Charm guide

Bannerlord v1.5.7 · checked 2026-11-12 · updated 2026-11-13

This guide explains what the Charm skill and every Charm perk really do: relation gains with lords and notables, persuasion, renown and influence, kingdom decision costs, barter penalties, recruitment, the governor relation rolls, loyalty and the companion limit. It is for game version v1.5.7; where a tooltip says one thing and the game does another, you get the game's version. NavalDLC extends the clan politics, party morale, wage and recruitment cost and tournament models, and extends and replaces parts of the battle reward models; Warlord's battle influence shows the tooltip line "Reduced effect at sea". StoryMode extends the companion experience and wage and recruitment cost models, and extends and replaces parts of the battle reward models in the story campaign. The exact formulas, edge cases and links to the game code are in the deep dives: Characters and politics (relations, persuasion, barter, influence and kingdom decisions, issues, companion limit, pregnancy), Battles (battle renown and influence, relation for helping a lord, tournament renown, companion skill XP), Settlements (loyalty, buildings, recruit slots, governor relation rolls) and Party and map (recruitment cost, party morale).

Who holds the perk. Each half below names its holder. Personal means the hero who picked the perk, usually you. Party leader means the leader of the party. Clan leader means the leader of the clan. Governor means the governor of the town or castle; none of the Charm governor relation rolls need the governor to be in the settlement, but Public Speaker's building bonus does.

What the verdicts mean.

• works: does what the tooltip says, or more; broader effects are noted.
• differs: narrower, different or extra conditions or values compared with the tooltip.
• unused: never read by the game.
• ui_only: only shown in the interface.
• dead: the code exists but the game never calls it.

No Charm perk or skill effect is unused or ui_only. The one dead entry is a skill level effect, listed under "What the skill level itself does".

What unlocks what

Every 25 points of Charm opens a new pair. You pick one perk of each pair; the other is locked for that hero. Tiers 10 and 11 have a single perk each.

How relation gains add up

Every positive relation change between two heroes, from any source (quests, battles, barters, the perks below), passes through one rule before it is applied. Negative changes skip it.

Relation gained = (base amount + Good Natured or Tribute +1) × (1 + 0.5% per Charm point + In Bloom or Young And Respectful 20% + Honor)

• Base amount: what the event gives, for example the +1 of a governor relation roll.
• Good Natured or Tribute: +1 when the other hero is merciful (Good Natured) or cruel (Tribute); added before the percentages, so they scale it.
• Charm: the Charm skill of the effective hero: you, whenever you are one of the two heroes; for two AI heroes, a 50/50 random pick of the two.
• In Bloom or Young And Respectful: +20% when the effective hero holds the one that matches the two heroes' genders.
• Honor: +10% at Honor +1 or +20% at Honor +2 when either hero is honorable (the higher of the two counts); −5% at Honor −1 or −10% at Honor −2 when a dishonorable hero gains relation with a clan leader.
• The result is rounded to the nearest whole number. A relation never goes above 100 or below −100.

Worked example. You have Charm 200, Young And Respectful and Tribute, and gain 5 relation with a cruel lord of your gender:

The player at Charm 200 with Young And Respectful and Tribute gains 5 relation with a cruel lord of the same gender. Inputs: relation change 5.

With these inputs, positive relation change after scaling is 13.2000.

Tribute's +1 lifts the base to 6.0000, and the two percentages (20% and 100%) are summed once: you gain 13.2000, which the game rounds to the nearest whole number.

Charm 25: Self Promoter or Virile

Self Promoter

• Primary, +3 renown when a tournament is won (personal; works). The winner of a tournament gets the base 3 renown (doubled first if they have the One Handed perk Duelist), then +3 from Self Promoter, rounded.
• Secondary, +1 morale while defending in a besieged settlement (party leader; works). +1 party morale while the party is inside a settlement under siege. A besieging party is not inside the settlement, so only the defenders get it.

Virile

• Primary, +30% more likely to have children (personal; works). +30% to the daily pregnancy chance. It counts when either spouse holds the perk, broader than the tooltip. Without a spouse, or at an unsuitable age, the chance stays 0.
• Secondary, +10% daily chance of +1 relation with a notable during a daily project (governor; works). While the governed town or castle works on a daily project (a continuous project), a daily 10% roll gives a random notable of the settlement +1 relation with the governor's clan leader. The +1 then goes through the relation rule above.

Charm 50: Oratory or Warlord

Oratory

• Primary, +1 renown and +1 influence for each issue resolved (personal; differs). Only issues you solve through their quest count. Issues solved by sending troops or by an alternative solution never trigger it, although the tooltip says each issue. The influence part needs the solver's clan to be in a kingdom.
• Secondary, +1 relation with a random notable of your kingdom when an enemy lord is defeated (party leader; differs). Only the leader of the winning side's leading party is checked, so an army member or an ally who does not lead the side never gets it. Only field battles, sieges and battles outside a besieged settlement count, and the losing side must include a lord's party. A random active notable whose settlement belongs to the winner's faction gains +1 relation with the leader.

