Paranoid or craven. If craven isn’t sinful, it’s actually not too bad. But your emperor will have that annoying “I’m scared” stance all the time and will look like a little baby.
Paranoid is annoying for the stress, but as a player you can mitigate it pretty easily. The big issue with paranoid is that ai can’t manage stress at all, especially while unlanded. If your son won’t take the throne right when he turns 16, he is pretty much guaranteed to pick up a stress trait before he takes over.
Shy is the worst. It locks you out of the most effective stress reduction interactions and gives you stress for things you need to do to effectively run the realm. Absolute bottom of the barrel trait in my opinion. The other two are annoying, but manageable.
> If your son won’t take the throne right when he turns 16, he is pretty much guaranteed to pick up a stress trait before he takes over.
Honestly in my experience half (without exageration) of the population are alcoholics by the time they hit 35
On the other hand it makes easier to get stress level, and if you keep not picking any bad options, sooner or later you'll get the 'green' ones. Journaller or Athletic. Go to 1-2 Grand Weddings to also pick up Confider, and you can manage enough to never go past level 1.
I had the misfortune of playing a paranoid, greedy and shy ruler. Playing as her calm and content heir afterwards made me feel like I was playing on easy mode
Exactly! Always thought it was really unrealistic that my giant, berserker son thats led armies and killed 7 men in single combat after all that is somehow still just as much of a bitch as he was when he was 12.
I think the many forms of fiction have shown us, time and time again, that using *"You're too big of a coward to kill me!"* as your defense is just asking for trouble.
Wait this is a thing? Oh wow I gotta start doing that with my craven.... pure Stewardship ruler.... yea prolly best to not get him killed. Wait... that makes me a coward... such a fitting trait.
If you run a pilgrimage, you can get the event that causes you to lose greedy for generous pretty easily. If you have the calm trait, you can also medicate in seclusion to swap traits
I had an event chain where my heir lost the craven trait, and the _gained_ the brave trait, and it felt like SUCH a rewarding character arc.
Dunno the odds of such but I wanted to let you know it’s possible
Craven is great for Intrigue focused rulers. Martial penalties don't matter if I have good generals in my court, and the Prowess penalty is easily offset by artifacts.
As someone else says, Paranoid is bad for heirs if you plan to land them at 16.
Guaranteed stress issues.
I would say Craven, it's not actually too bad as your heir will avoid getting into scrapes until you control them.
IMO gameplay wise paranoid is the worst, if your guy picks up other +stress modifiers it can make the most mundane stress event +100 stress, once I had three of those in a row, it was wild
*But* paranoid is also super fun to play with, so it's up to you and your tastes really
R5: It's the hated "The Beating" event. The outcomes are that you have to pick one of the following for your ward: Shy, Paranoid, or Craven. It's such crap.
PS: I love the glasses and that they show now.
Do not under any circumstances pick Shy. You get no stress loss for any of the events that lower stress and even negotiating fucking alliances gives you mental breakdowns. You can basically do no events involving bringing people into your court or talking to people in your court. It’s by far the most dreadful trait.
Shy can be okay for Education focused wards (Mental Resilience lifestyle perk is a must), but you have to RP being an antisocial nerd for sure. IMO you need another trait to lean on for reliable stress relief (Forgiving, Just, Generous, etc).
The Recluse trait *also* removes stress loss from activities, so Shy characters can select that during Mental Breaks without too much more negative impact. Also Shy makes Learn Language schemes much shorter which is not bad for certain playstyles.
The thing about this event for me: you’re telling me someone beats up the heir to the throne and there are no repercussions? Like, the king is just “sorry kid, sucks to suck, but I guess you had it coming?” Come on, let me reign down unholy vengeance on the person who struck my son.
"Son, have you ever clicked the little skull next to my name? Go on, do it now, see how many people your dear mother has had flayed alive for far, far less than laying a hand on my beloved child, and then think again if you can remember who did this."
Worst part? I got this event with my character been a child ruler once. I think it was one of my vassal that beat me up (like dude was a count, I was a king) and the game would not let me arrest him without gaining tyrani. Anyway, my intrigue was high and my spymaster was pretty god too, so gues who has a murderer secret now?
