Best Tenets Of Faith In Crusader Kings 3

Crusader Kings 3 is a grand strategy game that lets players take control of a medieval dynasty and guide it through various political and military challenges. Religion plays a vital role in the game, with characters’ beliefs and moral values shaping their decision-making and influencing their relationships with other characters. One of the most significant features of religion in Crusader Kings 3 is the Tenet system, which allows players to customize their characters’ beliefs based on their faith, culture, and personal convictions.

Out of the many Tenets available in Crusader Kings 3; Endura, Communion, and Warmonger, to name a few, stand out as some of the most powerful and versatile options. Along with these, there are many best CK3 tenets that are overpowered in the game and can benefit players who choose to follow them.

Updated on January 3, 2025 by Ritwik Mitra: Crusader Kings 3 is one of the greatest video games that fans of grand strategy titles can have a great time with. Roleplaying as the head of a dynasty and helping their realm become legendary is a huge part of what makes this title so much fun to play through. Players who want to make the most of their Crusader Kings 3 playthrough should focus on the religious side of things, allowing them to enact some of the best CK3 tenets that can change the way they play this game.

1

Megalithic Constructions

Development And Levy Size In Territories Is Boosted Considerably

• Can construct Megalith buildings
• Can construct Great Megalith duchy buildings
• +5 Advantage in Hills terrain
• +15% Development Growth in Hills terrain
• +10% Holding Taxes in Hills terrain
• +30% Levy Size in Hills terrain

One of the most overpowered and best CK3 tenets players can use to boost development in their kingdoms; players should make it a point to implement the Megalithic Constructions tenet. It incentivizes players to construct these broken buildings that can turn their kingdom into a superpower with ease.

Boosting development in their primary kingdoms ensures that players can enjoy a higher inflow of income and raise more levies, helping them gain a favorable edge in war if things go south. Megalithic Constructions can do wonders in the right hands, making it one of the best tenets in CK3 by a country mile.

2

Mendicant Preachers

Converting A County Is Faster Than Ever Before

• +33% County Conversion Speed
• Completing a pilgrimage grants a Holy Order Hire Cost modifier

Forming and spreading a religion is easier said than done, especially since the time taken to convert a county can take so long that players are better off focusing on something else for their Court Chaplain instead. However, all of this changes if players have the Mendicant Preachers tenet in CK3.

This ensures that players enjoy a sizable boost while spreading their religion, allowing them to completely alter the religious makeup of a region in no time. It’s a great path to take for players who want to use religion as a tool to enhance their powers — especially if they’ve formed a custom religion with favorable doctrines and tenets that can aid their ambitions in no time.

3

Religious Law

Makes It Cheaper To Pass Laws And Take Titles From Sinners

• -10% Law Cost
• Unlocks the Temporal Condemnation interaction with Vassals

The law is the law, and Crusader Kings 3 ensures that even the most powerful rulers around can’t abuse it for their personal gain. It aids the game’s balance, but players who want to enact more favorable laws for themselves without depleting the kingdom’s coffers will find the Religious Law tenet to be perfect for them.

Not only does it decrease the cost of passing a law, but it also lets players revoke titles from sinners to deplete their power without causing an uproar. It’s one of the best CK3 tenets for players who want to ensure control over their realm without causing other people’s opinions of the player character to tank.

4

Aniconism

Excellent To Farm A Ton Of Piety In No Time

• −33% Temple Holding and Temple Building Construction Cost
• −33% Temple Holding and Temple Building Construction Time
• Can destroy Famed and Illustrious artifacts
• +180 Piety per destroyed Common artifact
• +260 Piety per destroyed Mastercraft artifact
• +340 Piety per destroyed Famed artifact
• +500 Piety per destroyed Illustrious artifact
• Repairing and reforging artifacts costs Piety

Artifacts are fun to own in Crusader Kings 3, with these vanity pieces adding to a player’s Renown. It’s a stat that players must keep track of, but there are times when a ruler should focus on gaining Piety instead. This resource can be a pain to increase, and one of the best CK3 tenets ensures that players will be able to use these artifacts to increase their Piety in no time.

