Currently, there are many traits that, when the choice to give one to your heir appears, or you have a chance to obtain via event, you either absolutely want them, or absolutely do not. These trait have either all upsides and no downsides, or are all downsides with no upsides. I would like to suggest that the personality traits be rebalanced so the decisions for which to choose will require thought and planning, not be no-brainers. (As a side note, secondary effects from traits, like enabling specific tactics, should be noted in the tooltip of the trait.) To this end, I have gone through the list of traits on the wiki, and put together some suggestions/comments: (Edit: To be clear, these are meant to supplement or tweak the current effects of the traits, not completely replace any of them. For ease of reference, here is the wiki page for the traits. I intentionally made this list in the order the traits are listed in the wiki so it would be easier to follow.)
(Edit 2: I've posted a mod showcasing the suggested changes in the modding subforum, here.)
Chaste: This is fine, the fertility malus balances out the piety and learning boosts. Maybe adding +5 Vassal Opinion could be beneficial, as they don't need to be worried you will sleep with their wives?
Temperate: Have it impart a morale penalty on troops being led by the character, not sure what the exact value should be. Someone who is "not affected by passion or emotion"would have difficulty getting troops fired up.
Charitable: Add a -10% Global Tax modifier, to balance with Greedy's +10% Global Tax modifier.
Diligent: Change the +10 Vassal Opinion modifier to -10. Vassals should prefer a liege that isn't very attentive or organized or looking over their shoulders, most of the time. (That is, they should want the liege to be weaker.)
Patient: Have it enable the Hesitant Commander tactic, and/or give a penalty to Offense of -10%. In battle, sometimes you need to seize the moment.
Kind: Have it enable the Timid Advance tactic, and maybe a penalty to Offense (Edit: or perhaps a -10% or -20% Damage modifier?). Not wanting to hurt the enemy isn't a good quality in a commander. Maybe some method of attempting to befriend vassals could be added?
Humble: This is fine, in my opinion.
Lustful: This could probably do without the Intrigue boost. Intrigue is far more valuable than Learning, which is what the counterpart trait gives, and with both, is just a far better trait that Chaste. Perhaps make seduction attempts easier to discover and disrupt if the seducer is known to be lustful.
Gluttonous: Have this allow the use of the Carousing Focus's Invite to party decision without having the focus active, with lessened chance of characters agreeing to come. If the focus is also active, the chances of characters agreeing should be greater than if only the focus is active, without the trait.
Greedy: This one seems fine to me as is, if the change to Charitable is made.
Slothful: Change the -10 Vassal Opinion to +10 or +15 Vassal Opinion. Vassals should prefer to have a less attentive or active liege.
Wroth: To improve the odds someone will want this trait, I think that when a character acts dishonorably towards the character with Wroth (the imprisonment reason), the Wrothful character should instead have the ability to declare the offending character a Rival, and immediately duel him.
Envious: Maybe have this allow characters to attempt to plot to steal from vassals or lieges who possess more gold than them, or make it easier/faster to fabricate claims on those with a larger demesne?
Proud: I think a -1 Diplomacy should be added. Those who are overly proud of themselves can be hard to get along with.
Deceitful, Honest, Craven and Brave seem mostly fine to me, so long as the secondary effects of the traits (specifically, the changes to the odds of being killed or injured in battle or imprisoned afterward) are added to the tooltips for the traits. Also, I think a Brave character who is at war should suffer a penalty to Prestige or be at risk of negative events that take away Brave or something similar if they or their liege is at war and they are not leading troops.
Shy: Heightened chance of dodging plots, though not as much as is provided by paranoid. Also, I think Shy should allow characters to send themselves into hiding at any time.
Gregarious: This should provide a -1 to Intrigue, and reduce the effectiveness of being in hiding.
Ambitious: I think this should apply a fairly hefty Vassal Opinion penalty, perhaps -20 or -25. Vassals should be worried that their liege might want their land, if said liege is Ambitious. Independent rulers of bordering realms should also be concerned and have an opinion penalty about the Ambitious ruler's ambitions.
Content: Maybe add a +5 Vassal Opinion modifier.
Arbitrary: First, this should have an additional -2 to Diplomacy. Second, I think this should get something special: I think this trait should enable a "no CB" CB. Said CB would target a bordering county or duchy, or a barony that is under a county in the character's realm. Use of the CB would be on a cooldown based on the size of the target it was last used for (one year for baronies, five for counties, ten for duchies?), and would generate Infamy twice, once when the war is declared (the amount of Infamy generated would be the same as if the war is won), and again if the war is actually won. (I'd imagine that the interface would use a targeted decision on the character being declared upon, which would bring up an interface similar to the "grant title" interface that would list all the targetable titles. That would avoid clutter on the normal Declare War interface.)
Just: I think this is fine as is, though maybe the bonus to Stewardship could be increased a bit.
Cynical: I think this should also give a +1 to Learning, and/or grant a lessened version of the effects of the various sympathy traits. If a character doesn't care that much about religion, he shouldn't care as much about other people having different religions.
Zealous: Have this trait boost Revolt Risk in provinces of the wrong religion. Not sure what the exact value of the boost should be, but I think it should be halved by every vassal layer between the character with Zealous and the ruler of the county, who do not also have Zealous.
