How do skill checks work

[Lt. Low Self Esteem]

I don't get it. First I watch a skirmish and get involved when bandits attack me. Suddenly a guard comes in trying to arrest me, I haven't committed a crime so I don't understand. Even worse, my level 19 charisma keeps failing against his level 4 charisma check. What am I doing wrong? Is there some glitch that causes speech/charisma/intimidate checks to always fail? I lost 40 minutes of progress because I wasn't going to accept something so stupid

[AfLIcTeD]

There is more to the checks than just raw stats. I'm not exactly sure what those are though. Sometimes they just don't work in some situations.

Like trying to intimidate a guard while there are other guards nearby. It most likely won't work. Yet try and do it while he is on his own and it may work. This is taken from the in game loading tips. So it seems this sort of logic applies to other situations.

So in your situation charisma is basically just how well dressed you are. I don't think guards really care about that if you have committed a crime. Yet using charisma on peasants will most likely work.

Don't rely on just the raw stats, take the situation and the NPC into consideration.

[Valden21]

As the above poster said, it's deeper than just stats.

One thing that can really affect this is how you're dressed. For instance, if you've just come from battle, your armor is gonna be dirty and beaten up. NPCs will see that and act like you're dirt on their boots. But if you change into better clothes, they'll have a higher opinion of you. So in addition to your stats, it's also condition of your clothes, the QUALITY of those clothes, and overall cleanliness.

How you say something is also just as important as what you say. Keep in mind the social status of who you're talking to in mind. Henry's an armsman, so in the socio/political hierarchy of that time and place, he ranks between a townsman and a knight. If you're talking to any official or priest, that means you need to be respectful.

[Lt. Low Self Esteem]

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

There is more to the checks than just raw stats. I'm not exactly sure what those are though. Sometimes they just don't work in some situations.

Like trying to intimidate a guard while there are other guards nearby. It most likely won't work. Yet try and do it while he is on his own and it may work. This is taken from the in game loading tips. So it seems this sort of logic applies to other situations.

So in your situation charisma is basically just how well dressed you are. I don't think guards really care about that if you have committed a crime. Yet using charisma on peasants will most likely work.

Don't rely on just the raw stats, take the situation and the NPC into consideration.

I knew it was situational but i didn't think there were some that would just fail flat out no matter what.

But I should also mention that I couldn't convince Rupert the stone mason in Talmberg to lower the price for Pribyslavitz materials without a bard potion even though my base speech level is double his. And that single speech option is the only one there so it's not like I could charisma or intimidate him. Is the check also a dice roll that you sometimes just just get unlucky with? Because ever since Pestilence in Merhojed, I haven't passed a single check

[AfLIcTeD]

Originally posted by Lt. Low Self Esteem:

Originally posted by AfLIcTeD:

There is more to the checks than just raw stats. I'm not exactly sure what those are though. Sometimes they just don't work in some situations.

Like trying to intimidate a guard while there are other guards nearby. It most likely won't work. Yet try and do it while he is on his own and it may work. This is taken from the in game loading tips. So it seems this sort of logic applies to other situations.

So in your situation charisma is basically just how well dressed you are. I don't think guards really care about that if you have committed a crime. Yet using charisma on peasants will most likely work.

Don't rely on just the raw stats, take the situation and the NPC into consideration.

I knew it was situational but i didn't think there were some that would just fail flat out no matter what.

But I should also mention that I couldn't convince Rupert the stone mason in Talmberg to lower the price for Pribyslavitz materials without a bard potion even though my base speech level is double his. And that single speech option is the only one there so it's not like I could charisma or intimidate him. Is the check also a dice roll that you sometimes just just get unlucky with? Because ever since Pestilence in Merhojed, I haven't passed a single check

I'm not sure if it is a dice roll because if you were to reload and do it again you would probably get the same results every time. I have no idea how it really works under the hood, without diving into the code. Which I have no idea how to do.

[DargonBlak]

Originally posted by Lt. Low Self Esteem:

I don't get it...
First I watch a skirmish and get involved when bandits attack me. Suddenly a guard comes in trying to arrest me, I haven't committed a crime so I don't understand.

Even worse, my level 19 charisma keeps failing against his level 4 charisma check. What am I doing wrong? Is there some glitch that causes speech/charisma/intimidate checks to always fail?

I lost 40 minutes of progress because I wasn't going to accept something so stupid

Okay, well, the first item is a skirmish "bug" - if you attack a bandit that has surrendered to the guards, or if you kill a bandit that a guard has surrendered to, then the guard will consider you hostile.

Afflicted well described the in game "skills-contest" as we understand it. There are "situational" bonuses to either side that are unfortunately not always reported as an adjustment in the dialogue contest window.

And btw, in general, Speech skill is far more important than Charisma, although there is one case i know of where a Charisma above 16 is required to succeed - regardless of other skills... so apparently some contests are customized too. ::shrug::

And for help with the time loss due to reload (save early, save often):
https://www.nexusmods.com/kingdomcomedeliverance/mods/380

[AfLIcTeD]

I don't know why they added a perk so you can see others stats as it doesn't matter. People are assuming that their stats need to be higher to succeed. I don't think it matters if your stat is higher than theirs, I think you just need a certain amount to succeed.

I'd just ignore the NPC stats if I were you as they are irrelevant.

[Collateral damage]

Originally posted by Lt. Low Self Esteem:

Suddenly a guard comes in trying to arrest me, I haven't committed a crime so I don't understand.

I had a guard chase after me to the neighbouring village to tell me I am not allowed to walk without light at night even though I clearly was holding a torch. And he started pursuing me when I wast fast traveling. Then he was demanding a bribe and none of my skills helped to avoid it.
Most things are just poorly implemented in this game.

[SkyRiderJM]

This game is incredible but has a few flaws here and there and the DEV could have spent a little more time with it. Sometimes you need to be more careful when doing some activities and at any time someone could see and then report you without you knowing it. Other times, you feel you didn't do anything yet a guard goes for you. Sometimes, you may fight someone to help yet you hit the guard by mistake then suddenly he attacks you. The torch situations can bug out even when you do the torch you feel you done it correctly. Even with all these mishaps that we all seem to write about this game is still amazing.