Morrowind:Speechcraft

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Skill: Speechcraft

Governing Attribute: Personality
Specialization: Stealth
Increase: Successful Persuasion: +1.0 Failed Persuasion: +0.0

Those skilled in speechcraft influence others by admiring, intimidating, and taunting them. Listeners are more willing to divulge information or to entrust important tasks to the skilled speaker.

[edit] Character Creation

The following races receive bonuses to their Speechcraft skill:

+10 bonus: Imperial

The following classes have Speechcraft as a Major skill:

Agent, Bard, Healer, Knight, Pilgrim

The following classes have Speechcraft as a Minor skill:

Acrobat, Rogue, Thief

[edit] Trainers

The Master Trainer of Speechcraft is Skink-in-Tree's-Shade at the Mage's Guild in Wolverine Hall. Other trainers of note are:

Ruccia Conician in the Grand Council Chambers in Ebonheart (up to 75)
Caius Cosades at his house in Balmora (up to 70)

See Speechcraft Trainers for the complete list.

[edit] Books

The following books will increase your Speechcraft skill:

[edit] Persuasion

There are four means of persuasion available to you:

Admire: This is usually the best way to get on somebody's good side, provided you're skilled at Speechcraft. If you're not, this may have the opposite effect, to the point where they may even attack you. (On the other hand, if you want to get attacked, but don't have the skill to Taunt effectively, this may be a possible alternative.)
Intimidate: If you can't make them love you, you can always make them fear you instead. This technique may be more effective if you're significantly stronger than the target. Some people may not be impressed, however.
Taunt: This technique is the best way to get people to hate you. Successfully Taunt somebody enough times, and they will rise to the bait and attack you. This is a good way to have an excuse to kill somebody in front of witnesses, because if they attack first, it's considered self-defense.
Bribe: If you lack the skills to either Admire or Intimidate somebody into doing your wishes, a well-placed bribe may do the trick. Just be careful who you're talking to - while a beggar will take whatever he can get, rich people may be insulted rather than pleased if your bribe is too low.

[edit] Notes

If you need to kill somebody, but lack the skills to Taunt them into attacking you, (Taunts are much less effective once their Disposition goes down to 0) you can repeatedly bribe them to raise their Disposition, and then Taunt again. Eventually you should be able to get them to attack. And after you kill them, you can take all your gold back again.
Some NPCs will refuse to talk to you, making persuasion impossible. There is a trick to get around this, however. Strip naked - remove all armor, clothing, and jewelry, and then talk to them. You'll get the "Cover yourself! Are you mad?" response in place of the usual belligerent shove-off, and you can then continue the dialog as normal. This does not work on Argonians or Khajiits, and it is not guaranteed to work on all NPCs, but in most cases, it is a sneaky way around this problem.
You can train Persuasion quickly by intimidating the same person several times. This is more effective if you are a high level, and they are a very low one (try it in commoners). On the PC you can speed this up by moving the dialogue window's "Persuasion" button directly underneath the "Intimidate" button. Fast clicking can beef it up nicely.

Skills in Morrowind
Combat:	Armorer \| Athletics \| Axe \| Block \| Blunt Weapon \| Heavy Armor \| Long Blade \| Medium Armor \| Spear
Magic:	Alchemy \| Alteration \| Conjuration \| Destruction \| Enchant \| Illusion \| Mysticism \| Restoration \| Unarmored
Stealth:	Acrobatics \| Hand-to-hand \| Light Armor \| Marksman \| Mercantile \| Security \| Short Blade \| Sneak \| Speechcraft