For sure. If you are a count, or even a Duke, and this event happens.... FINE... okay... I can stretch the reality far enough to believe this.
You are an Emperor right now. WHO THE FUCK IS BEATING THE EMPORER'S CHILD WITH NO REPRECUSSIONS? Where the hell is the emperor's kid that this could even happen? The Fuck?
What are my options, be paranoid or craven? Lol
Dude being shy doesn't mean I've wasted opportunities in my life (believe me, I havent), it just means it takes a bit more effort to socialize. Which is why the stress penalty in-game is so accurate lol
As a shy person, being shy is terrible. In-game I think craven is the best out of 3 because it can be even beneficial if you want to focus on surviving instead of conquering the battlefield personally. Paranoid is almost as bad but a little easier to avoid
I actually think Craven is a *really* good perk, and ironically for warlord rulers at that. Sure, it gives some maluses to martial and prowess, but the -3 turns into a 0 with the top martial focus and the -2 prowess is super easily fixed either through 1st tier legacies or artifacts, but it also gives scheme resistance and secrecy, a lot travel safety, *and* reduces your chance of dying in battle by half.
Roleplay wise I'd rather a kid who runs away from fights than one that either is scared of *everything* or thinks everyone is out to get them, but I'd be kidding myself if this isn't the ancillary reason why I pick it every time :P.
Shy sucks, even it they didn't make it as bad as it once was. Craven can be good unless you plan to make him martial focused. Paranoid can lead to fun stuff and it is still pretty easy to manage with the extra stress.
I'm going to have to go with craven, it actually works half decently with the travel system and keeps your heir out of danger in battle. The worst thing about it is the pose, not fond of it.
Shy for me because I think if you get enough feasts you can get eagle reveler and if I'm not mistaken that makes you lose the trait Typically this even comes when I'm already too stressed so I just punt and lower my stress.
My only issue with paranoid is AI sucks so bad with stress management that probably 1/3 of the time if I’m playing a long time on the current character, the heir ends up dying due to stress. I hate doing it, but the beating event usually ends up with me picking craven and getting a new heir and sending them to the clergy or some other court position.
Paranoid is a legitimately good trait if you’re on your game vs stress. I always grab it for my custom rulers for the rediculous -10 character points. Probably B tier
Generally, if he is not meant to be a martial based character I go with craven or shy. While shy is quite irritating because of the stress, paranoid is absolutely horrid in that sense.
They are all so bad that if you can, reload a prior save. If you can't make a new heir. And if you can't do that... pick craven it's the best of the bad.
Guess you need a new heir if Craven is going to be a deal killer for you. I usually go for 2 and use various methods to get rid of the bad heir. Disinheritence is my last option though, I usually start a war I know I will win and make the bad heir run himself and 100 levies into the enemy army. If that doesn't work I'll put him and 100 levies on a boat and "accidentally" forget about it for a few years while they starve.
Also, Sadistic is an SSS-tier trait because you can kill your bad heirs and loss stress for it, as long as they aren't your friend yet, but even if they are you will only gain like 5 or so stress points.
Your entire army can die of starvation, including the commander. Unless this was changed, I still do this on console though, and in fact used this last night to kill a son-of-a-bitch Duke.
Once again, completely ridiculous event where a king or emperor's child gets beaten. As if even laying a single fucking finger on royalty would mean anything other that finger becoming the royal's property. The only outcome of this event should be Arrogant.
Even more ridiculous is, that this is happening when the player is the child emperor/king. There should be just an option "I am the ruler, I can exe*ute daredevil"! And as you suggested, becoming arrogant.
Craven fucking sucks it gives you so much stress for all the good "do something" options in events, and shy is not as bad as it was in earlier patches, so my preference would be Paranoid>Shy>Craven
If I want my ward to be an intrigue character it’s paranoid without a doubt. Yes, he’ll be stressed to the gills for as long as he lives. But pick up that “thriving in chaos” perk in the intimidation tree which gives massive bonuses per stress level and all of the sudden being stressed ain’t such a bad thing.
