About Charisma and the social skills...

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:15 am

The number of followers is CH/4, right?
Also, what are your experiences with Persuasion and Haggle? Are they worth it? Never used them in all my playthroughs...

Thanks in advance!

Curry · Post by **Curry** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:00 pm

Persuasion is sweet, haggle is useless

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:08 pm

Pretty much tought so about Haggle: money never was an issue in Arcanum.
Thanks.

TwoHandedSword · Post by **TwoHandedSword** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:38 am

Curry wrote:Persuasion is sweet, haggle is useless

And I've always felt the opposite. I guess it comes down to a difference in playing styles.

While I love the game, I can't stand the AI governing followers' actions; therefore I usually play solo. Haggle is extremely useful in Shrouded Hills and the first trip into Tarant, when money is still extremely tight and being able to sell anything to anyone confers a huge early-game advantage.

(It takes expertise in Haggle to do so... which means if you play as a gnome, you'll only need to spend a total of two character points on Haggle, and none on any extra WP!)

I rarely take more than two ranks in Persuasion, and I do so not for the followers but for the extra quests and gameplay options they unlock. (Listening to Lukan completely butcher the English language, for example, remains one of my laugh-out-loud guilty pleasures.)

flix · Post by **flix** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:28 pm

I think persuasion and haggle are both useful. I skipped both my first run-through, as I was playing a barbarian who threatened or fought his way through situations and seemed perpetually poor. Even then, he had plenty of money by endgame, so haggle is really only useful at the beginning or if you're bad with money.

Second run-through was a silver-tongued elf with tons of charisma and persuasion. There's something really satisfying about being able to talk your way out of trouble or convince people to do something. There were tons of opportunities like these that I missed with my barbarian, who didn't even have the speech options.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:38 pm

I have to admit, Expert Haggle is a huge boon, especially if you're lazy.

doady · Post by **doady** » Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:34 am

Haggle is based on Willpower, not Charisma, so if your character is Charisma-based, it's not like you have a choice anyways...