Doing the "Witch Hunting" quest. The "Delusion" rune or whatever it's called is maxed yet it won't work on this NPC that only requires it to be level 1. Quite frustrating. Reloading the game doesn't fix it.

It needs to be in a slot - only abilities placed in slots work

That's what I thought but no.

Agreed. Doesn't look like you have any abilities equipped.

I see what you mean... I never had to equip that skill the first time it was used in a dialogue though so I was expecting it to work that way. Thanks for all the replies!

There are some axii options that don't require the skill to be equipped (I can't remember if it's only one, or more off the top of my head as I'm now 100 hours in to the game), the vast majority do require it to be equipped however :)