Next Heir Help

[J.Sanderson]

I’ve played for a while but somehow have never high a child with multiple good traits. So some opinions would be nice,

At the ripe age of 40, I finally produced children. Male twins.

One is ‘Genius’ and ‘Hale’ learning Diplomacy, the other is ‘Intelligent’ and ‘Robust’ learning Learning.

Surely I just go for the genius to be my primary heir. However, having both traits be the middle tier is also appealing to me.
They also surprisingly have similar stats at the moment (age 8) biggest difference is prowess. Genius at 14, Intelligent at 18.

Any options would be helpful.

[armyissue69]

While it is good to think about your immediate heirs, you should also think about your distant heirs. Let the one who comes first and not worry about the second heir except to ensure your lands are properly secure.

Instead, think about marrying those heirs to people who complement adding to those traits by building upon and also adding new traits so, when both your sons have children, you can marry them to each other ;)

You don't HAVE to have them learn diplomacy or learning. Once Knighthood kicks off, almost all males will be training in the warfare tree so they will all have a knighthood trait. A good tutor and guardian ensure good development for whatever school of choice (usually).

You don't have to worry about prowess soooo much but, whichever heir you have, give them a set of green/blue weapon and armor that you pick back up when you play them.

[brownacs]

Take the genius; it's the best of the hereditary traits. Hale/robust/herculean can be double-edged swords when you're trying to get through the generations relatively quickly so you can get a beautiful, herculean genius (generally the aim of the eugenics program). I aim for genius then beautiful then finally herculean.

Probably also wouldn't go for the diplomacy education. Stewardship's my go-to. Even if we don't spend a point in the skill tree, the bonus to stewardship and ergo your domain limit is super useful... and the skill tree's one of the better ones to boot. Learning's also not an awful choice but the stat's not quite as useful plus the tier 5 stewardship education gives you a boost to learning on top of stewardship.

Prowess doesn't matter much for your ruler. You can't be a knight (and I really, really, really strongly advise against having your heir as a knight if they have good traits; I still remember when a berserker ripped my genius son's head off and that was 3 or 4 years ago now) so it's only really a big deal if you want to participate in tournaments or duels and even then, like armyissue said, you can often more than make up the difference with good armour/weapon artefacts.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

The +30%/mo. Lifestyle boost of Genius swings it for me. Plus hes gonna make almost all his rolls, all his life.
I like to go Intelligent, Physical, Beautiful
Smarts 1st goes without saying.
Physical next for 2 main reasons. Healthy people live longer. The xtra Health plus the prowess boost- More adept at fighting.
Beauty last since its early game & i dont need the Fertility boost when all im rockin is Confederate Partition/Partition. The Physical Specimens group already has the Attraction "Hot Bod" modifier, so theres no shortage of kids anyway.