With the Aniconism tenet, players can construct temples quickly and at a lower cost. However, the best benefit of this tenet is that players can easily destroy artifacts to gain a decent amount of Piety with ease. This will make a player’s religious playthrough easier to manage, especially if they’re tired of hoarding relics over and over again with each ruler.

5

Human Sacrifice

Execute People To Farm Piety

• Grants the Raid for Captives Casus Belli
• +25 Piety per executed Lowborn
• +50 Piety per executed Count
• +100 Piety per executed Duke
• +250 Piety per executed King
• +500 Piety per executed Emperor

There’s something barbaric about executing prisoners, and most people would prefer to ransom their captives instead of killing them outright. Unless players want high Dread, there are not a lot of benefits for these court-ordered executions. However, one’s playthrough can change in a flash with one of the best CK3 tenets fans can get their hands on.

Human Sacrifice is pretty self-explanatory and one of the most sadistic tenets players can adopt for their faith. The higher a prisoner’s ranking, the more piety generated from their death. To make things even bloodier, players get a Casus Belli that allows them to increase the hoard of prisoners they can execute for a quick Piety boost, making for a fun playthrough where players roleplay as a ruler who loves executing hapless captives.

6

Sacred Childbirth

Having Children Has Even More Benefits Now

• +10% Fertility
• −50% Pregnancy Complication Chance
• +250 Piety for both parents when a child is born in wedlock
• +50 Piety for both parents when a child is born outside wedlock
• Makes Pregnant a virtue

Players need to continue a dynasty with a suitable heir, which is more of a balancing act than people would assume. Having a single heir can be risky, but too many can lead to problems for future successors who have to play nice with their siblings, leading to smaller kingdoms and numerous conflicts. Still, there’s no denying that having several children is better than a single heir, and one of the best CK3 tenets makes the simple act of conceiving a child as rewarding as it comes.

Sacred Childbirth improves fertility, prevents any complications, and gives a decent dose of Piety with each child born. It’s a simple way to increase this resource, and the fact that it happens naturally throughout the game leads to this tenet turning a passive act into a decent source of Piety as long players have enough children when they’re hale and hearty.

7

Communal Possessions

Gifting Is Overpowered

• +50 Piety per sent gift or gifted Common artifact
• +100 Piety per gifted Masterwork artifact
• +250 Piety per gifted Famed artifact
• +500 Piety per gifted Illustrious artifact
• +10 Popular Opinion
• -10% Building Construction Cost
• −20% Control Growth
• Rulers gain piety from marrying lowborn characters

Players who love hoarding relics and don’t mind gifting them to other allies from time to time will love what Communal Possessions brings to the table. It’s one of the best tenets players can choose to generate a lot of piety from time to time, as long as gamers are willing to send people out on risky expeditions to get some valuable relics.

To make things better, everyone’s opinion of the ruler is boosted, and the cost of constructing buildings isn’t all that high either. While the lack of progress when it comes to establishing control in a county can be pretty annoying to deal with, this is something that players can work around, especially when the sheer amount of piety they gain more than makes up for it. To make things better, players can also attain piety by marrying off unimportant members of their family to lowborn characters.

8

Pursuit Of Power

Perfect For Players Who Love Waging War

• −50% Title Creation Cost
• −50% Tyranny Gain
• −10 Direct Vassal Opinion
• Grants the Conquest Casus Belli
• Grants the Invasion Casus Belli once per lifetime

There’s no denying that a huge part of what makes Crusader Kings 3 so much fun is when players with huge armies decide to attain control of other regions via forcible means. However, waging war over and over again can reduce the opinion of the ruler in question, which can make it somewhat challenging to keep vassals happy while also sporting some serious ambition.