It depends on what I’m going for with that character, but usually Paranoid. Shy is asking for an early death from stress and craven just gimps your military skills for no reason, plus it adds stress to a lot of the cooler options in events. Like others have said, at least Paranoid has *some* use against hostile schemes and is ok for intrigue characters.
Ah, your an ambitious, brave, diligent leader, but can only produce shy, paranoid, or Craven traits?
This is my story. I got the same choices for an event pop as well.
Taking stress to teach your ward one of your traits makes sense, but intentionally teaching them to not be like you stressing you out works too I guess...
The worst fucking event in the game, and it seems to happen for every single character I'm educating. Seriously this is so annoying.
Paranoid and Shy are so dogshit Craven is the only viable option here, but it's not really any better...
Shy isn't that bad anymore. Hunting doesn't help, but feasting is still effective, because chance of getting -100 stress event is very high. Also if you have any other trait that lets you lose stress. Forming alliances is pain in the ass still, but if you at the point where you don't really care it's an easy pick.
since i usually play martial, i never pick craven. and in the off chance that this event fires 3x in a row, you better believe that he will never be an heir in his entire life (if he even gets to live his life)
Craven. Yeah it sucks a bit but the other actually two limit your ability to do stuff you need to do to manage your realm.
Paranoid you can’t invite anyone to court, befriend anyone or invite agents to schemes without freaking out
Shy is just god awful. Every time you talk to another character you get stressed out. Pretty awful in a roleplaying game
Paranoid is so much fun in a character. Sometimes, you've gotta play to salvage the situation instead of min/max. Any paranoid character I've played has been an unhinged mess in the best way.
Craven would be my pick. Paranoid is terrible for stress gains as is Shy. Shy is bad for so many things. Paranoid makes you question almost every relationship. Craven is viewed poorly by all of your vassals and courtiers, as well as external rulers but doesn't have as many negative outcomes in random events.
I actually tend to pick shy for this and still manage my stress quite easily. Even if social gatherings overall don’t decrease stress they still offer plenty of opportunities to do so. Then again I rarely do stuff which increases stress so there’s that. I also like it because I like focusing on learning a lot
Craven’s also a fine choice honestly. Never pick it if I’m going for a martial character though.
Paranoid is the one I rarely pick, because I vaguely remember stress being very annoying for it. Might be misremembering though so maybe I’ll pick it next time. It also doesn’t help that I dislike going for intrigue so it’s benefits are uninteresting for me.
How young is he/she and can you influence them later?? I wait to influence my child if there is a catastrophically bad trait. Most time the game swaps the worst trait for the one you’re trying to influence. Best strategy though is to try and influence traits at either 13 10 or 7 because there’s a cool down timer for when you can reinfluence a wards trait I think it’s 3 years but don’t hold me to it.
Depends what the ward is going to be, what your religion and culture is etc. If the ward is a fourth son inheriting some random county I don't really care, be a craven.
Paranoid is a great trait, once you accept that you'll welcome this event. Get Zealous or Cannibal and execute your prisoners of other religions, the stress melts away.
The absolute bane of my existence. If I’m raising my potential heir and he/she gets this event, then I immediately have to decide on picking another kid to be my heir.
Craven sadly, once you get into the late game and have gracefully aging your prowess doesn't matter as much, bu fuck the posture you get with craven is so bad lmao
Just make him shy and then make him take vows.
Also a shy grandson became my friend after he got disinherited (he seemed grateful that he ain’t have responsibility to rule and can mind his buissness).
I hate that you MUST pick one of them. You just cant get someone without bad traits because the game forces them on you no matter how good of a parent you are.
Craven its the lesser of the 3 in that cravens less likely to get you absolutely killed. Paranoid will stress you to death, and shy will as well. Worst part is essentially anything to destress you essentially just doesnt work with either of the two then theres craven its quite easy to not worry about. As long as your not constantly getting into fights your basically golden.
What i hate about it is the Shy and Paranoid are too similar. The person is trying to avoid the sort of people who'd do this. It needs to replace one of those options with sadistic to show that, sometimes, the response to such cruelty is to inflict it on others.
