Crusader Kings 3 Lifestyles Guide: Best Perks, Branches & More

Crusader Kings 3 came with a lot of new mechanics never before seen in the franchise. Some of them are simple upgrades from the previous title, but others are complete overhauls. One such example is the new character lifestyle system that allows you to further specialize your rulers.

You only have a limited lifespan for each character so determining the right things to focus on is important. Here is a breakdown of the trees and the perks that you should be focusing on when it comes to lifestyles in Crusader Kings 3, as well as the branches.

– Diplomacy
– Martial
– Stewardship
– Intrigue
– Learning
– Best Lifestyle

Diplomacy

The Diplomacy lifestyle tree is all about making friends and creating a respected dynasty. There are new perks for alliances, family, vassals, and much more. It is an especially useful lifestyle when you are trying to gain support for a major event such as taking your liege’s throne or performing schemes. Diplomacy is broken down into three branches: Diplomat, August, and Family Hierarchy.

Diplomat
The Diplomat branch focuses on allies and foreign affairs. Perks range from giving added diplomacy from every alliance you have to a reduced cost of casus bellis. The branch ends at the perk of Diplomat which, while a decent enough trait, is not the best perk of the tree. The one to go for is Defensive Negotiations, which gives you the ability to make one alliance without the use of marriage. This is useful when there are no available characters to marry, but you still want the ally.

August
The August branch focuses on prestige. Almost every single perk in this branch is in some way earning you more prestige. This can be something like an increase based on the number of knights you have or just a flat increase based on stats. If you are trying to do something that requires a lot of prestige, such as forming an Empire, then this should be your focus, but if not then there are much better options.

Family Hierarchy
The Family Hierarchy branch focuses on parenting and, as the name suggests, family. It’s good for when you are trying to raise the best heir as possible, but you probably shouldn’t focus on this one too much in the early game. Later down the line when your family has a lot of good congenital traits, making a great successor is important. In the early game, though, turning an average character into being above average simply isn’t worth the time commitment to this tree.

Martial

The Martial lifestyle tree is all about winning wars, keeping peasants in check, and being a knight in shining armor. There are perks for leading armies and fighting, to ones about romance and love. This lifestyle is most useful when you are going to be using your character for large wars and conquests, but there are other interesting things here too. Martial is broken down into three branches: Strategist, Overseer, and Gallant.

Strategist
The Strategist branch focuses on leading armies and winning wars. It is good for when you are fighting a better force or a long conflict. There are perks for increased men at arms strength and lower terrain penalties, to increased supplies for the army. An important note: one of the best traits for leading armies comes from the Gallant tree called Stalwart Leader, which gives you less chance of being captured when leading an army. This is often one of the first branches that should be focused on starting characters, assuming you want to spread out quickly.

Overseer
The Overseer branch focuses on reducing the risk of rebellion and increasing the number of troops available. Throughout the process of taking land, there is a sort of ‘resistance to invaders’ mechanic that happens which makes the local peasants upset. The perks in this branch are mostly about mitigating the risk of peasant revolts. This is not a branch that should be focused on, though, because revolts are usually easy to beat with just your personal army.

Gallant
The Gallant branch focuses on romance and knights. You get perks for increasing the number of knights you can have, success chances for romance and elope schemes, and even lowering the resistance of your enemies to surrendering during wars. This branch is one of the most fun in the game and has quite a few unique abilities that can be acquired, but it isn’t particularly important if you’re trying to accomplish major actions.

Stewardship

The Stewardship lifestyle tree is all about making money, building provinces, and interacting with your realm. The perks range from blackmailing for money to gaining claims on titles. This lifestyle is useful when you are focusing on making money and developing your land. Stewardship is broken down into three branches: Avaricious, Architect, and Administrator.

Avaricious
The Avaricious branch focuses on making as much gold as possible. It has one of the best starting skills called Golden Obligations, which allows you to leverage hooks for money. This works best when combined with a high intrigue character so you can find secrets and then blackmail other people for monetary gain. Most of the other skills in this branch are decent, but not incredible.