This is why players would prefer their culture to have a tenet that encourages the pursuit of power at all costs. With this tenet, players can engage in acts of tyranny without fear of too much reprisal, create a ton of titles that help them retain a ton of power in the long run, and launch conquests to annex more territory as long as they have an army adept enough to handle a continuous stream of war.

9

Ritual Celebrations

Feasting Is Encouraged

• +5 Vassal Opinion
• +5 Courtier Opinion
• +100 Piety after a Feast
• −100 Piety if not attending Feast

Feasts are a great way to reduce stress and gain renown, allowing players to engage in unique events that can deepen their bonds with others while letting them enjoy the opulence of such an event. However, it’s pretty costly to host a feast, and it may not be feasible for players to hold too many feasts if they don’t have the coin to spare.

However, with the Ritual Celebrations tenet, players can essentially trade coin for piety with a feast while enjoying a slightly higher opinion in the eyes of vassals and courtiers. The only negative here is that players must also make it a point to attend other feasts unless they don’t mind a Piety penalty.

10

Endura

Promotes The Notion Of Ritual Suicide

• −50% Short Reign Duration
• Enables the Initiate Endura decision

Endura, on the surface, may not be a tenet most players would seek out for their new faith. After all, sacrificing a character may seem a tad extreme. However, the benefits of this tenet should not be underestimated. As many fans of the Crusader Kings franchise know, passing the crown to an heir is a tricky aspect that requires good timing and a strong candidate. Having a character that lives a full and long life is a sought-after trait most players want; however, this can have its downsides as well. If a character lives too long, they risk having an heir who may be too old to have a long reign for themselves. With the Endura option, the player has the choice as to when they want to move on to the next character without the same negative consequences that they would normally have.

With the bonus of -50% Short Reign Penalty, taking over the realm as a new character is much easier. One of the biggest obstacles for a new ruler is dealing with the powerful vassals that tend to form factions and rebel once there is someone new in power. Much of this comes from the negative opinion buff that comes from the Short Reign Penalty. With Endura, this becomes a much smaller issue and can be much more easily resolved without conflict.

11

Adaptive

A Progressive Tenet That Accepts Other Faiths

• +30% County Conversion Resistance
• +15 Different Faith Liege Opinion
• +15 Opinion of Different Faith Liege
• −25% Different Faith Popular Opinion
• Different faith vassals are less likely to join Independence & Populist factions

Progressiveness is something that anyone would want to enjoy in the video game of their choice, but Crusader Kings 3 is set around a time when people’s beliefs were set in stone. Free thinking wasn’t something that was prioritized, but it doesn’t mean that players can’t encourage the same by passing a tenet for their religion.

The Adaptive tenet ensures that players make their subjects more tolerant of foreign religions, which can make it easier to form alliances and maintain cordial relations with foreign rulers. While this comes at the cost of a penalty to county conversion rates, it’s a small price to pay for players who want to roleplay as a tolerant and accepting ruler.

12

Communal Identity

Combines Faith And Culture At The Expense Of Shunning Other Religions

• +10 Same faith opinion
• +50% Promote Culture Speed if same faith
• +50% County Conversion Speed if same culture
• −50% County Conversion Speed if different culture

Culture and faith go hand-in-hand in most instances, and this tenet certainly embodies the same principle. Communal Identity ensures that the faith of the player’s dominion becomes stronger by intertwining it with the threats of the culture embodied in the same area as well.

The result is that members of the same faith have a higher opinion of the player, while both promote culture and country conversion speed is enhanced if one of either faith or culture is the same. However, this can still cause issues when converting a country’s religion if their culture is different as well.