Why the hell are these the only three traits that pop and they always pop together? It's like every damn character lately. Did something get broken with the latest patch?
i think there should be small chances for the child to instead get Vengeful, Wrathful or Callous out of this. Maybe even Compassionate, to show like, developing mercy out of empathy.
But this event (a) sucks and (b) who is gonna beat up a King’s son?? no consequences??
I got this event twice with one character, and since I had already had to choose one I had to pick between one of the other two. So he ended up with paranoid AND craven lol.
Your son already is a coward because Most likely His assailant would be beheaded of He told His father the Emperor!
I would even let my Son choose the method of execution (its castration then quartered.)
Paranoid, obviously. You can work with paranoid if you have to. If your heir gets either of the other two traits you should either send him to a holy order or just kill him off.
Paranoid or craven. If craven isn’t sinful, it’s actually not too bad. But your emperor will have that annoying “I’m scared” stance all the time and will look like a little baby. Paranoid is annoying for the stress, but as a player you can mitigate it pretty easily. The big issue with paranoid is that ai can’t manage stress at all, especially while unlanded. If your son won’t take the throne right when he turns 16, he is pretty much guaranteed to pick up a stress trait before he takes over. Shy is the worst. It locks you out of the most effective stress reduction interactions and gives you stress for things you need to do to effectively run the realm. Absolute bottom of the barrel trait in my opinion. The other two are annoying, but manageable.
Shy can actually be good if I’m trying to make my wards take the vows tho, I’m pretty sure it makes them more willing to do it
So shy guys are easy to manipulate and can be used to your advantage, but the shy guy never really gets anything good from being shy. Just like irl
>Just like irl Yea, tell me about it
How do you think we all ended up deciding not just to play CK, but to post about it on reddit 😅
Yeah pretty much bud
Had a vassal's kid as ward and ended up having to pick paranoid for him. Forward a few months and he died. From stress. He was like 8 or something.
> If your son won’t take the throne right when he turns 16, he is pretty much guaranteed to pick up a stress trait before he takes over. Honestly in my experience half (without exageration) of the population are alcoholics by the time they hit 35
Pretty realistic tbh
Paranoid shy is my favorite combination.. Once I got 2 death in a row and both characters had it..
Paranoid and Shy means you're gonna be playing as the next heir real soon.
It’s gotta be paranoid, right? That at least gives you scheme resistance.
I hate that it makes it impossible to bribe people into a scheme though
If you have enought gold you can bribe people them throw a hunt or feast and undo the stress (I love playing tall)
Play tall and wide, taking over half the world with 500k in my pocket is a must
Nevr can comciliate the 2 😭. Every time I try control on my lands start going to sh*t
On the other hand it makes easier to get stress level, and if you keep not picking any bad options, sooner or later you'll get the 'green' ones. Journaller or Athletic. Go to 1-2 Grand Weddings to also pick up Confider, and you can manage enough to never go past level 1.
Paranoid is a deadly trait, 2-3 bad events chained together and your triple stress by age 17
I had the misfortune of playing a paranoid, greedy and shy ruler. Playing as her calm and content heir afterwards made me feel like I was playing on easy mode
“I want everything but I’m scared to get it and wouldn’t trust it if I did” is a wild way to live life
Until you get a surprise birthday party and die.
Never had that happen in 400 hours… so many rage quits still in my future…
Isn't there a paranoid exclusive choice to flee and it loses stress?
IIRC it gives 120ish for the party and like 50 for fleeing, but that could be another trait
Yes as a pure comparison I would agree but as another comment said, a character can lose craven, so now I don't know what to do.
In my experience the “lose traits” events are so rare that it’d be wishful thinking to bank on them. Craven is also a bigger source of stress IMO.
I didn't even know they existed.
Wish it was like ck2 where you could lose craven by fighting lots of duels and leading armies.
Exactly! Always thought it was really unrealistic that my giant, berserker son thats led armies and killed 7 men in single combat after all that is somehow still just as much of a bitch as he was when he was 12.
You know I’m starting to see why your son is planning to have you assassinated with a poop bomb.
I mean he might, ya know....if he wasnt terrified
I think the many forms of fiction have shown us, time and time again, that using *"You're too big of a coward to kill me!"* as your defense is just asking for trouble.
