The first thing most of us do when we start a game of Crusader Kings 3 up is to conquer all we see in sight.
However, due to the domain limit, you will have to give the territory to some very grateful vassals that will betray you once your character dies.
Recommended Read: How to Move Capital in CK3
To make sure the territories stay in your main dynasty, you will need to increase your CK3 domain limit and keep those juicy levies and revenue sources to yourself.
So, here is exactly how the domain limit works in CK3 and how you can increase it to hold more than 10 counties at once!
Table of contents
- How Domain Limit Works
- Increase Domain Limit in CK3
How Domain Limit Works
The domain limit exists to restrict players from owning all the lands they conquered, making them rely on vassals.
Every holding that you will conquer will add to that domain limit, and if you exceed the limit, you will see serious repercussions in terms of levies, vassal opinion, and revenue.
So, if you want more power and more control over your lands, you will need many holdings, which means that you inevitably have to increase your domain limit.
Increase Domain Limit in CK3
There are a couple of factors that will influence your maximum domain limit in CK3, and all of these are very important.
However, some of these will directly influence your playthrough and will make you concentrate on Stewardship more than on other skills.
Here are the exact things that will directly influence your domain limit, and, if improved or gained, will increase it to extraordinary levels:
- Tier of Title
- Stewardship
- Religion
- Culture
- Dynasty Legacies
Tier of CK3 Title
The title that you have will greatly influence the number of domains you can control. Being a count is going to be a lot worse than being an emperor.
Here is the exact bonus to domain limit you get in CK3 for each title tier:
- Count -> +2 Domain Limit
- Duke -> +2 Domain Limit
- King -> +3 Domain Limit
- Emperor -> +4 Domain Limit
The cost of becoming a duke is not that high, so the rewards are low as well. However, getting to the higher ranks will also allow you to gradually hold more holdings.
Stewardship
This one is the most known by players to affect the domain limit since it can have the biggest effect.
Based on your CK3 character’s Stewardship, you will get a different bonus to the domain limit. Here is an example of how much Stewardship affects the limit:
- Below 5 Stewardship -> +0 Domain Limit
- 5 to 9 Stewardship -> +1 Domain Limit
- 10 to 14 Stewardship -> +2 Domain Limit
- 15 to 19 Stewardship -> +3 Domain Limit
And this goes on till the maximum amount of Stewardship you can achieve. This is why one of the best strategies in CK3 is to start with a character with good Martial and raise your child to be good in Stewardship.
By doing this, you can get many domains with a great fighter and then be able to hold all the domains, which will grant you too many troops and revenue for you to care that your ruler isn’t a good warrior.
You can also increase Stewardship by selecting the Domain Focus Lifestyle in the Stewardship Focus. This will grant you with +3 Stewardship, which can almost get you a +1 to domain limit.
Also, by going down the Architect Stewardship tree, you will get the “Divided Attention” perk, which will grant you a +2 Domain Limit.
Players can also get a wife (or husband) that is incredible in Stewardship and select from their Council menu for them to “Manage Domains”, which just means that you want to get a part of her Stewardship skill for yourself.
CK3 Religious Doctrine Bonuses
There is one special doctrine in CK3 that religions can use that will grant the believers a +1 to domain limit. That unique doctrine is Pacifism.
When you reform or create a new heretical faith, you can choose the new doctrines for your religion by going down the doctrines on the right to find Pacifism.
By taking the Pacifism doctrine or joining a religion that already follows this doctrine, you can gain +1 Domain Limit. However, pacifists can’t raid and will never get the Holy War casus belli.
This can limit your game but will allow you to play tall. By not constantly expanding with easy casus bellis, you can improve your many domains and slowly take over the world.
Cultural Innovations
In the Culture Innovations screen, which is basically a tech tree, you can see all the great bonuses you will get if the leader of the culture has great Learning skills.
If you are the leader and want to choose the innovations that will quickly increase your CK3 domain limit, here are the ones you should keep an eye out for:
- Tribal Era
- Ledger (Civic, +1 Domain Limit)
- Early Medieval Era
- Bailiffs (Civic, +1 Domain Limit)
- High Medieval Era
- Guilds (Civic, +1 Domain Limit)
- Late Medieval Era
- Court Officials (Civic, +1 Domain Limit)
By looking at these innovations, we can see that for every era you can easily get +1 to your domain limit. If you are the culture head, you should try to get these at the start of the era, or the game, if you don’t have them yet.
Stewardship Dynasty Legacy
There are exactly 8 Dynasty Legacies trees you can choose from. The Stewardship one, the Law Legacy, however, will grant you, at the end of the line, a +1 Domain Limit bonus.
That domain limit increase, along with the other great bonuses, makes the Law Dynasty Legacy tree probably one of the best in CK3.
That’s everything you need to know about how to increase the domain limit in Crusader Kings 3!
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