How Does Education Work in CK3? (Complete Guide)

In Crusader Kings 3, the quality of an education is most affected by the child’s traits, and then their guardian’s traits and attributes, in that order.

Education quality is also influenced by other perks, modifiers, and events.

Leaving a child without a guardian or giving them a poor quality guardian will lower their education quality. Mismatching a child’s personality and education also has a negative effect.

How Educations Are Calculated

Before looking at all of the education modifiers, it’s useful to understand how the game calculates education traits.

Education quality is calculated by using a hidden education score which changes as children grow up. This score can be influenced by various traits and events.

Educations are split into four grades. Each grade corresponds to an education score, as below:

Education Grade	Hidden Education Score
One star (lowest level)	0 – 6
Two star	7 – 10
Three star	11 – 14
Four star (highest level)	15+

Every year, there is an education roll for each child, which results in either success or failure. Success grants +2 education score, and failure gives 0.

Note: Since children begin their education at 6 years old and finish at 16, they need a successful roll in most of these years to get the best education.

Basic Calculation of Success Chance

To get the best education, you want to maximize your chances of getting a successful roll each year. The outcome of this roll is determined by hidden success and failure factors.

To start with, each character has a base success factor of 60, and a base failure factor of 40. This translates to a 60% chance of success and 40% chance of failure.

Success chance (%) = (total success factor)/(total success factor + total failure factor) x100

Here’s an example:

Success chance = ((60) / (60 + 40)) x100 = (60/100) x100 = 60%

How To Calculate Modifiers

If we add more variables that affect these two factors, the calculation gets a bit more complicated.

It’s easier if we first calculate our total success and failure factors. Let’s go through an example using some traits and modifiers.

Let’s say that we have a +15 success modifier from the guardian’s Genius trait. The child has no special traits, and we’ll ignore the guardian’s attributes for now.

Unfortunately, we’ve mismatched the child’s education with their personality, giving us a +20 failure modifier.

This child’s success and failure factors are:

Total success factor = 60 + 15 = 75

Total failure factor = 40 + 20 = 60

Tip: whenever you’re calculating success chance you only ever add modifiers. If they’re negative modifiers, they’re added to the failure factor.

Now, we can put these factors into the calculation:

Success chance = ((75) / (75 + 60)) x100 = (75/135) x100 = 55.6%

Even though we have an excellent guardian, the education mismatch canceled out this bonus. Every year, this child would have a 55.6% chance of rolling a success and gaining +2 points towards their education score.

Prowess Educations

If a child or guardian belongs to a culture with the Knighthood innovation, the child can receive a bonus Prowess education trait alongside a Martial education. The child must also be the correct gender to become a knight in their culture.

When finishing their education at 16, the child’s Prowess education is calculated according to their Martial education grade and traits.

A child’s base Prowess education score is equal to their hidden Martial education score. Physical traits also modify the Prowess education score.

Traits	Modifier
Herculean	+3
Robust, Strong, Giant	+2
Hale	+1
Delicate, Spindly, Wheezing, Hunchbacked, Inbred, Bleeder	-1
Frail, Weak, Dwarf	-2
Feeble	-3

Prowess education grades are determined using the same values as other educations, with 15+ resulting in the highest tier education.

There is also an extra roll with a 25% chance of increasing the score by +2, a 25% chance of decreasing the score by -2, and a 50% chance of no change. These percentages cannot be modified.

Note: Prowess educations are unique – they do not depend on any other rolls and are not affected by any modifiers or events outside of those listed here.

How To Get Better Educations

To improve your children’s educations, pay attention to the attributes and traits of guardians. If you educate your children yourself, consider taking some Lifestyle perks.

It’s also very important that a child has a guardian and that their education focus matches their personality trait.

Having a guardian adds +20 to the success factor, while not having a guardian adds +20 to the failure factor. A mismatch in personality and education focus adds +20 to the failure factor as well.

Guardian Attributes

The attributes of a guardian will also affect the child’s chance of success in education rolls.

The primary attribute matches the education focus of the child; for example, if the child has a Martial education focus, the guardian’s Martial attribute will be used.

