Need a little help passing checks

[joncampo91]

Hey guys, I never played the first game and I'm learning the second game. Need a little help with my character, not myself being better.
1. I'm having trouble passing speech checks. I'll reload the game and try other options but can't seem to pass. A guide I read said when getting your horse back all you have to do is pass an easy check and you'll get it free...well it ain't so easy apparently. I haven't spent any perk points yet but in the speech tree the only 2 available perks are price haggling related. So how do I improve my chances with this? Just find easier people to convince and "level up" each different speech option?
2. Learning takedown. I cannot take the training guy down. I've tried pressing both block and attack when the shield comes up, and I've tried both when the swords come up (for 1 frame). Nothing works. I saw on another post that a dagger must be equipped? That seems silly if you're just doing a chokehold and not a kill.
3. Combat. Just need some general combat tips. I always seem to get blocked, I quickly run out of stamina, and i die in like 2 hits. During the tutorial I was kicking ass and I realize that skill points go way down after the prologue so what do I have to do to get back to that point?
Thanks guys.

[joncampo91]

Bump

[Riekl]

Get a weak fox potion from the town, the speech check always works first try for me.

[Kryten]

regarding the speech checks: They will be hard as long as you have a low level in speech. I have also failed most of them so far and try to avoid them now until I leveled up speech more with haggling for example. As mentioned here already: there are potions to help with that as weill as perks and better clothing.

[Azmael]

1. your speech stat improves by talking to other people with non greyed options most of the time, so talk with them. You can improve your reputation by helping people, which helps in checks too and some fancy clothing upgrading your charisma stat helps too. Clean and untorn clothes are needed too. On the other hand having dirty and bloodied heavy armor helps with intimidation checks. But at the start some fails are inevitable.

2. Dagger is needed for silent kill, so yes, you don't need it for takedown. From what I found, your strength helps you in takedowns, but not really sure how much. Can't help with this much.

3. Check your strength and dexterity and stats needed for weapon you are using. If it is not enough, you will be out of stamina super fast. Some perks in said stats lower needed stats for weapons, so that seems like a good choice. Best way to learn combat is going to Nomad camp and train with Tomcat. He will teach you about combos and if you manage to defeat him, even masterstrikes, which is really powerful skill.