Persuasion - how to control?

[xarx]

Is there a way how to choose what I want to persuade a character about? I am offered only one statement and I can only confirm it. I tried most keys, but the only one that does anything is "E" - confirm.

Some statements that I'm about to persuade someone are ridiculous, for instance trying to persuade the superior of the monastery that the grave of a deceised monk is only a bunch of bones cannot succeed, obviously. Now, my Andreas aims to an epic failure, as I do not know how to change his fate.

[orcbuster]

Persuasion is based on prior interactions with the characters you are trying to persuade (as well as background sometimes) If you don't have the required interactions beforehand to persuade then its impossible, yes.

You are not meant to accomplish everything in this game, often you will have to take a loss and move on.

[xarx]

Thank you, but that was not my question. I was asking whether you can choose what you want to persuade the character about, as I was unable to control this in any way. I expect that the content of the persuasion may influence the outcome, doesn't it?

For instance, persuading that we should desecrate the grave is doomed to fail, while e.g. persuading that there's a tresure in the grave might succeed.

[orcbuster]

I mean I guess that would depend on prior interactions and backgrounds giving different potential potential outcomes. Basically gives you more than one way to skin a cat.

Basically certain actions having different potential positive/negative effects on different persuasions even if it is for the same character.

[armadillo-dreaming]

Originally posted by xarx:

Thank you, but that was not my question. I was asking whether you can choose what you want to persuade the character about, as I was unable to control this in any way. I expect that the content of the persuasion may influence the outcome, doesn't it?

For instance, persuading that we should desecrate the grave is doomed to fail, while e.g. persuading that there's a tresure in the grave might succeed.

There's a (possibly broken) tutorial message about this. (Phrasing bc it told me sometime in Act II). If there's a little curvy bubble underneath your smoother dialogue bubble, it's a thought bubble containing hints. Realistically, it's like how some games will more clearly delineate Good/Neutral/Bad dialogue options (or whatever way they class them). Little portraits of Beatrice, Prester John, Saint Grobian, or Socrates will pop up as Andreas is thinking what he could say. I don't remember how the game categorizes them (there were specific words used somewhere about wisdom, charity, etc.).

The important thing is the little paragraphs describing why to maybe choose any given option are presented in the same order as the dialogue options themselves. If you think whoever you're talking to will appreciate the rationalization Socrates gave you, then you just pick the corresponding dialogue option.

Otherwise it very much is about skills, interactions, what interactions of yours they've witnessed, etc. Shame that this thought/hint system isn't guaranteed to be explained.