13

Gnosticism

Spiritual Knowledge Is Prioritized With The Passing Of This Tenet

• +2 Learning
• −2 Stewardship
• −5 Stress when granting a County Title
• −15 Stress when granting a Duchy Title
• −65 Stress when granting a Kingdom Title
• −160 Stress when granting an Empire Title
• Faiths with the same tenet are considered Righteous
• Considered and be considered by all dualist faiths as Righteous
• Makes Temperate a virtue
• Makes Gluttonous a sin

Gnosticism is a powerful tenet that offers a fair share of benefits, with the only major penalty coming in the form of a debuff to the player’s Stewardship. However, the bonus to Learning coupled with the removal of stress upon acquiring a title is quite welcome.

Given how debilitating Stress can be in Crusader Kings 3, it’s easy to see why players would want to pass this Tenet if their ruler is on the verge of offing themselves. As long as the player character isn’t Gluttonous, passing this tenet should be a no-brainer.

14

Communion

Rabid Religious Faithfulness That Makes Excommunication A Crime

• Enables the Seek Indulgences interaction with the Head of Faith
• Spiritual Head of Faith can Excommunicate characters
• Makes Honest a virtue
• Makes Deceitful a sin
• Makes Excommunication a crime

One of the most significant benefits of Communion is the ability to Seek Indulgences from the Head of Faith. This interaction allows characters to gain piety and reduce stress by confessing their sins and performing penance. The Head of Faith can also Excommunicate characters who have committed crimes against the Church or their faith, making it easier to remove troublesome vassals or rivals. Communion also makes the Honest virtue and Deceitful sin, which can help characters maintain their reputation and avoid negative consequences for dishonest actions.

Seeking Indulgences also brings in large sums of gold from sinful vassals. If the players become the head of faith, then gold will consistently come in as the followers of the faith seek to be absolved. The more followers, the more gold the Head of Faith makes.

Overall, Communion is an excellent choice for players who want their characters to be pious and respected members of their faith. The Seek Indulgences interaction can be a valuable source of piety and stress relief, and the ability to Excommunicate characters can be a useful tool for maintaining religious and political stability. The income that comes from being the Head of Faith will also be enough to support the realm the players control.

15

Warmonger

Promotes The Notion Of Fighting In The Name Of Religion

• Members of the clergy can serve as Commanders or Knights
• Grants the Conquest Casus Belli
• Grants the Invasion Casus Belli once per lifetime
• No Offensive War Opinion
• Being at peace for more than 6 months lowers Vassal Opinion
• Can declare Great Holy Wars if Faith has a Head of Faith and is Organized
• Knights can gain the Berserker trait if Asatru or North Germanic heritage

Warmonger is a Conviction Tenet that promotes the use of military force to achieve one’s goals. Characters who follow this Tenet believe that war is a necessary tool for expanding their territory, defending their honor, or asserting their dominance over others. They may be more likely to pursue aggressive expansionist policies and engage in military conflicts, even if it means breaking alliances or risking the stability of their realm.

The most significant benefits of Warmonger are the Conquest and Invasion Casus Belli, which allow characters to declare war on neighboring territories without incurring significant penalties or negative opinion modifiers. This can be a powerful tool for expanding one’s realm and increasing one’s power and prestige. Warmonger also allows members of the clergy to serve as Commanders or Knights, making them valuable assets in battles and wars.

However, Warmonger also comes with significant drawbacks. Characters who follow this Tenet have No Offensive War Opinion, meaning their vassals may be less likely to support their aggressive military campaigns. Additionally, being at peace for more than six months lowers Vassal Opinion, making it more difficult to maintain political stability in the long term. Finally, characters who follow Warmonger may be more likely to engage in excessive violence and cruelty, which can lead to negative reputations and diplomatic consequences.

Despite these drawbacks, Warmonger is an excellent choice for players who want their characters to be powerful and aggressive military leaders. The ability to declare wars without significant penalties can offer a game-changing advantage, especially in the early stages of a game when expansion is essential. The Conquest and Invasion Casus Belli also allow players to target specific territories and engage in strategic planning, rather than relying solely on random events or alliances.