Summary
- A Skyrim bug reduces a player's Speech skill to an extremely negative value, hindering conversation checks and bartering.
- While issues with the Speech skill can be fixed with console commands or earlier saves, many found this bug surprising and entertaining.
A rather bizarre bug in Skyrim has reduced a player's Speech skill to a negative value, blocking them from completing even the most basic conversation checks. While a Bethesda sandbox is often synonymous with strange glitches, what makes the experience charming rather than frustrating is that malicious bugs are few and far between in Skyrim. Compared to launch, the Skyrim of today is a smooth and stable experience, augmented by years of official fixes and unofficial patches.
That being said, a fair few exploits in Skyrim are still possible. A popular example allows players to permanently place powerful enchantments on their gear by temporarily raising their Enchanting skill via Alchemy, and then raising their Alchemy via Enchanting. Given that the stats in Skyrim are only programmed to handle small values, it's remarkably easy to achieve an integer overflow – which results in the affected stat suddenly becoming negative.
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While the cause of the bug remains unclear, an integer overflow is exactly what happened to NoAdministration1070's character, whose Speech skill is now inexplicably -999975. Speech in Skyrim is used largely for two things: to successfully pass conversation checks, and to barter with merchants for better prices. Having a low Speech will not hamper the Dragonborn from completing their quest, but it can produce some rather amusing situations.
Skyrim Player Has a Negative Value Speech Skill
With a Speech skill this low, NoAdministration1070 is unable to continue the Dawnguard storyline, as completing the Prophet quest requires either passing a Persuade check or bribing Kibell to reveal the location of the Moth Priest. While passing a Persuade check is out of the question, bribe values are also affected by one's Speech in Skyrim, and in this specific circumstance, Kibell is asking the Dragonborn for a rather humble sum of 20 million gold.
Though this issue can be fixed by using Skyrim's console commands, or even reverting to an earlier save, there is a certain appeal in continuing such a strangely cursed playthrough. With The Elder Scrolls 6 in full development, it remains to be seen if Speech will evolve in the sequel and draw inspiration from its Starfield counterpart. Compared to its predecessors, Skyrim was critiqued for abandoning its RPG features in favor of a more streamlined experience. While this decision proved to be popular, as Skyrim's enduring popularity has shown, recent hits such as Baldur's Gate 3 could make Bethesda rethink its approach for The Elder Scrolls 6.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 81 /100 Critics Rec: 83%
- Released
- November 11, 2011
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda Softworks
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Creation Engine
- Cross-Platform Play
- no
- Cross Save
- no
- Expansions
- Skyrim: Dragonborn, Skyrim: Hearthfire, Skyrim: Dawnguard
- Franchise
- The Elder Scrolls
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- How Long To Beat
- 35 Hours
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium (Special Edition)
- File Size Xbox Series
- 29 GB (DECEMBER 2023)
