Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Speech Checks: Winning Arguments

Checks are stat comparisons

A dialogue check compares your relevant skill and modifiers against a difficulty. It is not random, and it is not purely a skill number: your clothing, your reputation, and sometimes your recent behaviour all feed into it. That means a failed check is information about your preparation, not about luck.

Appearance counts

Dirty clothes, bloodstains, and a full harness all affect how an NPC evaluates you. Turning up to a negotiation in armour covered in blood is a penalty you chose. Washing, changing into clean clothes, and leaving the armour at home are free modifiers. They are the cheapest way to pass checks.

Reputation and context

Being known in an area helps. Having robbed the local merchants does not. Reputation propagates in ways that are not always obvious, which is why a town you have behaved in is a town where dialogue is easier. The practical rule: do your thieving in towns you do not need to talk your way through.

The three approaches

Different checks suit different situations, and picking the wrong one is the most common failure. Intimidation works on people who fear you and backfires on people who outrank you. Persuasion works on people who like you. Reason works on people who are convinced by argument. Reading the NPC before choosing is the skill. The skill numbers only decide whether a well-chosen approach succeeds.

When a check fails

Most failed checks have a second path: a different approach, a quest, [money, or brute force](/guides/kcd2-money-making-guide/). Very few are dead ends. Treating a failed check as a reload is a habit worth breaking, because the alternate routes are often the more interesting content.

Training

Speech skills improve with use, and there are low-stakes conversations to practise on. Doing side content that involves negotiation trains the skill that gates main quest options.

Related guides

• Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Reputation System
• Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Needs Guide
• Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Quest Order Checklist