What are traits in CK3?
Traits in CK3 are in-game attributes that make up the basis of your character’s personality, adding either buffs or debuffs. Different CK3 traits will try to influence the stats of your character based on the real life trait it mimics. For example, a character who has trusting will be more susceptible to hostile schemes like murder. These traits will have a large impact on your gameplay and it will be important to try and obtain the best ones.
Why is it important to have the best traits?
The severity of debuffs and buffs varies from trait to trait. Some traits are more neutral in their modifiers while rarer traits will have a much more noticeable effect. In your ruler’s adolescence, you will want to pay very close attention to the traits you develop. Create a sloppy ensemble of bad traits and your run will suffer for it. On the other hand, however, creating a good combo will enable you to achieve great things as a ruler.
15. Zealous
Starting with zealous, there simply isn't much at all to complain or boast about. It's a decent trait for runs where you are looking to rely heavily on religion. Its most beneficial modifier is the +20% piety which will be very helpful for reforming or creating religions. You’ll also get a +2 martial but your opinion of differing religions will be greatly decreased. This usually doesn't matter at all however and will go unnoticed.
What's great about Zealous?
- +20% piety bonus, great for religious reformation and spamming holy wars.
- +2 martial, slight change to your capabilities as a commander.
- Opinions of the same religion and trait will go up by +15.
Zealous Full Details
- +2 Martial
- +20% Monthly Piety
- +15 Zealot Vassal Opinion
- +15 Same Trait and Faith Opinion
- -10 Opposite Trait Opinion
- -35 Different Faith Opinion
- +20% Faith Conversion Cost
- Stress loss through Execution (different faith)
14. Wrathful
Wrathful is a trait that offers a decent boost to your capabilities as a hard ruler. This trait shouldn't be overlooked at the very least. You will also gain an ability with this trait that allows a unique kind of punishment. Wrathful will gain a hefty +20 dread, meaning your dread will never decay below a baseline of 20. If you stack more dread modifiers onto this, you will see considerably fewer revolts and rowdy vassals. The +3 martial and punish criminals decision will also give you the opportunity to raise your dread whether through the martial skill tree or by executing your prisoners.
What's great about Wrathful?
- +20 dread, the more you stack this the fewer revolts you will encounter.
- +3 martial, considerable boost to your commander level.
- Punish criminals decision will allow you to essentially farm dread by executing prisoners.
Wrathful full details
- +3 Martial
- +20 Natural Dread
- +5 Glory Hound Vassal Opinion
- -10 Courtly Vassal Opinion
- -10 Parochial Vassal Opinion
- -1 Diplomacy
- -1 Intrigue
- Enables the Punish Criminal interaction
13. Gregarious
Gregarious is a great trait for a social character who can network his way into hooks and secrets. You will also have a charming effect on everyone you meet and your social capabilities will be significantly boosted. Gregarious offers a +15% personal scheme modifier and a small +5 attraction opinion. This trait would serve a diplomatic lifestyle greatly as you will be able to stack an op amount of opinion and scheme modifiers. Everyone and anyone can become your friend, lover or ally.
What's great about Gregarious?
- +2 diplomacy, good extra bonus for non diplomacy rulers.
- +15% personal scheme bonus, seemingly small but invaluable when befriending or romancing a resistant character.
- Small opinion modifiers on attraction, courtly vassals, and same trait.
Gregarious full details
- +2 Diplomacy
- +15% Personal Scheme Power
- +5 Attraction Opinion
- +5 Courtly Vassal Opinion
- +10 Same Trait Opinion
- Stress loss through Feasting
- Stress gain from failure during Sway schemes
12. Greedy
Greedy characters will live to hoard money and tax everyone else. No one in your realm will be safe from your hunger for wealth, and your relations certainly won't see a cent from you. Greedy will gain a +5% income modifier, but the more interesting modifier is the +10% monthly income per stress level. Depending on how daring you are, you could intentionally accumulate stress to scrape together some considerable emergency funds. You will however gain an annoying amount of stress for granting titles, which is a necessary part of organizing your realm.
What makes greedy good?
- +5% income modifier, a good fixed bonus for your character.
- +10% monthly income per stress level, this can be abused in late-game runs.
- Stress loss from extra taxes, your character will never fret over extorting your vassals.
Greedy Full Details
- +5% Monthly Income
- +10% Monthly Income per Stress level
- -2 Diplomacy
- -15 Courtly Vassal Opinion
- Stress loss through Extra Taxes
- Stress gain through Gifting
- Stress gain through Granting Vassal
- Stress gain through Granting Title, if under Domain Limit
11. Content
Content will be a subtle bonus to peaceful characters. This trait will serve a ruler who wants to focus their attention from power struggle to self-improvement. You will be very agreeable in personality and modest in your ambition. Content will grant a beneficial +10% stress loss and a considerable +2 learning. Neither of these bonuses is much to brag about but this trait will usually appear in your adolescence amongst much worse options. Therefore, go with content.
