If you get the skill high enough, you can persuade people without perks. Persuading a shakedown bandit to leave you alone for 50 gold. Spanish translation by incata available now. (increases speech 1 point at a time) As far as I know these cheats are not known or written as of yet anywhere. Fortify Speech and Barter allow for more items to be purchased for a given amount of gold, which increases skill gains. Every merchant in the world gains 1000 gold for bartering. Persuasion and Intimidate used to require such high Speech values that they weren't useful by the time you qualified, so I've dropped Persuasion to 20 and Intimidate to 40. Merciful awards 50% more Speech experience.
This can only be done at the same time of day as they would normally allow sales. The success formula was very carefully balanced so that at lower levels, you should be able to occasionally succeed without perks, but against stronger enemies, you will. Barter with skill trainers that sell items (trainer-merchants).
Skyrim Thief Skills - how to max Sneak, Speech, Lockpicking and Pickpocket Skyrim: What's new in the Special Edition and gameplay guides From visual upgrades, to … One way to train this skill without spending money is to commit a. Angeline's Aromatics in Solitude will never remember an investment). Apart from the branching dialogue options afforded by Persuasion and Intimidation buffs, the Merchant perk alone makes the speech tree worth investing in. Their skill requirements to pass are 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100, respectively.