Elective, single heir realm succession? Or add laws to titles below duchy tier?

[pancakemix]

I just spent the last few hours trying to figure this out for myself with no luck, both in game and with modding the game's files myself.

Some background; in CK2, my preferred succession type was tanistry, because it allowed me to choose a promising, young member of my dynasty, who had no baggage and lots of potential for growth, to inherit all of my titles and play as them for a long time. Usually, I was liked enough that everyone voted for me, and when they didn't, it wasn't too hard to "fix".

In CK3, tanistry exists--along with similar elective succession types--but only as a title specific law, and laws can only be added to duchy titles or greater. All the other titles I personally own are passed down via the realm succession laws. Which means that I can nominate and get elected my preferred dynast for all my duchy and higher titles, but my counties and baronies--which are the only titles of any actual direct, practical worth--will be lost to one or more of my children, or to the oldest member of my dynasty, unless they are already my preferred successor, which is rare and exactly why I like the freedom of choice tanistry.

So, is there any way--in game or through modding--to have all my titles be inherited by a single dynast of my choice (or at least suggestion), or is there any way to make it possible to add elective succession laws to titles below duchies? Or am I stuck with a choice of either one of my direct children, or some random geriatric of my dynasty?

[Razorblade]

CK3 is really adamant in its desire for you to not unlock single heir succession until the late game (with the Primogeniture innovation circa 1300). Personally, I'd suggest just accepting it instead of fighting it; keeping a few extra counties through succession is not worth the Elective and Disinheriting shenanigans you have to go through.

As for getting a young primary heir, that's easier. Just set your Crown Authority to the maximum level, and you'll be able to designate one your children as your primary heir.

So I suppose the optimal solution to your problem would be to download a "Primogeniture from the start" mod, then rush the Royal Prerogative innovation for Absolute Crown Authority. Or just unlock both of the required innovations through console commands.

[Agony_Aunt]

Try and aim so you always keep max control on death. I always like to go for the learning perk that let's you know when you have 1 year left to die. Allows you to get your elections and stuff set up.

Make sure on your death, if possible, you are the only owner of the highest ranking realm(s) so you can fix the elections to your chosen heir. That is, only have 1 kingdom or 1 duchy. When my previous leader was about to croak and i had effectively 2 kingdoms, i deliberately hadn't formed the second kingdom, just left it as fractured duchys. At least then i'd be facing multiple but weaker leaders if they don't fall in line with my new ruler.

Also, remember De Jure absorption or whatever its called. You can get your kingdom to grow through absorbing neighboring duchies. Yeah, it takes 100 years unless you focus your chancellor on speeding it up, but you can slowly grow your main kingdom over multiple rulers without starting a second kingdom until much later when you are ready to rush for an empire. If you do speed it, you can make it happen in a single ruler's lifetime. If you don't mind taking your time this way, and stopping your chancellor doing other tasks, 1 duchy brought under your kingdom per lifetime isn't bad.

Currently i'm at about half of an empire. My current ruler is long lived and has about 20-30 years of rule left. I'm speeding a large duchy via de jure into my current kingdom and gobbling up a few weaker neighbors. My heir is going to be martial focused, and will use them to speed run the grabbing of enough counties to get my over the limit to create an empire if i can. Hopefully then, before his death, I can hit that empire button, and then it doesn't matter who grabs the kingdoms and duchies, my next ruler will be emperor over them anyway.

Of course, the problem with doing it this way is you can end up with a huge duchy and the ruler of that is going to be very powerful, so you want to make sure sure that ruler is either you or someone you can keep control of.

[pancakemix]

Originally posted by Razorblade:

CK3 is really adamant in its desire for you to not unlock single heir succession until the late game (with the Primogeniture innovation circa 1300). Personally, I'd suggest just accepting it instead of fighting it; keeping a few extra counties through succession is not worth the Elective and Disinheriting shenanigans you have to go through.

As for getting a young primary heir, that's easier. Just set your Crown Authority to the maximum level, and you'll be able to designate one your children as your primary heir.

So I suppose the optimal solution to your problem would be to download a "Primogeniture from the start" mod, then rush the Royal Prerogative innovation for Absolute Crown Authority. Or just unlock both of the required innovations through console commands.

My problem isn't that single heir succession is only available late game. My problem is that there doesn't seem to be a way, at any point in the game or with any innovation/law/etc., for me designate, or nominate for election, a dynast outside of my immediate children like I could with CK2's tanistry.

Even primogeniture, or ultimogeniture isn't what I want, because I'm still stuck with an extremely small pool of candidates, which makes it crapshoot to get the kind of heir I want, or an heir that's not already in their 40 or older.

With title succession laws, I can designate my preferred heir for all of my "abstract" titles and play as them, but they will always lose all of my counties and baronies, which are the only titles that have actual benefits to them, aside from being higher ranked.

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Try and aim so you always keep max control on death. I always like to go for the learning perk that let's you know when you have 1 year left to die. Allows you to get your elections and stuff set up.

Make sure on your death, if possible, you are the only owner of the highest ranking realm(s) so you can fix the elections to your chosen heir. That is, only have 1 kingdom or 1 duchy. When my previous leader was about to croak and i had effectively 2 kingdoms, i deliberately hadn't formed the second kingdom, just left it as fractured duchys. At least then i'd be facing multiple but weaker leaders if they don't fall in line with my new ruler.

Also, remember De Jure absorption or whatever its called. You can get your kingdom to grow through absorbing neighboring duchies. Yeah, it takes 100 years unless you focus your chancellor on speeding it up, but you can slowly grow your main kingdom over multiple rulers without starting a second kingdom until much later when you are ready to rush for an empire. If you do speed it, you can make it happen in a single ruler's lifetime. If you don't mind taking your time this way, and stopping your chancellor doing other tasks, 1 duchy brought under your kingdom per lifetime isn't bad.

Currently i'm at about half of an empire. My current ruler is long lived and has about 20-30 years of rule left. I'm speeding a large duchy via de jure into my current kingdom and gobbling up a few weaker neighbors. My heir is going to be martial focused, and will use them to speed run the grabbing of enough counties to get my over the limit to create an empire if i can. Hopefully then, before his death, I can hit that empire button, and then it doesn't matter who grabs the kingdoms and duchies, my next ruler will be emperor over them anyway.

Of course, the problem with doing it this way is you can end up with a huge duchy and the ruler of that is going to be very powerful, so you want to make sure sure that ruler is either you or someone you can keep control of.

I've never had an issue yet with my realm splitting due to succession, because I've always made sure to not have more than one titles of the same tier of my highest title, unless I'm confidant I can attain a higher title still within my current character's lifetime, and so all my successors would be vassals to my player heir.

My issue is that I can't give my core county and barony tier titles--which are the titles that provide practical benefits to their immediate holders--to the heir of my choice unless that heir, conveniently, happens to be one of my children. I don't even really care about the loss of kingdoms and duchies, if only I could insure my capital and other titles of interest go to who I need them to.