It's a historical fact that many monarchs were successful rulers and conquerors in spite of the fact that nobody liked them. Instead, they had such a fearsome reputation that no one dared to cross them. Crusader Kings 3 simulates this kind of ruler with the Dread mechanic.
Dread is a stat that every ruler has, but not every ruler can increase or maintain. If Crusader Kings 3 players want a Dreadful ruler, they'll have to perform some devilish deeds. This guide will explain how to increase Dread, how to keep it high, and what benefits players can expect from doing so.
How to Gain and Lose Dread
Players can find any ruler's Dread stat on their character sheet. Its symbol is an armored fist, and it's next to the ruler's Gold, Prestige, and Piety. The Dread stat is on a scale from 0 to 100.
Each ruler also has a stat called "Natural Dread," which can also be somewhere between 0 and 100. Their Dread score will naturally increase or decrease until it reaches this number, and so players who want their ruler to have 100 Dread will need to keep committing Dreadful actions to keep it up. Sources of positive Natural Dread include:
- Personality Traits like Arbitrary, Wrathful, and Sadistic
- The Intrigue Lifestyle Intimidation focus
- The Ominous Reputation Dynastic Legacy
Rulers can also get a negative Natural Dread, mostly from illnesses and injuries. Dread can never go below 0, but these negative traits subtract from positive traits.
To increase Dread, players must perform aggressive actions like killing and torturing prisoners. The amount of Dread this generates depends on the prisoner's status: nobody cares if a ruler executes a lowborn courtier, but executing a neighboring ruler or a vassal produces much more Dread. Torturing can produce even more Dread, although the amount still depends on the victim's status.
Rulers can also lose Dread through their actions. Accepting a faction's ultimatum and freeing prisoners without asking for Gold or a Hook are both easy ways to lose Dread. Notably, each freed prisoner lowers Dread by 10 no matter what their status is. On the other hand, pardoning a crime has no effect on Dread.
One last piece of advice is to invest heavily in the Torturer tree of the Intrigue Lifestyle. The perks from this tree make torturing and executing more useful, then increase Dread gain, and "Forever Infamous" stops Dread from decaying on its own. This perk also unlocks the "Murder Feast," which every self-respecting villain should host. Another useful perk is "Kidnapper" in the Schemer tree, which allows player rulers to kidnap characters without the risk of Tyranny or rebellion.
Dreadful Effects
Every character in the game has a hidden "Boldness" stat. The game uses Boldness (along with other hidden personality stats) to decide what NPCs will do, and it has a direct impact on how they respond to high Dread. Characters inside a ruler's realm become Intimidated when the ruler's Dread is 20 above their Boldness, and they become Terrified when it goes above 45.
Players can see when a character is Intimidated or Terrified of their ruler by checking their Opinion. A whip in a blue circle next to the Opinion score means they're Intimidated, and a whip in a red circle means they're Terrified.
The whip icon is next to their Opinion score because these conditions largely override what Opinion usually does. Both conditions provide a bonus to several interaction types, with Terrified providing a bigger bonus than Intimidated. For instance, Intimidated adds a +50 modifier to accepting a Blackmail demand, while Terrified adds a +100. These don't negate Opinion penalties, but it's possible to gain Dread without angering every vassal in the process. The one exception is an offer to marry the ruler, to which Terrified applies a penalty.
More importantly, Intimidated characters are less likely to join factions or schemes that target the ruler, and Terrified characters will completely refuse to do either action. The exception is a faction that's already gaining Discontent: if the ruler is outnumbered, even a Terrified vassal will feel safe enough to challenge them.
Crusader Kings 3 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