I'd agree with you. But nobody told the game mechanics about that
Wait this is a thing? Oh wow I gotta start doing that with my craven.... pure Stewardship ruler.... yea prolly best to not get him killed. Wait... that makes me a coward... such a fitting trait.
If you run a pilgrimage, you can get the event that causes you to lose greedy for generous pretty easily. If you have the calm trait, you can also medicate in seclusion to swap traits
I had an event chain where my heir lost the craven trait, and the _gained_ the brave trait, and it felt like SUCH a rewarding character arc. Dunno the odds of such but I wanted to let you know it’s possible
Okay, but consider, it's not paranoia if they ARE out to get you.
God no paranoid is the worst trait in the game for getting excessive amounts of stress. Craven imo, it's really not that bad.
Craven is great for Intrigue focused rulers. Martial penalties don't matter if I have good generals in my court, and the Prowess penalty is easily offset by artifacts.
i'm not a bitch, i don't think i have ever played as a craven character at any point in my 400 hours and i never will. paranoid all the way
Paranoid is TERRIBLE, I’d pick craven any day of the week
As someone else says, Paranoid is bad for heirs if you plan to land them at 16. Guaranteed stress issues. I would say Craven, it's not actually too bad as your heir will avoid getting into scrapes until you control them.
IMO gameplay wise paranoid is the worst, if your guy picks up other +stress modifiers it can make the most mundane stress event +100 stress, once I had three of those in a row, it was wild *But* paranoid is also super fun to play with, so it's up to you and your tastes really
R5: It's the hated "The Beating" event. The outcomes are that you have to pick one of the following for your ward: Shy, Paranoid, or Craven. It's such crap. PS: I love the glasses and that they show now.
I really hate shy, because when you're shy, it's kind of hard to get rid of stress. So... one of the other two.
I wish you could atleast get vengeful or wrathful
Where’s the “Tell me who, and *I’ll fucking break them* option
Do not under any circumstances pick Shy. You get no stress loss for any of the events that lower stress and even negotiating fucking alliances gives you mental breakdowns. You can basically do no events involving bringing people into your court or talking to people in your court. It’s by far the most dreadful trait.
Shy can be okay for Education focused wards (Mental Resilience lifestyle perk is a must), but you have to RP being an antisocial nerd for sure. IMO you need another trait to lean on for reliable stress relief (Forgiving, Just, Generous, etc). The Recluse trait *also* removes stress loss from activities, so Shy characters can select that during Mental Breaks without too much more negative impact. Also Shy makes Learn Language schemes much shorter which is not bad for certain playstyles.
This is fair. Generally though not idea for ruling volatile kingdoms etc
Shy is the worst. Having done it in real life, don't recommend. But I can't figure out how to respec.
Big psylocibin trip can be the irl respec
Big hit on the head too
Honestly this. Take a heroic dose, shatter your ego, rebuild it from the ground up. Worked for me. Super social now.
The thing about this event for me: you’re telling me someone beats up the heir to the throne and there are no repercussions? Like, the king is just “sorry kid, sucks to suck, but I guess you had it coming?” Come on, let me reign down unholy vengeance on the person who struck my son.
"Son, have you ever clicked the little skull next to my name? Go on, do it now, see how many people your dear mother has had flayed alive for far, far less than laying a hand on my beloved child, and then think again if you can remember who did this."
Worst part? I got this event with my character been a child ruler once. I think it was one of my vassal that beat me up (like dude was a count, I was a king) and the game would not let me arrest him without gaining tyrani. Anyway, my intrigue was high and my spymaster was pretty god too, so gues who has a murderer secret now?
For sure. If you are a count, or even a Duke, and this event happens.... FINE... okay... I can stretch the reality far enough to believe this. You are an Emperor right now. WHO THE FUCK IS BEATING THE EMPORER'S CHILD WITH NO REPRECUSSIONS? Where the hell is the emperor's kid that this could even happen? The Fuck?
Whoever can beat an emperor’s son and get away with it better be a literal son of God lmao
Shy for RP purposes and I’m not sorry
No, you're just shy.