What makes Content good?
- +10% stress loss, good in combination with other stress loss bonuses.
- +2 learning, will slightly help a learning character in innovation research.
- A neutral trait with very few negatives.
Content full details
- +2 Learning
- +10% Stress Loss
- +10 Parochial Vassal Opinion
- +10 Opinion of Vassals
- +20 Opinion of Liege
- +20 Same Trait Opinion
- -1 Intrigue
- Stress gain through the execution of non-criminal prisoners, claim throne, or force onto council
10. Chaste
Chaste might seem counter-intuitive to the whole purpose of CK3 which is to secure your lineage, but this trait does not prevent rearing an heir entirely. You will need to choose a very fertile partner, however, to at least receive one heir. Chaste’s main benefit for CK3 players comes from the -25% fertility modifier, which is incredibly helpful for rulers of realms with divisive inheritance laws. The less contentious heirs you have, the more likely your realm will survive fragmentation. If your ruler and your spouse are both highly fertile, your child situation will quickly get out of hand.
What makes Chaste good?
- -25% fertility, keeps your heir amount in check
- +2 learning, small bonus
- +10 same trait opinion, a good bonus when it applies
Chaste full details
- +2 Learning
- -25% Fertility
- -50% Seduce Scheme Power
- +10 Same Trait Opinion
- -10 Opposite Trait Opinion
9. Calm
Calm characters have an uncanny ability to keep themselves healthy and safe. A calm character can maintain a cool and collected gameplay approach, which is vital to the very stressful task of leadership. Calm will grant a +10% stress loss and a +10% scheme discovery chance bonus. This trait is very good for high profile rulers who will want to do their best to keep their sanity and avoid being murdered. You will also get a unique meditation in seclusion decision to help lose stress.
What makes calm good?
- +10% stress loss
- +10% scheme discovery chance, will keep you on your toes
- +1 bonus for intrigue and diplomacy
Calm full details
- +1 Diplomacy
- +1 Intrigue
- +10% Stress Loss
- +10% Scheme Discovery Chance
- +50% Dread Decay
- +10 Same Trait Opinion
- -10 Opposite Trait Opinion
- Enables the Meditate in Seclusion decision
8. Just
A just character is a popular ruler. Rule your realm with fairness and popularity and hold everyone to the same standard you yourself should uphold. Just will grant you very beneficial opinion modifiers with your vassals and same trait characters. In addition, you will gain a +2 stewardship and +1 learning bonus. This trait will work very well for a legislative ruler looking to tie his realm closer together.
What makes just good?
- +15 vassal opinion, will help equalize some inevitable negative modifiers.
- Stress loss from exposing secrets, build up a stockpile of secrets in case you need to lose stress quickly.
- +2 stewardship bonus is good for any ruler who wants as many holdings as they can manage.
Just full details
- +2 Stewardship
- +1 Learning
- +15 Minority Vassal Opinion
- +15 Parochial Vassal Opinion
- +10 Same Trait Opinion
- -10 Opposite Trait Opinion
- -3 Intrigue
- Stress gain through Blackmail and execution of prisoners
- Stress loss from exposing secrets
7. Patient
Patience is a virtue and this game will reward you for that, especially if your ruler has the same trait. This trait is beneficial to the CK3 player who makes religion their best friend and will be even more beneficial to specific religions that have patience as a virtuous trait. The bonuses of patient are minute on their own but when paired with a religion like catholicism, the benefits begin to shine. On its own you will get a +0.5 piety increase but with catholicism this stacks to +1.5. This is very beneficial early in the game to extort your pope for funds and claims.
What makes a patient good?
- +0.5 piety standalone.
- +1.5 piety when paired with catholicism.
- +10 hostile scheme resistance to also keep your ruler a little more aware.
Patient full details
- +2 Learning
- +10 Hostile Scheme Resistance
- +10 Parochial Vassal Opinion
- +5 Liege Opinion
- -15 Opposite Trait Opinion
6. Humble
Like patience, humble can also be a virtuous trait. The difference here is way more religions consider humility to be a virtue. This is basically patient 2.0. You will similarly only have a +0.5 piety increase but a +1.5 increase with the right religion. Other religions make different use of their piety so it will be up to you to figure out the most strategic function.
What makes Humble good?
- +0.5 piety standalone.
- +1.5 piety when paired with catholicism.
- Positive opinion modifier on almost every possible type of character.
