The current level of disposition appears in the center. There are several options for altering disposition.
Disposition is the rating of how much a character likes the player. The higher the disposition with a character, the easier it is to get something done with them. For example; a character with a higher disposition will give you information more quickly compared to one with a low disposition. Disposition is based on a number of factors, including race, personality, reputation, faction affiliations, and past encounters with that character, their friends, and their enemies. Disposition can also be affected by nonmagical abilities related to the speechcraft skill or through the use of charm spells.
In Morrowind and Oblivion disposition is indicated with a scale from 0 (with the subject really hating the player) to 100 (with the subject really adoring the player). In these games, the player is able to attempt to persuade almost every character in the game.
In Skyrim, the system works differently. Here, disposition is indicated with a scale from -4 to +4, with -4 standing archnemesis and +4 for lover. Another difference is that disposition in Skyrim is invisible to the player. Disposition in Skyrim depends entirely on Speech, race, factions, quests done, if the person is a merchant, how often you buy and sell at their store and more realistically how often you interact with them.
Disposition in Morrowind
In Morrowind, disposition can be altered through the persuasion menu. This menu can be accessed by pressing "Persuade" at the upper left corner of the dialogue menu. When the player attempts to persuade another NPC, they have the following options:
- Admire: When successful, the disposition of the NPC in question rises. The chance of success is mainly based on the personality attribute and the speechcraft skill. Therefore, a player with low values in both of these stats won't be very successful, resulting in disposition drops instead.
- Intimidate: Successfully intimidating an NPC will result in a temporary raise in disposition. The success of intimidation is mostly based on the strength of the player in relation to that of the victim.
- Taunt: This option is used to goad an NPC into attacking the player. Killing the angry NPC will not result in an arrest, as the player acted in self defense. If the taunting fails while the NPC already has a low disposition, the NPC will only denounce the player as being pathetic and refuses to react to any further taunts.
- Bribe: If none of the above options work, the player can always opt to bribe an NPC. Bribes can be given in amounts of 10, 100 or 1000 septims. The success of this option is based on how rich the NPC in question is. A beggar, for example, is much more affected by a bribe of 10 septims compared to a rich nobleman.
The apparel you are wearing also has some influence on persuasion. Wearing a full suit of Daedric armor, whose value reaches a total of thousands of septims, will cause NPCs to take you much more seriously compared to wearing cheap clothing.
Disposition in Morrowind is also influenced by your race, your global reputation and the reputation you have within certain factions. The latter affects NPCs belonging to a faction and factions related to it, be it positively or negatively. For example: The Imperial Mages Guild are strongly opposed by the xenophobic house of Telvanni. If the player rises within the mages guild, characters belonging to the house of Telvanni will drop in disposition. On the other hand, other characters belonging to other Imperial factions, such as the Fighters Guild will like the player more for it.
Players skilled in the Illusion school of Magicka have access to Charm spells, which influence disposition. Charm spells will raise Disposition; the amount raised is equal to the magnitude of the spell. It is possible to purchase or create charm spells potent enough to raise anyone to maximum disposition long enough to sway their buying power, complete a quest, or extract secrets from them. Disposition returns to normal at the expiry of the spell.
Disposition in Oblivion
Speaking with a character causes the camera to zoom on their face. Once this occurs, clicking the icon with the face opens a screen that shows current disposition and gives access to the persuasion minigame and Bribery options. The number in the center of the wheel marks the character's current disposition.
Persuasion minigame
From this menu a minigame can be played which alters the disposition of the NPC. The Hero is rewarded with skill gains in Speechcraft whether disposition is gained or lost.
While the NPC's disposition slowly declines, the player must quickly select either a Boast, Joke, Admire or Coerce wedge. Each can only be chosen once each round. One of these actions is Loved, one Liked, one Disliked, and one Hated, as can be seen by the NPC's facial expressions. This preference does not change. Positive reactions improve disposition and negatives subtract from it. The colored segments rotate clockwise each turn, with larger segments having a greater effect.
An important factor in persuading is their facial expression. For example, when speaking to a Khajiit, if they do not like the option that the player is about to select, they lower their ears and hiss. Hovering the cursor over the "Joke" option causes this response in Khajiit, as many of them do not appreciate humor.
Whatever tactics are chosen, the strategy is obviously to minimize losses and maximize gains; matching as closely as possible the actions that lose disposition to the smaller segments, and gains to the larger ones.
When entering the persuasion menu, the player also has the option to bribe an NPC. Unlike in Morrowind, the player has no choice in how much money will be spend on a bribe.
1 coin raises disposition by approximately 10 points, depending on the speechcraft skill; higher levels grant higher bonuses. The amount of disposition granted by each bribe lowers every time it is performed, until the maximum amount of disposition is reached.
Your disposition is also determined by your fame and infamy. Having a high fame will result in NPCs on the right side of the law liking you more, while criminal NPCs will start to dislike you, while having a high infamy will result in the opposite.
Like in Morrowind, a player character skilled in Illusion in Oblivion also has access Charm spells, allowing them to magically raise an NPCs disposition.
Having a high disposition with an NPC can cause them to look the other way when stealing. Even better; if your disposition with a guard is above 90, he or she will let you go free after witnessing you committing a crime. This does slightly lower their disposition, but not by much.
Disposition in Skyrim
The disposition system in Skyrim is completely overhauled compared to that of Morrowind and Oblivion. As mentioned before, the 0–100 scale the previous games dealt with are replaced with an invisible scale ranging from -4 to +4. The ranks of this scale is as follows:
| -4 | Archnemesis |
| -3 | Enemy |
| -2 | Foe |
| -1 | Rival |
| 0 | Aquaintance |
| +1 | Friend |
| +2 | Confidant |
| +3 | Ally |
| +4 | Lover |
These ranks are invisible in the game itself and can only be seen in the Creation Kit. They are used to determine the behavior an NPC has towards the player. Hostile NPCs, such as bandits, will be designated as -3 Enemy, resulting in them attacking the player on sight. If the player married someone, said NPC will be raised to +4 Lover, which causes them to treat the player as a loved one in their dialogue.
Within the game itself, the disposition is simply indicated by the way the player is treated by the NPC. An NPC with good disposition towards the player will, for example, say "It's a fine day with you around" whenever the player is near. NPCs with high disposition will also allow the player to freely take items from them, with the worth determined by disposition.
Unlike the previous games, there is also no way to influence disposition through the Speech skill or magic. The only way to directly influence disposition is by either helping NPCs with quests or other favors, resulting in a raise of disposition, or committing violent crimes against them, lowering it.
Another difference is that persuasion, intimidation and bribery are only used in a limited amount of scenes and aren't influenced by disposition. Only the speech skill and associated perks seem to influence how good a player is at persuasion.