In Fallout: New Vegas, I initially chose to make a character that focused on Speech. To my surprise, I have found that in many of the situations in which you can use Speech, you can also use Barter. This overlap seems to encourage a character to focus on one or the other for special resolutions to various dialogues.

That said, both options often have a slightly different flavor. Even in their own right, Speech can be good or evil, and Barter isn't always about money or items. There are also dialogues in which you can only use one or the other. My question to those who have played a significant portion of Fallout: New Vegas is thus:

Judging from the dialogue options you've seen, if you had to choose between Speech or Barter, which option seems more satisfying?

Speech. I use both, of course, buit definitelty Speech for being more flexible. Also, the 100 Speech convos in the Legate's camp were pure climix. Far above the Eden conversation.

Interesting question, I don't know because I pumped a lot into speech and ignored barter, but I'll be interested to read other peoples' views on this, I might go for barter instead next time.