Humble full details
- +0.5 Monthly Piety
- +10 Opinion of Liege
- +10 Opinion of Vassals
- +10 Clergy Opinion
- +10 Zealot Vassal Opinion
- -15 Opposite Trait Opinion
5. Ambitious
Ambition is the name of the game in CK3 and without it, you will fall short. Ambitious will make it into the top 5 on this list but it certainly can't claim number one. Some adverse stress gain modifiers slightly nerf this trait. Ambitious is a jack of all trades but a master of none trait. It will grant you a +1 in all skills including prowess but unless you’re attempting to create a character rounded in all of them, there are some more specialized traits to stick to. Nonetheless, this trait will benefit any beginner player with those useful skill boosts.
What makes ambitious good?
- +1 boost to all skills including prowess
- +10 opinion with Glory Hound vassals
Ambitious full details
- +1 Diplomacy
- +1 Martial
- +1 Stewardship
- +1 Intrigue
- +1 Learning
- +1 Prowess
- +10 Glory Hound Vassal Opinion
- -15 Opinion of Liege
- -15 Same Trait Opinion
- +25% Stress Gain
- Stress gain through gifting titles (if under Domain Limit), granting Vassals independence, or signing white peace in offensive wars
4. Sadistic
Sadistic characters are incredibly adept at being hard and cruel rulers, who can keep their vassals on a tight leash. This trait will gain considerable advantages in the art of hard leadership. The bonuses of sadistic are geared toward creating a threatening and powerful aura. The hefty +4 prowess and +35 natural dread will make a very terrifying character to your vassals and to fellow rulers. Couple this with the ability to murder your own children (heirs) and gain stress loss through execution, you have a monster of a ruler on your hands.
What makes sadistic good?
- +35 natural dread, a very large bonus to your natural dread
- +4 prowess, a powerful boost to your physical form
- Can use hostile schemes to prune their own line of inheritance.
Sadistic full details
- +2 Intrigue
- +4 Prowess
- +35 Natural Dread
- -10 General Opinion
- -10 Courtly Vassal Opinion
- Can use Hostile Schemes against own children
- Stress loss through Execution and Murder
3. Diligent
Diligence is an S-tier level trait for CK3 players who know what they are doing. An essential part of CK3 will be growing your personal holdings whilst conquering more and more vassals. Diligent rulers are perfectly oriented for a diverse focus on ruling. Diligent is mainly helpful to building tall, as you will be granted a +3 stewardship and +3 learning boost. Combine this with either a stewardship or learning lifestyle and you will be on your way to building the tallest empire around. And not to mention the develop capital decision you can take every once in a while that will boost your development progress.
What makes diligent good?
- +3 stewardship to boost the amount of holdings you can manage
- +3 learning to boost your innovation research
- Access to unique develop capital decision to increase your development
Diligent full details
- +2 Diplomacy
- +3 Stewardship
- +3 Learning
- -50% Stress Loss
- +5 Parochial Vassal Opinion
- +10 Same Trait Opinion
- -10 Opposite Trait Opinion
- Enables the Develop Capital decision
- Stress loss through Hunting
2. Temperate
Time is the one thing money can't buy and living forever in CK3 isn't possible, otherwise, the game would be just too easy. You can, however, make yourself live longer by being healthy in your lifestyle. The temperate trait will grant you a +0.25 health boost and +2 stewardship. In CK3, any health boost you can get your hands on is invaluable. The longer you live the more you can achieve. Having that extra stewardship is always nice for your max holding limit.
What makes temperate good?
- +0.25 health boost, good for increasing your ruler’s longevity.
- + 2 stewardship, never not a benefit to your playstyle whatever it may be.
- +10 same trait opinion modifier
Temperate full details
- +2 Stewardship
- +10 Same Trait Opinion
- -10 Courtly Vassal Opinion
- -10 Opposite Trait Opinion
- +0.25 Health Boost
1. Stubborn
Being stubborn is annoying, and people will certainly dislike you. However, this trait is undeniably beneficial when you don't give much thought to public opinion. The +3 stewardship is a handsome boost and will certainly allow you an extra holding if your stewardship level isn't already too high. In addition, you will get a disease resistance boost that will save you in tight situations where you can't afford a good physician or a plague comes rolling through.
What makes stubborn good?
- +3 stewardship, good boost for max holding limit.
- Small disease resistance boost to stave off an embarrassing death from a common cold
Stubborn full details
- +3 Stewardship
- -5 Liege Opinion
- -5 Minority Vassal Opinion
- -10 Courtly Vassal Opinion
- -10 Parochial Vassal Opinion
- Small Disease Resistance Health Boost