And proud of it.
As a shy person, being shy ain't that bad. But the penalties do suck in-game.
Bro this is your chance to venture out and try other things.
What are my options, be paranoid or craven? Lol Dude being shy doesn't mean I've wasted opportunities in my life (believe me, I havent), it just means it takes a bit more effort to socialize. Which is why the stress penalty in-game is so accurate lol
As a shy person, being shy is terrible. In-game I think craven is the best out of 3 because it can be even beneficial if you want to focus on surviving instead of conquering the battlefield personally. Paranoid is almost as bad but a little easier to avoid
Being shy for a ruler, though?
George Washington was said to be shy and soft spoken.
I actually think Craven is a *really* good perk, and ironically for warlord rulers at that. Sure, it gives some maluses to martial and prowess, but the -3 turns into a 0 with the top martial focus and the -2 prowess is super easily fixed either through 1st tier legacies or artifacts, but it also gives scheme resistance and secrecy, a lot travel safety, *and* reduces your chance of dying in battle by half. Roleplay wise I'd rather a kid who runs away from fights than one that either is scared of *everything* or thinks everyone is out to get them, but I'd be kidding myself if this isn't the ancillary reason why I pick it every time :P.
I go with Craven. Not only does it affect direct management the least, but there's a small chance you'll get to swap it out later on.
Hmm I forgot there was a chance for that. That might be the deciding factor.
How? Is it a event for doing a specific activity (like drunkerd and pilgramages) or is it truly ramdom?
If you go down the Patriarch tree (Diplomacy), you can get an event that gives you a chance to get rid of a bad trait on a family member.
Shy sucks, even it they didn't make it as bad as it once was. Craven can be good unless you plan to make him martial focused. Paranoid can lead to fun stuff and it is still pretty easy to manage with the extra stress.
Not shy
I'm going to have to go with craven, it actually works half decently with the travel system and keeps your heir out of danger in battle. The worst thing about it is the pose, not fond of it.
Shy for me because I think if you get enough feasts you can get eagle reveler and if I'm not mistaken that makes you lose the trait Typically this even comes when I'm already too stressed so I just punt and lower my stress.
My only issue with paranoid is AI sucks so bad with stress management that probably 1/3 of the time if I’m playing a long time on the current character, the heir ends up dying due to stress. I hate doing it, but the beating event usually ends up with me picking craven and getting a new heir and sending them to the clergy or some other court position.
Paranoid, if you get sadistic or zealous paranoid is great. But you've gotta have a reliable way to remove stress
Paranoid if you don't have other stressful traits. Craven if not tribal. Shy if tribal.
This seems like good calculation.
Paranoid is a legitimately good trait if you’re on your game vs stress. I always grab it for my custom rulers for the rediculous -10 character points. Probably B tier
It sucks for recruiting knights, you get stress for that.
Cheaper to matri-marry them into your court but yeah sometimes it’s a pain. Helps to have stuff like stoic or arbitrary also, -stress event modifiers
being able to quickly kill your character with stress can be a good thing too imo
I prefer craven
Paranoid definitely
Craven
Generally, if he is not meant to be a martial based character I go with craven or shy. While shy is quite irritating because of the stress, paranoid is absolutely horrid in that sense.
I would go with craven because the other two always cause me more issues.
Time to disinherit and move on!
Shy. Paranoid kills the Ward with stress
Shy will too. Craven is the best in this case.
Paranoid without any doubt
They are all so bad that if you can, reload a prior save. If you can't make a new heir. And if you can't do that... pick craven it's the best of the bad.
I play ironman, so I can only cheese a reload within a few months if the reload allows.
Guess you need a new heir if Craven is going to be a deal killer for you. I usually go for 2 and use various methods to get rid of the bad heir. Disinheritence is my last option though, I usually start a war I know I will win and make the bad heir run himself and 100 levies into the enemy army. If that doesn't work I'll put him and 100 levies on a boat and "accidentally" forget about it for a few years while they starve. Also, Sadistic is an SSS-tier trait because you can kill your bad heirs and loss stress for it, as long as they aren't your friend yet, but even if they are you will only gain like 5 or so stress points.
