Children are the future in a very real sense in crusader kings 3. Unlike other grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive, this game is all about building a powerful dynasty that can maintain a grip on power throughout many centuries of the medieval era. It is not enough to design an all-powerful ruler, players must also raise a family.
That is what makes education so important in crusader kings 3. A good education is effectively a free stat boost, and certain types of education can have secondary benefits thanks to cultural traditions. The educational system in CK3 It’s not complicated, but new players may still have trouble understanding how it works.
Childhood traits and educational approaches
Once children reach the age of 3, they acquire a childlike trait. These traits are temporary and disappear once the child becomes an adult. Until then, they determine the best and worst education the child can receive.
Each child in the entire game is given an educational focus. These focuses coincide with the five main skills: Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, and Learning. When they become adults, this focus will become an educational trait that adds to the focus skill and gives them an XP boost for the same type of lifestyle focus. This trait ranges from 1 star (+2 skill and +10 percent XP) to 4 star (+8 skill and +40 percent XP).
A better education is always a good thing, and the first step to getting that better education is making sure your child gets the kind of education that interests them. Each childhood trait is good for two educational approaches, bad for one approach. and neutral for the other two.
|
childhood trait |
enjoy |
hates |
|---|---|---|
|
Noisy |
Martial, Mystery |
Learning |
|
Charming |
intrigue, diplomacy |
Administration |
|
Curious |
Diplomacy, Learning |
Martial |
|
Thoughtful |
Learning, Stewardship |
Intrigue |
|
Bossy |
Stewardship, Martial |
Diplomacy |
Players can see this in action when they choose an educational focus for one of their children or grandchildren or any wards they may have (more on this later). On a boy’s character screen, one of the buttons to the left of his image is labeled “Educational Focus.” This button is brown if the player’s ruler has permission to change a child’s educational focus, and gray if she doesn’t.
Clicking the button will bring up a new menu that clarifies which options are good and which are bad based on the character’s childhood trait. Children who like your educational approach are more likely to score a good educational trait, and those who hate it are more likely to score a worse educational trait.
Players can change a child’s educational focus as many times as they like when the child is between the ages of 3 and 5, but once they turn 6, they can only change their focus once. Fortunately, if players forget to check their children’s headlights, the game automatically chooses one of two good options.
Guardians and Diplomacy
Every child between the ages of 6 and 16 needs a tutor. Children will continue to grow with or without supervision of course, but a child without a guardian will get random personality traits and has a much higher chance of getting a poor education. In particular, the best tutor for a child is one who has many skill points in the same skill as the child’s educational focus.
Each adult character can manage up to two rooms. If player rulers have more than two children ages 6-15, they will have to look elsewhere to find guardians for all of them. Players can always assign spouses or courtiers as guardians, but another option is to hand their children over to other rulers to raise, either within or outside of their realm. This represents great trust, so the ruler will get a +15 sustained opinion towards the ruling player of each neighborhood. This does not change even if the players choose one of the ruler’s courtiers to be the royal guardian.
Players can also ask the guardian to convert the ward’s culture, religion, or both. This is useful when players want to convert their dynasty to a new religion or culture, or when players have plans for a child who, for whatever reason, started out in a foreign kingdom. However, the chances of a successful conversion are much higher when the child is young when guardianship begins.
Another thing that players can do is send a child to college. Universities are special buildings that rulers can only build in provinces where royal medieval universities existed, such as Cambridge, Oxford, Montlhery, and Pataliputra. Most of these universities do not exist at the start of the game, and to build them, the owner needs level 4 fame (Exalted Among Men) and 30 development in the county.
If a university exists, players get an additional option by choosing a ruler to control it (or any of their courtiers). This option is “Send to University”, and although it costs over 1000 gold, it pretty much guarantees the child a good education. Players will have to spend this money even if their ruler owns the university property personally.
shape a personality
The other thing a tutor does for a child is help him decide his personality traits. During a child’s education, random events will be triggered where a child will choose between three actions and gain one of three personality traits. His guardian then has the opportunity to overturn the child’s decision at the cost of a little stress.
If the player’s ruler is a ward, players will see these events and have a chance to react. These events are mostly random, regardless of which educational focus the child is in, with each personality trait usually showing up in a couple of different events. Each personality trait has positive and negative aspects attached to it, so it’s up to players to decide how they want a child to develop (although it helps to check the religion of the player’s ruler to see which personality traits are virtues and vices).
For their part, AI tutors tend to let children decide for themselves, except when given the opportunity to give them the same personality traits they have. This means that players must look for tutors who are not only good in the child’s field of study, but also virtuous in the eyes of their faith.
When the child of the player’s ruler (or a ward) grows up, players will receive a notification about the type and quality of the child’s education. Once this happens, the quality of your education is set in stone, but the verification of the quality of education happens almost at the last minute. If players want another shot at a good result, they may want to save the game a month before the event and reload until the child gets a 4-star education. Cheating with console commands is also an option.
crusader kings 3 is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
