Personality in Oblivion is an attribute that primarily governs the skills of Mercantile, Speechcraft, and Illusion. It influences how NPCs and creatures perceive and interact with your character by affecting their Disposition toward you. Specifically, every 4 points of Personality increases NPC Disposition by 1 point
. The practical effects of a high Personality include:
- Easier gathering of meaningful information from NPCs through dialogue.
- Better prices from merchants due to improved haggling.
- Increased chances to avoid combat, as higher Disposition can prevent some normally hostile creatures from attacking on sight. However, to completely avoid aggression from most enemies, your Personality needs to be very high (around 180 or more)
Personality does not impact the effectiveness of Illusion spells directly, even though it governs the Illusion skill
. While a high Personality can make social interactions smoother and more profitable, many players consider investing heavily in Personality less essential because other methods like Charm spells or bribes can also increase NPC Disposition effectively. Additionally, achieving the extremely high Personality needed to avoid most combat is difficult without extensive enchantments or gear
. In summary, Personality in Oblivion:
- Governs Mercantile, Speechcraft, and Illusion skills.
- Increases NPC and creature Disposition, improving persuasion, bartering, and information gathering.
- Can reduce hostility from some enemies at very high levels.
- Is less impactful in combat and can be supplemented by other means to increase Disposition
Thus, Personality is valuable for players focusing on social, trading, and persuasion aspects of the game but is generally not critical for combat- oriented builds.