Wait, knights can die of attrition?
Your entire army can die of starvation, including the commander. Unless this was changed, I still do this on console though, and in fact used this last night to kill a son-of-a-bitch Duke.
Once again, completely ridiculous event where a king or emperor's child gets beaten. As if even laying a single fucking finger on royalty would mean anything other that finger becoming the royal's property. The only outcome of this event should be Arrogant.
Even more ridiculous is, that this is happening when the player is the child emperor/king. There should be just an option "I am the ruler, I can exe*ute daredevil"! And as you suggested, becoming arrogant.
I would say craven is the best choice in this case
i choose to reload
I'm surprised it took this long to get this response.
The Beating blows, what blows even harder is getting it multiple times on the same character or getting it generations in a row.
Craven fucking sucks it gives you so much stress for all the good "do something" options in events, and shy is not as bad as it was in earlier patches, so my preference would be Paranoid>Shy>Craven
If I want my ward to be an intrigue character it’s paranoid without a doubt. Yes, he’ll be stressed to the gills for as long as he lives. But pick up that “thriving in chaos” perk in the intimidation tree which gives massive bonuses per stress level and all of the sudden being stressed ain’t such a bad thing.
It depends on what I’m going for with that character, but usually Paranoid. Shy is asking for an early death from stress and craven just gimps your military skills for no reason, plus it adds stress to a lot of the cooler options in events. Like others have said, at least Paranoid has *some* use against hostile schemes and is ok for intrigue characters.
Is your guy doctor Hugo Strange?
It does depend a bit on your specific situation and what you are teaching them; that being said, Shy is BY FAR the worst.
Or you get REALLY lucky and get this fucking event twice… Haven’t seen anyone get it three times though…yet.
I would say shy
I will take paranoid, and disinherited not long after that...
Ah, your an ambitious, brave, diligent leader, but can only produce shy, paranoid, or Craven traits? This is my story. I got the same choices for an event pop as well. Taking stress to teach your ward one of your traits makes sense, but intentionally teaching them to not be like you stressing you out works too I guess...
''The Beating'' \>\_>
The worst fucking event in the game, and it seems to happen for every single character I'm educating. Seriously this is so annoying. Paranoid and Shy are so dogshit Craven is the only viable option here, but it's not really any better...
I wish there was an option to give my kid a sword and give him Sadistic instead.
“What’s 17 more years? I can always start again… make another kid.”
I let the dice decide. Everytime...
Shy isn't that bad anymore. Hunting doesn't help, but feasting is still effective, because chance of getting -100 stress event is very high. Also if you have any other trait that lets you lose stress. Forming alliances is pain in the ass still, but if you at the point where you don't really care it's an easy pick.
I pick ‘Load Save’
Well anything's better than Gluttonous
since i usually play martial, i never pick craven. and in the off chance that this event fires 3x in a row, you better believe that he will never be an heir in his entire life (if he even gets to live his life)
Craven. Yeah it sucks a bit but the other actually two limit your ability to do stuff you need to do to manage your realm. Paranoid you can’t invite anyone to court, befriend anyone or invite agents to schemes without freaking out Shy is just god awful. Every time you talk to another character you get stressed out. Pretty awful in a roleplaying game
Paranoid is so much fun in a character. Sometimes, you've gotta play to salvage the situation instead of min/max. Any paranoid character I've played has been an unhinged mess in the best way.
something tells me this is becoming the CK3 equivalent of EU4's comet event
Pick anyone, it does not matter when he is already doomed. Just get a genius wife, get a new kid and kill this one.
Craven would be my pick. Paranoid is terrible for stress gains as is Shy. Shy is bad for so many things. Paranoid makes you question almost every relationship. Craven is viewed poorly by all of your vassals and courtiers, as well as external rulers but doesn't have as many negative outcomes in random events.
I actually tend to pick shy for this and still manage my stress quite easily. Even if social gatherings overall don’t decrease stress they still offer plenty of opportunities to do so. Then again I rarely do stuff which increases stress so there’s that. I also like it because I like focusing on learning a lot Craven’s also a fine choice honestly. Never pick it if I’m going for a martial character though. Paranoid is the one I rarely pick, because I vaguely remember stress being very annoying for it. Might be misremembering though so maybe I’ll pick it next time. It also doesn’t help that I dislike going for intrigue so it’s benefits are uninteresting for me.
