with a fairly uncommon occurrence in the game mechanics.

With speech challenges, you only have one chance. Since even a high Speech skill will not guarantee success on harder speech challenges (it will guarantee it on easier challenges however as long as 100% is displayed), if you're serious about succeeding in a speech challenge, you're probably going to be careful enough to save the game before rolling the dice anyway. Using this strategy, a higher speech skill will only increase your probability of success, which translates to fewer game reloads until you succeed. Considering this, spending ten points to increase from a Speech of 30 to a Speech of 40 is likely to be completely unnoticeable in actual practice.

It is not difficult to save the game right before initiating dialogue with most NPC's in the game. In circumstances where an NPC will initiate conversations with you that can include speech challenges (such as Bryan Wilks, Lug-Nut, or Goalie Ledoux), these NPC's will only appear under predictable circumstances (nearing Grayditch, obtaining the Naughty Nightwear, or arriving at the Red Racer Factory); thus, saving the game just before encountering these NPC's will allow you to use the same strategy listed above. For NPC's who can present multiple Speech Challenges -- such as Bryan Wilks or Vance -- it is possible to choose the option to stop speaking to them after succeeding in the first Speech Challenge, save the game, and then talk to them again to attempt the second Speech Challenge.

What Others Think of You
What other people think of you will make a difference in your speech challenges. For instance, speaking with Dukov with a weapon drawn will reduce your chances to pass his speech check. What people think of you is largely based on how you treat them, and your charisma. In example, being nice to Gob will reward a discount, while being nice to Desmond Lockheart will convince him you're a moronic softie.

Ways to Increase Speech
Note: Only items adding +5 or more are included.


 * Bobblehead - Speech (permanent +10)
 * Lying, Congressional Style (permanent +1 or +2 with Comprehension)
 * Paradise Lost (permanent +1 or +2 with Comprehension)
 * Scoundrel (permanent +5 with each rank)
 * Tag! (permanent +15)
 * Yew's bear charm (permanent +10)
 * Survival Expert (permanent +2, 4 or 6)
 * Impartial Mediation (temporary +30)
 * Ant queen pheromones (temporary +2-6 depending on charisma, a perfect charisma of 10 will see no benefit.)
 * Grape Mentats (temporary +2-10 depending on charisma, a perfect charisma of 10 will see no benefit.)
 * Pre-War businesswear (temporary +5, includes "Dirty" and "Grimy")
 * Naughty nightwear (temporary +10)
 * Button's Wig (temporary +10)
 * Lincoln's hat (temporary +5)
 * General Chase's overcoat (temporary +5, requires Mothership Zeta)
 * Paulson's outfit (temporary +5, requires Mothership Zeta)

Exploits

 * Talk to Pappy in Big Town and keep performing the speech challenge over and over again; this will help you gain the achievement Silver-Tongued Devil and also net you unlimited experience. You have to speak to Bittercup first.
 * This glitch is patched in the latest version of the game.
 * You can get rid of the patch by going to system settings, memory, pressing the Y button when choosing storage device then selecting clear system cache then when it tells you this will perform maintenance choose "Yes" and it will get rid of all patches on your Xbox. Be careful though as this may get rid of the DLC quests on your file.
 * If you have downloaded any DLC, and you delete the patches, you will not be able to load a saved game until you have redownloaded all required DLC's. There will be no cost for redownloading something, though if you borrowed a content disc to acquire the add-ons for free you will need access to it once again.
 * A similar (as yet unpatched) glitch occurs in Little Lamplight. When speaking to Knock Knock it is possible to repeatedly tell her that her joke is funny for essentially unlimited XP. (Ask about morale to start the tree that leads to the joke)

Fallout: New Vegas

 * $$\text{Initial level}=2+(2\times\text{Charisma})+\left\lceil\frac{\text{Luck}}{2}\right\rceil$$

Example: A starting Charisma of 5 and Luck of 5.


 * $$2+(2\times5)+\left\lceil\frac{5}{2}\right\rceil=15$$

Speech no longer has a '%' chance of working as in Fallout 3. It now works 100% of the time if you have the right speech skill.

Speech in quests and exploration

 * 25 Speech to convince Angela Williams to tell the character her opinion about Thomas Hildern.
 * 30 Speech to convince Doc Mitchell to give you 3 Stimpaks before initially leaving his house.
 * 35 Speech to convince Milo (Fallout: New Vegas) to start the mission Back in Your Own Backyard
 * 40 Speech to convince Deputy Beagle in Primm to give you the information BEFORE you release him.
 * 40 Speech to convince each of the Misfits to be more of a "team player" in Flags of Our Foul-Ups.
 * 40 Speech to convince Lady Jane in Freeside to give something else of value towards her debt in quest Debt Collector.
 * 41 Speech to convince Boone to tell you who he's on the lookout for.
 * 45 Speech to convince Jessup to release the hostages in Boulder City.
 * 50 Speech to convince Neil to help you kill Tabitha in Crazy, Crazy, Crazy.
 * 50 Speech to convince Tomas to get rid of his necklace.
 * 60 Speech to convince Private Stone to turn himself in during the Medical Mystery quest.
 * 62 Speech to convince Mortimer to choose the cannibal side in Beyond the Beef
 * 64 Speech to convince Vault 3 inside all of Fiends will not attack you.
 * 65 Speech to convince Norton outside of Jacobstown to leave the mutants alone.
 * 75 Speech or the Confirmed Bachelor perk to convince Arcade Gannon to be your companion.
 * 75 Speech or the Lady Killer perk to convince Alice McLafferty to give Janet her wages.
 * 80 Speech to convince Keene for not taking the Stealth Boy Mk2 in the quest Guess Who I Saw Today
 * 95 Speech to talk your way out of combat after bringing back the objective to I Could Make You Care and then leaving the Brotherhood of Steel base.
 * 100 Speech to convince Lee Oliver to leave Hoover Dam without fighting you during the quest Veni, Vidi, Vici.
 * 100 Speech to convince Legate Lanius to leave Hoover Dam without fighting you.
 * And many, many more to be added soon

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