I genuinely don’t understand how persuasion works

[labuffy88]

I was trying to speak to Martin in the second act, and I had only good “blue” arrows (5 of them) and no red ones whatsoever. However, the persuasion failed. Same happened with the doctor just moments earlier. Are there hidden features that I didn’t understand or is the game bugged somehow?

[Dragon Master]

The game keeps track of your social interactions with each character. When you need to persuade them you can see your history with them. Effectively, if you have a good relationship with people you can persuade them more easily, if you don't then you won't have a chance to persuade them.

[MachineGod]

It’s a garbage system, in act 3 most fail automatically and characters just choose the opposite of your advice

[IHM]

It seems to be a dice roll, affected both by your character's foundational options and the details of your interactions. Even if you have a positive chance you can still fail and vice versa.

[Iguferon]

Originally posted by Synysterpillow:

It’s a garbage system, in act 3 most fail automatically and characters just choose the opposite of your advice

i took this as commentary on the nature of RPG choices where you can just convince people to change their life after 1 or 2 conversations lol. act 3 really isnt about that

[RACHMANOVSKI]

Originally posted by philip k. dickgirl:

Originally posted by Synysterpillow:

It’s a garbage system, in act 3 most fail automatically and characters just choose the opposite of your advice

i took this as commentary on the nature of RPG choices where you can just convince people to change their life after 1 or 2 conversations lol. act 3 really isnt about that

This.

Originally posted by Synysterpillow:

It’s a garbage system, in act 3 most fail automatically and characters just choose the opposite of your advice

If you failed, it means you're not persuasive enough. think before you pick dialogue options, many options that seems trivial has consequences. It's not an RPG where 100 speech solve everything.

imo, it's damn good dialogue system. It made you *think* before picking options, Obsidian style RPG often just offers choices without consequences up until there are skill checks.

[VastGirth]

I failed the exact same way as the OP. I suspect some people cannot be persuaded not matter how many blue arrows you have.

[Inspector Gesicht]

There is no RNG in this game, per the developer.

[Azeltir]

What's bizarre to me about the act 3 choices is that the persuasion checks are apparently so hard, that you should just suggest the *opposite* of whatever outcome you want, because the character will just disagree with you no matter what you pick. This felt really off to me; rather than the persuasion being about how they felt about *me*, it felt like it should be how they felt about *the issue*.

That is to say, the final suggestion from Magdalene shouldn't "flip the sign" of their decision, especially if you FAIL to persuade!

[Taliesin_Merlin]

Sometimes you may have not had all the conversations you need to get a positive enough check. I noticed this at one point - if I didn't eat a meal with a certain group, I might miss an opportunity to set a positive check for later.

As others say, in a natural playthrough, many checks will be missed, especially later on. I felt fortunate on each of the ones I did pass.

[Pieorange]

Sometimes it requires you to have certain background. I succeeded persuade Martin with 8 blue checks with Orator background which gave me +3.

I managed to convince the Doctor too. I won him over with Law background.

[VastGirth]

Originally posted by Pieorange:

Sometimes it requires you to have certain background. I succeeded persuade Martin with 8 blue checks with Orator background which gave me +3.

I managed to convince the Doctor too. I won him over with Law background.

That makes sense. What happens when you persuade him? Does he admit he is a different person?

[Crimson Jupiter]

Originally posted by VastGirth:

Originally posted by Pieorange:

Sometimes it requires you to have certain background. I succeeded persuade Martin with 8 blue checks with Orator background which gave me +3.

I managed to convince the Doctor too. I won him over with Law background.

That makes sense. What happens when you persuade him? Does he admit he is a different person?

I would like to know this as well. This game is far longer than i expected. Not sure i will do another run. Just mark it as spoiler for others.

[Jowisz]

As far as I know there are 2 outcomes for doctor. One where he becomes a bitter drunkard and second one where he becomes more humble and helpful.

[ahueonao]

There's no RNG, every persuasion check has its own threshold and required number of blue "ticks" to pass. The game doesn't tell you exactly what score you need, but the bar should give you a hint. If you only have blue ticks (and a bunch of them), and the bar is almost full but you still fail, it means you were just short from passing. If you have a bunch of ticks but the bar is completely empty, then it might be a bug.
Some checks are just really, really hard and require making choices that few players make (such as going for a particular suspect, or picking a specific trait). Something that might be good to know is that choosing the dialogue lines unlocked by your special traits and backgrounds is NOT always the best choice when dealing with people. Will spouting some random bit of trivia to this person come across as helpful, or just as you being an insufferable know-it-all?

[Victor66]

Originally posted by labuffy88:

I was trying to speak to Martin in the second act, and I had only good “blue” arrows (5 of them) and no red ones whatsoever. However, the persuasion failed. Same happened with the doctor just moments earlier. Are there hidden features that I didn’t understand or is the game bugged somehow?

It's not because of the persuasion system failing, nor is it a bug. You see, all the blue arrows aren't enough because there aren't all of them there. Sometimes, when you fail to convince, even with no red arrow, there can be a line missing. In this case, you had to get one more proof. I was missing his wife having told me for the persuasion to work.