Is there a downside to Dread?

[Scooter]

Any reason why I shouldn't be stacking dread at every opportunity?

[Aldon]

No downside apart some options to gain dread give you tyranny, like killing peaple or such. I played a dread char with 100 dread (achievment) and noticed no single downside.

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

Nope, only if it costs you tyranny to get the dread. I always try to leave a bunch of heathen prisoners in my dungeon before I die so my heir can execute them all as part of his coronation. Helps keep the Vassals toeing the line through Short Reign.

[Anun]

The only downside is that some people won't be afraid of you even at 100 dread, and they'll absolutely hate you. According to the CK3 wiki there's a hidden stat based on people's traits that determines if they fear you or not, and how much dread it takes to scare them. I was playing a 100 dread tyrant of Scotland, and one of my vassals was never terrified or intimidated. It's still really strong though, and having one or two vassals scheming against you isn't that big of a deal when everyone else is scared of you.

[The Former]

If you have a lot of dread, you'll probably be hated by a lot of people... and if you're hated by a lot of your subjects, those subjects will hate your heir when he takes over. Also note that people will still scheme behind your back, even if they're afraid of you. Other than that, not really!

[lubed_assassin]

Scooter の投稿を引用：

Any reason why I shouldn't be stacking dread at every opportunity?

no downside, only a downside to tyranny. If you have human sacrifice as a tenet there is pretty much zero downside.

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

World's Coolest Old Guy の投稿を引用：

If you have a lot of dread, you'll probably be hated by a lot of people... and if you're hated by a lot of your subjects, those subjects will hate your heir when he takes over. Also note that people will still scheme behind your back, even if they're afraid of you. Other than that, not really!

Dread doesn't actually have an opinion penalty, though, just tyranny. There are plenty of ways to get dread with no tyranny and therefore no opinion malus.

[Aldon]

World's Coolest Old Guy の投稿を引用：

If you have a lot of dread, you'll probably be hated by a lot of people... and if you're hated by a lot of your subjects, those subjects will hate your heir when he takes over. Also note that people will still scheme behind your back, even if they're afraid of you. Other than that, not really!

No, my duke was loved by nearly evrybody even with 100 dread. Two complete different stats.

[Fuinril]

World's Coolest Old Guy の投稿を引用：

If you have a lot of dread, you'll probably be hated by a lot of people... and if you're hated by a lot of your subjects, those subjects will hate your heir when he takes over. Also note that people will still scheme behind your back, even if they're afraid of you. Other than that, not really!

Why should you be hated for dread ? You technically can have 100 dread with the just and kind traits (will not be easy to manage stress).

Dread replace some CK2 modifiers like "crushed major revolt" in addition to basic fear against cruel tyrants... but that does not mean you will be hated by any means

Dread is a measure of how feared a ruler is by their vassals. Enough dread can make characters intimidated or terrified, allowing diplomatic actions to succeed despite negative opinions. It is gained or lost by various actions that inspire fear, such as torturing and executing prisoners. Each character additionally has natural dread which is the value towards which dread will drift over time (either up or down), at a rate of 0.5 per month.

Intimidated characters are less likely to join factions or schemes against the character they're intimidated by, while a terrified character will never join factions or schemes against them. In addition it affects their acceptance for various character interactions

source : https://ck3.paradoxwikis.com/Attributes#Dread

[=яενєηąŋŧ=]

Just read the tooltip, and not only does Intimidated status make a character less likely to join factions, it also makes them less likely to scheme at all. Terrified status makes them unable to do either at all.

Dread also increases vassal acceptance for things like imprisonment and title revocation, makes them more likely to vote your way in Elective Succession, makes them more likely to accept becoming your vassal, and less likely to oppose law changes.

So it's actually way better than I ever realized, and since opinion also counts towards those things, high dread and high opinion actually *stack*

Nice.

*Edit* Lol, Fuinril beat me to it