Warlord

• Primary, +30% influence gain from battles (personal; works). +30% to the influence your party earns for winning a battle, read from the party leader. The tooltip shows "Reduced effect at sea" under this half. Parties whose faction is not a kingdom earn no battle influence at all.
• Secondary, +1 relation with a random lord of your kingdom when an enemy lord is defeated (party leader; differs). Same limits as Oratory's secondary: winning side's leading party only, field battles, sieges and battles outside a besieged settlement, with a lord's party among the losers. A random living lord of the winner's faction, other than the leader, gains +1 relation with the leader.

Charm 75: Forgivable Grievances or Meaningful Favors

Forgivable Grievances

• Primary, +20% chance of avoiding critical failure on persuasion (personal; works). When a persuasion attempt ends in a critical failure, a 20% roll turns it into a plain failure.
• Secondary, +5% daily chance to improve a negative relation in a settlement (personal; works). Each day you spend in any settlement, a 5% roll picks a random hero of that settlement who dislikes you (relation below 0) and gives +1 relation. Any hero type qualifies, broader than the tooltip's lords and notables.

Meaningful Favors

• Primary, +10% chance for double persuasion success (personal; differs). The critical success chance grows by a tenth of itself, not by 10 points. It only applies to persuasion options that can give a critical success at all; on the others the critical chance is 0 and stays 0. The failure chance shrinks by the same amount.
• Secondary, +5% daily chance of relation with powerful notables (governor; works). In the governed town or castle, a daily 5% roll gives every notable with power 200 or more +1 relation with the settlement owner's clan leader (not the governor's clan leader).

Charm 100: In Bloom or Young And Respectful

In Bloom

• Primary, +20% relation gain with the opposite gender (personal; works). +20% on every positive relation change between two heroes of different genders, when the effective hero (see How relation gains add up) holds the perk.
• Secondary, +2% daily chance of relation with a notable of the opposite sex (governor; works). In the governed town or castle, a daily 2% roll gives a random notable of the opposite sex to the governor +1 relation with the governor's clan leader.

Young And Respectful

• Primary, +20% relation gain with the same gender (personal; works). The same as In Bloom for two heroes of the same gender.
• Secondary, +2% daily chance of relation with a notable of the same sex (governor; works). As In Bloom's secondary, for a notable of the governor's own sex.

Charm 125: Firebrand or Flexible Ethics

Firebrand

• Primary, −25% influence cost to initiate kingdom decisions (clan leader; works). Every proposal type: war, peace, annexation, expelling a clan, and policy proposals or disavowals. War, annexation and expelling a clan start at 200 influence; peace and policy decisions at 100. Policies such as War Tax change the cost in the same sum, and the result is rounded.

Worked example. A clan leader with Firebrand proposes peace:

A clan leader with Firebrand proposes peace in a kingdom with no policy that changes the cost. Inputs: decision base cost 100.

With these inputs, influence cost of proposing a kingdom decision is 75.0000.

• Secondary, +1 recruitment slot from rural notables (party leader; works). The recruiting hero can take volunteers from one more slot of village notables. Slots are capped at 6, so a hero already at 6 gains nothing.

Flexible Ethics

• Primary, −30% influence cost when voting for kingdom proposals made by others (personal; works). Supporting an outcome costs 20 influence to slightly favor it, 60 to strongly favor it and 150 to fully push it; Flexible Ethics cuts that by 30%, with the fraction dropped. It is read from your clan's leader and is broader than the tooltip: it also cuts the cost of supporting your own clan's proposals and the cost of overriding a kingdom decision.
• Secondary, +1 recruitment slot from urban notables (personal; works). As Firebrand's secondary, for town notables. Capped at 6 slots.

Charm 150: Effort For The People or Slick Negotiator

Effort For The People

• Primary, +3 relation with the nearest settlement owner clan when you clear a hideout; +1 town loyalty if it is your clan (personal; works). After you clear a hideout, the leader of the clan that owns the town nearest the hideout gains +3 relation with you. If you are that clan leader yourself, the town gets +1 loyalty instead, and no relation changes.
• Secondary, −25% barter penalty with lords of the same culture (personal; differs). It only applies when the other side of the barter is a lord who leads a party, belongs to a faction and shares the item owner's culture. When the lord gives you an item, the penalty on his side really shrinks by 25%. When you give him an item, the game instead raises the factor his side values it with by 25%, rather than cutting a penalty.

Slick Negotiator

• Primary, −20% hiring costs of mercenary troops (personal; works). −20% on the recruitment cost of mercenary troops for the hero who buys them, never below 1. Broader than the tooltip: gangsters and caravan guards are cheaper too.
• Secondary, −10% barter penalty with lords of different cultures (personal; differs). As Effort For The People's secondary, for a party-leading lord of a different culture from the item owner, with 10%: a true −10% on the lord's side when he gives, a +10% rise of his factor when you give.