The secondary attribute is the Learning skill of the guardian.

To calculate the success bonus for each of these:

Primary attribute success bonus = attribute number x 0.4
Secondary attribute success bonus = learning number x 0.2

The resulting number is added to the success factor when calculating the chance of success for education rolls.

Traits That Affect Education

Intelligence traits affect success and failure too, and many of these are congenital. The traits of both children and guardians are used, although the children’s traits are more important.

Positive traits add to the success factor:

Trait	Child	Guardian
Quick / Shrewd	+10	+5
Intelligent	+15	+10
Genius	+20	+15

Negative traits add to the failure factor:

Trait	Child	Guardian
Slow / Dull	+10	+5
Stupid	+15	+10
Imbecile	+20	+15

Tip: Since a child without a guardian adds +20 to their failure factor, it’s better to choose any guardian, even if your only options are terrible.

Other Bonuses

There are some extra events and bonuses in the game tied to the hidden education score. These extra bonuses are not related to the yearly education roll; instead, most of them increase the education score outright.

Permanent Bonuses

These bonuses are applied before the child turns 16, and are never removed.

1. Spouse Tutelage Bonuses

For the first permanent bonus, if the guardian’s court has a spouse on the council, they can add +1 to a child’s education score. This can happen randomly, multiple times, and the bonuses stack.

The spouse must have at least one of the following:

• A focus on patronage
• A high grade Learning education
• A high Learning attribute
• The Scholar trait

2. Universities

Another permanent bonus is given by universities. If the guardian has a university building in their realm, you will have the option to send your child to this university for a large sum of gold.

If you send them to university and they change guardians or the university is lost, they keep this bonus, so there’s no need to worry.

Universities provide a massive bonus of +12 points which almost guarantees the best education trait!

Bonuses Checked At Age 16

Unlike permanent bonuses, the conditions for these must be active when the child turns 16, or they will have no impact. It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been active before age 16.

1. Active Court Tutor

If your court has a court tutor when the child turns 16, they get an extra education roll, with slightly different parameters.

There are three levels to this roll, and higher court tutor aptitudes increase the chance of better bonuses:

Court Tutor Aptitude	Likely Bonus to Education Score
Terrible, Poor, Average	+2
Good, Excellent	+3
Excellent Only	+4

If you have a court tutor, a +2 bonus is guaranteed regardless of the tutor’s aptitude.

2. Dynasty Legacy Perk – Kin 2

Taking level 2 of the Kin Dynasty Legacy tree will give you another education roll at the age of 16. Again, this roll has unique parameters.

There’s a 60% chance of a +3 bonus, and a 40% chance of a +2 bonus. There’s no way to influence the percentages.

3. Cultural Traditions

Finally, two cultural traditions currently influence the hidden education score:

#1 Charismatic – 60% chance of +1 education score for Diplomacy educations.

#2 Agrarian – a guaranteed penalty of -1 education score for Martial educations.

How To Quickly Choose a Good Guardian

You might want to speed up the process of choosing guardians, especially if you’re managing many children.

Here are a few tips and tricks you can use in the middle of a game.

What To Prioritize in Guardians

Try to focus on the things that have the greatest impact on your child’s education. Here is a simplified list of the most important guardian qualities:

1. Someone who will not murder your child
2. Genius, Intelligent, or Quick/Shrewd, in that order
3. A high primary attribute value
4. A high secondary (Learning) attribute value

How To Judge Guardian Attributes Quickly

If two potential guardians have similar traits but different primary and learning attributes, you can do a quick calculation to compare them.

Take the primary attribute, multiply it by 2, and then add the learning attribute. The character with the highest result has the best attributes for this education.

(Primary attribute x 2) + Learning attribute

As an example, we have a child with an Intrigue focus. Two potential guardians have:

• 18 Intrigue, 8 Learning
• 7 Intrigue, 25 Learning

So:

First guardian: (18 x 2) + 8 = 44
Second guardian: (7 x 2) + 25 = 39

In this case, the first guardian has better attributes for the Intrigue education.