In Crusader Kings 3, the number of domains you can hold directly is determined by your character’s rank (e.g., Count, Duke, King) and specific perks or traits they possess. Higher-ranked characters can typically hold more domains directly. However, there’s a limit to how many you can effectively manage without incurring penalties. Holding too many domains can lead to issues with vassal management, as you’ll need to delegate some to avoid incurring severe penalties to income and levies.
This guide will show you some of the ways that you can increase your domain limit in Crusader Kings 3, allowing you to hold as many domains as possible.
Contents
- Main Ways to Raise Your Domain Limit
- Over Domain limit Negative Effects
Increasing Your Stewardship Skill to Increase Domain Limit
One of the main factors when it comes to the amount of domains your character can control is their Stewardship skill. Naturally, raising the stewardship skill level will increase the amount of domains your can manage without suffering any negative effects.
If you plan on having a ruler with the highest Stewardship possible, the best thing to do from the very beginning is once you have an heir, educate them yourself. (Which you should be doing anyway, giving you the control of how the child turns out). Then, you can direct their education and upbringing towards a Stewardship focus.
One of the easiest ways to increase your stewardship skill is to marry up. You can use your husband/wife’s Stewardship skill to raise your character’s skill. First, press the C key to open up the character finder menu. Here, you can filter unmarried people within your reach and sort them by Stewardship level. Here, I found a match for one of my heirs in Serbia with a great Stewardship level.
One married, you can use your spouse’s Stewardship level to help your own by opening up the Council menu. Your spouse is at the top left corner. Open up the dropdown menu below their portrait and select the option Manage Domain. Their stewardship level will now give your base level a bonus and thus improve the amount of domains you can hold, given your spouse has a good Stewardship level.
Perks and Feats for Increasing Domain Level
Along with the Stewardship skill, there are Domina Level benefits from certain traits and perks in the game. Whenever you have events where you can pick traits, always look at them closely and weight up the possibilities of gaining helpful feats.
The best way to increase your own personal domain limit is through a Lifestyle Focus. By choosing the Domain Focus your character will immediately gain 3 stewardship while it is active. Through the Stewardship focus you can gain an extra 3 Stewardship by focusing on the Administrator trait tree and unlocking it. The other two perks Avaricious and Architect give another two points in Stewardship each.
To expand your Domain Limit, the best skill tree to follow is the Architect tree (the middle one) where you will find one extra bonus just before the Architect Trait. This is called Divided Attention and gives your character 2 more domains to their domain limit immediately.
Increasing Character’s Title
Another cap on the Domain Limit is the character’s current title. The greater the title they currently have, the more domains they can directly control. The titles and domain limit bonuses are as follows:
- Jarl: +1
- Duke/Duchess: +2
- King/Queen: +3
- Emperor/Empress: +4
Obviously you will have to vassalize if you don’t have a great Stewardship level as you won’t be able to control so many domains. As you create titles and improve your character’s rank, the total domain limit will increase to a maximum of +4.
Is it Bad to Be Over Domain Limit in Crusader Kings 3?
You should try to avoid being over your domain limit as much as possible in Crusader Kings 3 as there are a number of negative effects than come with it. For example, you will get less tax from all of your controlled Counties, not just the extra ones. One of the best things you can do if you are over your domain limit is to Vassalize a family member. This gives them the title of the country.
Not only will this mean you have a vassal that usually just likes you from the beginning, you will also gain family renown every time your dynasty members inherit a new title. This is one of the best things you can do if you are planning to play the game for a long period of time as dynasty upgrades will last through many character’s lifetimes. Through the Dynasty Legacy perk Home Estates every family member will also gain a +1 to their domain limit level.