Architect
The Architect branch focuses on your individual provinces’ buildings. Construction becomes cheaper and takes less time. There is a trait near the bottom called Divided Attention that expands the amount of land you can have under your direct control that is worthwhile, but it takes a long time to get. This branch is best for late-game characters that make a lot of money and can focus on building the realm, but it should mostly be skipped early on.

Administrator
The Administrator branch focuses on interaction with the realm. This mostly includes making your vassals like you, but it is also useful for interactions with your liege should you have one. The most important perk in this branch, and the entire lifestyle tree, is Meritocracy. It is the first perk in the branch and it is what unlocks the claim throne scheme. This scheme is arguably the best in the game, but will likely only be used once unless you somehow end up with a second liege later on. Other than Meritocracy, though, most of the skills in this branch are average at best.

Intrigue

The Intrigue lifestyle tree is all about using schemes and intimidation to get what you want. The perks range from increased success for scheming to gain dread. This lifestyle is almost always useful during a character’s life whether or not you focus on it. Intrigue is broken down into three branches: Schemer, Seducer, and Torturer.

Schemer
The Schemer branch focuses on hostile scheme actions that can be performed in the game. The most notable trait is Kidnapper which unlocks a new type of scheme for you to use. The kidnapping scheme is an incredibly powerful action. With the right target, you can win a war simply by succeeding in snatching an important hostage. This is one of the best branches throughout the course of the game as schemes are one of the best ways to get what you want.

Seducer
The Seduction branch focuses on attraction power and the seduction scheme. Most of the perks simply give you an increase in your chances of successfully seducing a character which, while occasionally useful, isn’t all that great when compared with other branches. This branch is better saved for when you want to just have fun with a character because there isn’t much you can do on a large scale with it.

Torturer
The Torturer branch focuses on gaining dread and gaining benefits for being dreadful. Some of the benefits you receive for having high dread include increased tax for vassals and gaining piety for executing heathens to your faith. The best perk is Forever Infamous, which all but makes it so your dread will never decrease again. This branch is useful at any time in the game and is one of the best options available due to the perks.

Learning

The Learning lifestyle tree is all about acquiring knowledge, piety, and increasing your character’s health. The perks range from knowing when you are going to die to cheaper reform costs in a religion. This lifestyle is most likely going to be used in nearly every character’s life for health perks alone. Learning is broken down into three branches: Whole of Body, Scholar, and Theologian.

Whole of Body
The Whole of Body branch focuses on increasing the health and life expectancy of your character. Perks range from giving you health boosts to lowering the impact of stress. The perk to go for is Know Thyself, which informs you a year before you die of natural causes. This is the best branch in the game and should be utilized in nearly every character.

Scholar
The Scholar branch focuses on increasing the learning attribute and lowering opinion penalties between opposing traits. The best perk is Learn on the Job, which increases your stats based on the stats of your advisors. If you have a strong council then this perk can be useful, but the unfortunate thing is its location so far down in the branch. This branch is another one that can be useful but is mostly just average.

Theologian
The Theologian branch focuses on piety and religious relations. This tree is essential for reforming or creating a religion due to the Prophet perk. It gives you a 50% reduction cost to reforming a faith, which is necessary if you want to make broad changes. This branch is generally pointless unless you are going for the Prophet perk. Piety just never seems to be a huge problem and most of the other perks aren’t great.

What’s The Best Lifestyle?

As you can see, there are a lot of options for you to use when specializing rulers in Crusader Kings 3. Unfortunately, there is no perfect lifestyle tree that works 100% of the time and you’ll need to use different perks in different situations throughout your campaign. Overall though, the best lifestyle in the game is Intrigue. Schemes are incredibly valuable and are often the most important actions you can take in the game.

It is important to note that you can reset all perk points once per lifetime at the cost of a significant stress increase. This can be incredibly useful for you, but save it for an emergency where you need a specific perk and focused on the wrong branch.

READ NEXT: Crusader Kings 3 Achievements Guide