What use is seduction really?

[Salem Graves]

It's fun to do for sure, but what actual benefit does it have? As a female ruler it's really useful to get people to like you, but there aren't many powerful females so using it as a male doesn't seem to have any benefits.

[Killahz]

Seduce unmarried genius invite to court. Make babies.

[Arson]

I also fail to understand the strong use of the Seducer tree unless you are a female ruler. In this case I would think it would be a fantastic option since you get a massive attraction opinion bonus and most other rulers in the game will be male.

I think about the only really useful parts of having it as a male ruler would be if perhaps you have concubines you can seduce for baby-making, or maybe for amassing lovers to protect you against murder plots.

[Sentient_Toaster]

It's helpful for convincing someone to act as an agent for one of your own schemes. Having a king's wife in love with you is helpful if you're planning to murder him.

Also, it's helpful for being a bit disruptive. For instance, if you seduce a king's wife, he might find out -- in which case he might have her imprisoned. If that happens, it'll poison relations between the families, and will likely mean that they won't be having kids anymore. If your fling results in a bastard, it won't necessarily be found out immediately -- which might result in a character becoming a heir and then getting Disputed Heritage for a penalty to relations with the rest of his house, weakening his rule. If *never* found out, well, it'll compilcate succession in cases of multi-heir policies.

[Arson]

Originally posted by Sentient_Toaster:

It's helpful for convincing someone to act as an agent for one of your own schemes. Having a king's wife in love with you is helpful if you're planning to murder him.

Also, it's helpful for being a bit disruptive. For instance, if you seduce a king's wife, he might find out -- in which case he might have her imprisoned. If that happens, it'll poison relations between the families, and will likely mean that they won't be having kids anymore. If your fling results in a bastard, it won't necessarily be found out immediately -- which might result in a character becoming a heir and then getting Disputed Heritage for a penalty to relations with the rest of his house, weakening his rule. If *never* found out, well, it'll compilcate succession in cases of multi-heir policies.

That's the thing though, right? You have multiple lovers, all of them secrets of yours. It only takes one of them to ruin your marriage and upset the whole family.

[Slim Shady]

You can expose impriosn torture and excute them for more fun lol XD And you gain dread I think ? if you need it XD

[CrUsHeR]

Seduction is fairly useless for a competent, independent ruler

1) Seducing your wife: This will cause her to produce one baby after another. Besides you don't need a lifestyle and a full seduction tree for that.

2) Seducing random women: Lover's Pox, here we go. Also with civilized religions, pointless adulterer trait and loss of devotion ranks. Bastards have no purpose, really.

3) Seducing e.g. wives of other rulers: Stupid and dishonorable. Same as point 2.

4) Seducing family members: All of the above, just with clubfooted / dwarf / etc bonus.

[LzDK14]

While woman is pregant, she can't get MORE pregnant.
You can tople small-to medium dynasties with seduction if all their offsprings are your bastards.

[archonsod]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Bastards have no purpose, really.

They still generate renown, still belong to your house and the only downside is they can't inherit titles. Which isn't necessarily a downside if you're still rocking partition.

[Transylvandrei]

Originally posted by archonsod:

They still generate renown, still belong to your house and the only downside is they can't inherit titles. Which isn't necessarily a downside if you're still rocking partition.

Bastards can be legitimized. You can keep spare heirs around in case your main heir dies without them standing to inherit anything in partition succession. Also they can be used for alliances.

[Transylvandrei]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Seduction is fairly useless for a competent, independent ruler

This could not be further from the truth. There are numerous ways in which seduction is useful, the opinion boost, the acceptance of invite to court requests (for use as spouses, chancellors or even knights) or join plots, the increased chance of producing a child, etc.

[Bike Knight]

I wouldn't have been able to strengthen my dynasty's bloodline without being able to seduce Amazonian/Beautiful women from all around Persia to come be my concubines, so that's a use.

[JuX]

You can also be creative with it, pending on your religion. For example. adultery is generally shunned for men, while for women it's a crime. So you could technically seduce your subject duchess and expose the affair for rightful imprisonment and revoke her tittle.

[CrUsHeR]

Originally posted by Transylvandrei:

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Seduction is fairly useless for a competent, independent ruler

This could not be further from the truth. There are numerous ways in which seduction is useful, the opinion boost, the acceptance of invite to court requests (for use as spouses, chancellors or even knights) or join plots, the increased chance of producing a child, etc.

Keep in mind that you are investing lifetime into the seduction lifestyle XP. So this competent, independent ruler could instead be doing a hundred other things which are a hundred times more useful.

But i guess you haven't met that guy yet ;)

[Transylvandrei]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Keep in mind that you are investing lifetime into the seduction lifestyle XP.

Everything has an opportunity cost. Seduction has its uses but it's not a universal panacea.

[NorPhi]

You can do some funny things with seduction but once you get the lover's pox you pretty much get shut down immediately, every time. So it turns useless instantly. I also dislike the fertility bonus. For female rulers this makes it way too dangerous to seduce someone.