Paranoid: This trait should allow characters to send themselves or anyone else into hiding at any time, via targeted decisions (the alert should only pop up when appropriate, I think.)
Trusting: Vassals would enjoy having a liege that is easily convinced of things, so I think this should grant +5 or +10 Vassal Opinion.
Cruel: This should, I think, allow for torturing prisoners via targeted decision instead of event, without auto-releasing them like the Greek culture's torture decisions do.
(Edit 2: I've posted a mod showcasing the suggested changes in the modding subforum, here.)
Chaste: This is fine, the fertility malus balances out the piety and learning boosts. Maybe adding +5 Vassal Opinion could be beneficial, as they don't need to be worried you will sleep with their wives?
Temperate: Have it impart a morale penalty on troops being led by the character, not sure what the exact value should be. Someone who is "not affected by passion or emotion"would have difficulty getting troops fired up.
Charitable: Add a -10% Global Tax modifier, to balance with Greedy's +10% Global Tax modifier.
Diligent: Change the +10 Vassal Opinion modifier to -10. Vassals should prefer a liege that isn't very attentive or organized or looking over their shoulders, most of the time. (That is, they should want the liege to be weaker.)
Patient: Have it enable the Hesitant Commander tactic, and/or give a penalty to Offense of -10%. In battle, sometimes you need to seize the moment.
Kind: Have it enable the Timid Advance tactic, and maybe a penalty to Offense (Edit: or perhaps a -10% or -20% Damage modifier?). Not wanting to hurt the enemy isn't a good quality in a commander. Maybe some method of attempting to befriend vassals could be added?
Humble: This is fine, in my opinion.
Lustful: This could probably do without the Intrigue boost. Intrigue is far more valuable than Learning, which is what the counterpart trait gives, and with both, is just a far better trait that Chaste. Perhaps make seduction attempts easier to discover and disrupt if the seducer is known to be lustful.
Gluttonous: Have this allow the use of the Carousing Focus's Invite to party decision without having the focus active, with lessened chance of characters agreeing to come. If the focus is also active, the chances of characters agreeing should be greater than if only the focus is active, without the trait.
Greedy: This one seems fine to me as is, if the change to Charitable is made.
Slothful: Change the -10 Vassal Opinion to +10 or +15 Vassal Opinion. Vassals should prefer to have a less attentive or active liege.
Wroth: To improve the odds someone will want this trait, I think that when a character acts dishonorably towards the character with Wroth (the imprisonment reason), the Wrothful character should instead have the ability to declare the offending character a Rival, and immediately duel him.
Envious: Maybe have this allow characters to attempt to plot to steal from vassals or lieges who possess more gold than them, or make it easier/faster to fabricate claims on those with a larger demesne?
Proud: I think a -1 Diplomacy should be added. Those who are overly proud of themselves can be hard to get along with.
Deceitful, Honest, Craven and Brave seem mostly fine to me, so long as the secondary effects of the traits (specifically, the changes to the odds of being killed or injured in battle or imprisoned afterward) are added to the tooltips for the traits. Also, I think a Brave character who is at war should suffer a penalty to Prestige or be at risk of negative events that take away Brave or something similar if they or their liege is at war and they are not leading troops.
Shy: Heightened chance of dodging plots, though not as much as is provided by paranoid. Also, I think Shy should allow characters to send themselves into hiding at any time.
Gregarious: This should provide a -1 to Intrigue, and reduce the effectiveness of being in hiding.
Ambitious: I think this should apply a fairly hefty Vassal Opinion penalty, perhaps -20 or -25. Vassals should be worried that their liege might want their land, if said liege is Ambitious. Independent rulers of bordering realms should also be concerned and have an opinion penalty about the Ambitious ruler's ambitions.
Content: Maybe add a +5 Vassal Opinion modifier.
Arbitrary: First, this should have an additional -2 to Diplomacy. Second, I think this should get something special: I think this trait should enable a "no CB" CB. Said CB would target a bordering county or duchy, or a barony that is under a county in the character's realm. Use of the CB would be on a cooldown based on the size of the target it was last used for (one year for baronies, five for counties, ten for duchies?), and would generate Infamy twice, once when the war is declared (the amount of Infamy generated would be the same as if the war is won), and again if the war is actually won. (I'd imagine that the interface would use a targeted decision on the character being declared upon, which would bring up an interface similar to the "grant title" interface that would list all the targetable titles. That would avoid clutter on the normal Declare War interface.)
Just: I think this is fine as is, though maybe the bonus to Stewardship could be increased a bit.
Cynical: I think this should also give a +1 to Learning, and/or grant a lessened version of the effects of the various sympathy traits. If a character doesn't care that much about religion, he shouldn't care as much about other people having different religions.
Zealous: Have this trait boost Revolt Risk in provinces of the wrong religion. Not sure what the exact value of the boost should be, but I think it should be halved by every vassal layer between the character with Zealous and the ruler of the county, who do not also have Zealous.
Paranoid: This trait should allow characters to send themselves or anyone else into hiding at any time, via targeted decisions (the alert should only pop up when appropriate, I think.)
Trusting: Vassals would enjoy having a liege that is easily convinced of things, so I think this should grant +5 or +10 Vassal Opinion.
Cruel: This should, I think, allow for torturing prisoners via targeted decision instead of event, without auto-releasing them like the Greek culture's torture decisions do.
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