Crusader Kings 3 shows off character Lifestyle focus, events, and skill trees

Crusader Kings 3 is shaping up to bring a combination of grand strategy and roleplaying, and the latest dev diary showcases these mechanics. We get to see character Lifestyles, events, focus, skill trees, perks, and even tidbits about intrigue and torture. Check out the video below:

Crusader Kings 3: Character Lifestyles

To be fair, Crusader Kings 2‘s roleplaying aspects were quite lacking when it originally released. It took the release of the Way of Life DLC to completely change the way you’d start building your characters. It’s no wonder that I considered it one of the best Crusader Kings 2 DLCs around.

In Crusader Kings 3, you need not worry about purchasable DLCs just yet. The Way of Life concepts — setting a Lifestyle focus for your character, gaining stat increases, and seeing events fire — are all part of the base game.

Crusader Kings 3 still has “the big five” Lifestyle choices: Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, and Learning, and each has three different skill trees. Picking a type of character focus lets you gain experience in the Lifestyle that the focus is a part of. In turn, you use these to unlock perks.

Perks, events, decisions, and a bit of seduction and torture

Getting perks and boosting your character’s growth leads to additional outcomes. For instance, some choices may increase the five main stats or even your prestige, piety, health, and fertility.

Many Crusader Kings 3 events are also tied to the Lifestyle focus and the perks you’ve unlocked. If you choose to focus on Learning, you could get events that help you understand the management of your holdings. You could even attempt the transmutation of lead into gold, or borderline heretical acts.

Similarly, you’ve got Intrigue-based perks that are tied to schemes. Some would increase a scheme’s success chance, while others remove penalties based on attraction or because a relationship might be incestuous (Lannister fans rejoice). There’s even a perk that makes it more likely for your lovers to protect you from attempted murder.

Other events or decisions include those related to torture, which lords during the medieval times loved. One perk called “Fear Tax” increases the levy contributions of vassals that have been cowed or intimidated because of your fear-mongering tactics.

Crusader Kings 3 releases some time in 2020. You can already wishlist the game via Steam.