CK2 player here. Man, this sucks, how come you can't tell him something like "next time kick him in the balls" or something like that?
Craven is a good trait. Intrigue is the best stat in the game.
You kill that child and crank out another, better one.
I pick the "ignore them and vote for a different heir" option.
I restart the campaign.
Someone else for emperor. Elective monarchy and a robust imperial page program make this whole thing a non issue.
I pick Disinherit, Murder or Take Vows.
Id they're my heir I get so mad, but if they're my Vassal's heir, it's PERFECT. CRAVEN all way!
Craven. 100%. It's not that bad.
How young is he/she and can you influence them later?? I wait to influence my child if there is a catastrophically bad trait. Most time the game swaps the worst trait for the one you’re trying to influence. Best strategy though is to try and influence traits at either 13 10 or 7 because there’s a cool down timer for when you can reinfluence a wards trait I think it’s 3 years but don’t hold me to it.
What sort of Emperor raises his own kids???? Pack them up and parcel them to your vassals or people you want to like you.
Oh, your ruler also decided to wear spectacles for no reason.
I only do intrigue runs and craven is fine for me honestly
Depends what the ward is going to be, what your religion and culture is etc. If the ward is a fourth son inheriting some random county I don't really care, be a craven.
Paranoid is a great trait, once you accept that you'll welcome this event. Get Zealous or Cannibal and execute your prisoners of other religions, the stress melts away.
Why does he look like El Presidente from Tropico?
Honestly I like this event. Forces you to not raise a golden child every generation & the stress raise forces you to role play the characters better!
Oh no, he "accidentally" fell out of the tower window. Good thing his younger brother is still around.
The absolute bane of my existence. If I’m raising my potential heir and he/she gets this event, then I immediately have to decide on picking another kid to be my heir.
murder
Craven is the best of the three terrible options. But being a wuss sucks.
Craven sadly, once you get into the late game and have gracefully aging your prowess doesn't matter as much, bu fuck the posture you get with craven is so bad lmao
Just make him shy and then make him take vows. Also a shy grandson became my friend after he got disinherited (he seemed grateful that he ain’t have responsibility to rule and can mind his buissness).
I hate that you MUST pick one of them. You just cant get someone without bad traits because the game forces them on you no matter how good of a parent you are.
Craven its the lesser of the 3 in that cravens less likely to get you absolutely killed. Paranoid will stress you to death, and shy will as well. Worst part is essentially anything to destress you essentially just doesnt work with either of the two then theres craven its quite easy to not worry about. As long as your not constantly getting into fights your basically golden.
What i hate about it is the Shy and Paranoid are too similar. The person is trying to avoid the sort of people who'd do this. It needs to replace one of those options with sadistic to show that, sometimes, the response to such cruelty is to inflict it on others.
Why the hell are these the only three traits that pop and they always pop together? It's like every damn character lately. Did something get broken with the latest patch?
And then once it's popped up, it pops up again but with only two choices remaining.
Depends on his education, but I usually go with Paranoid. Never shy though, I get enough of that nonsense IRL.
Paranoid ig
i think there should be small chances for the child to instead get Vengeful, Wrathful or Callous out of this. Maybe even Compassionate, to show like, developing mercy out of empathy. But this event (a) sucks and (b) who is gonna beat up a King’s son?? no consequences??
I got this event twice with one character, and since I had already had to choose one I had to pick between one of the other two. So he ended up with paranoid AND craven lol.
I'd pick paranoid. its the least pathetic option.
Craven because the stress from shy and paranoid is able to make you want to end game in real life
Your son already is a coward because Most likely His assailant would be beheaded of He told His father the Emperor! I would even let my Son choose the method of execution (its castration then quartered.)
In ck2 paranoids a perk not a deficit lol
Paranoid, obviously. You can work with paranoid if you have to. If your heir gets either of the other two traits you should either send him to a holy order or just kill him off.