Charm 175: Good Natured or Tribute

Good Natured

• Primary, +100% influence return when a supported proposal fails to pass (personal; differs). The perk's value is never used. When an outcome you supported loses, a supporter normally still pays half of the influence; a supporter clan whose leader has Good Natured pays nothing. It covers any losing outcome, including elections that are not proposals, and AI clans whose leader has the perk.
• Secondary, +1 extra relationship when you increase relationship with merciful lords (personal; differs). +1 added to a positive relation change, before the percentages (see How relation gains add up), when the second hero of the change is merciful. That second hero is not always the other person: in some changes, such as the notable relation after a battle, you are the second hero, and then your own Mercy is checked.

Tribute

• Primary, +20% relationship bonus when you pay more than the minimum in barters (personal; works). The relation you buy by overpaying in a barter is multiplied by 1.2 and rounded up. Each step of relation costs more the further the relation is from 0, and you can buy at most 3 steps above your current relation. The result then goes through the relation rule.
• Secondary, +1 extra relationship when you increase relationship with cruel lords (personal; differs). As Good Natured's secondary, for a cruel second hero (Mercy below 0), with the same quirk: when you are the second hero, your own Mercy is checked.

Charm 200: Moral Leader or Natural Leader

Moral Leader

• Primary, −1 persuasion success required against characters of your own culture (personal; works). A persuasion against a hero of your culture needs one success fewer, but never fewer than 1.
• Secondary, +1 relation with settlement notables when a project is completed (governor; works). Whenever a building of the governed town or castle gains a level, every notable of the settlement gains +1 relation with the settlement owner's clan leader.

Natural Leader

• Primary, −1 persuasion success required against characters of different cultures (personal; works). As Moral Leader, against heroes of another culture. Never fewer than 1.
• Secondary, +20% experience gain for companions (clan leader; differs). Your companions gain skill experience 20% faster while you (the player) have the perk; the clan leader role is not checked. The perk's value is not read: the game uses a fixed 1.2 multiplier, equal to the tooltip's +20%.

Charm 225: Parade or Public Speaker

Parade

• Primary, +5 loyalty bonus to a settlement while waiting in it (personal; differs). +5 daily loyalty change in a town or castle for every holder of the owner clan: every hero with the perk in your own party, the leader of each other party of that clan, and clan heroes without a party. Only parties in the town and clan heroes staying in it are counted. It only counts members of the town's owner clan, so it never applies in another clan's town, and several holders stack.
• Secondary, +5% daily chance of +1 relation with a random lord in the same army (party leader; works). Each day your party is in an army, a 5% roll gives a random lord of another party of that army +1 relation with you.

Public Speaker

• Primary, +30% renown gain from battles (party leader; works). +30% to the renown your party earns for winning a battle.
• Secondary, +10% effect from forums, marketplaces and festivals (governor; works). +10% to every effect of the Marketplace and Festival and Games buildings of the governed settlement, while the governor is in it. Forums do not exist as a building in v1.5.7 (old forums became marketplaces), so those two buildings are all it covers.

Charm 250: Camaraderie

• Primary, double the relation gain for helping lords in battle (personal; works). The relation you earn with a lord you helped in battle is doubled: the perk adds +100% on top of the base, and the game drops the fraction at the end.

Relation for helping a lord = 0.75 + (contribution × 1.3 × (strength term + side renown)) ^ 0.67, × 2 with Camaraderie

• Contribution: your share of the battle, from 0 to 1.
• Strength term: larger when your arrival mattered more, i.e. when your side was weaker without you; 0 when your side had at least three times the enemy's strength without you.
• Side renown: the renown value of your side's win.

Worked example. You hold Camaraderie, with half of the battle's contribution, a strength term of 1.5 and side renown 10:

The player with Camaraderie helps a lord win a battle, with contribution rate 0.5, strength term 1.5 and side renown 10. Inputs: contribution rate 0.5, strength term 1.5, side renown 10.

With these inputs, relation gained with a helped lord after a battle is 9.1975.

Without Camaraderie the relation would be 4.5987; with it, 9.1975, before the game drops the fraction.

• Secondary, +1 companion limit (clan leader; works). The clan's companion limit (clan tier + 3) grows by 1, after the Leadership perk We Pledge our Swords.

Charm 275: Immortal Charm

• +5 influence per day (clan leader; works). +5 to the daily influence change of the clan whose leader holds it.

Skill effects

These come from the Charm skill itself, no perk needed.

• Relation increase with NPCs, +0.5% per point (personal; differs). Every positive relation change grows by 0.5% per Charm point of the effective hero (see How relation gains add up): +100% at Charm 200. The same bonus raises the relation from a marriage (base 20, rounded), but there the game reads the Charm of the man of the couple, so a female player's own Charm never counts for it.

Worked example. A male player with Charm 150 marries:

A male player at Charm 150 marries; the marriage relation gain reads his Charm.

With these inputs, relation gained from a marriage is 35.0000.

• Persuasion and the skill level. When a persuasion option tests one of your skills, that skill at 250 or more multiplies your success chance by 1.2; below 250 it adds nothing.

What the skill level itself does

The game also reads your Charm level directly, without any perk. Effects that depend on any skill level are listed once in the skills guide.

Who the perks work for

Who counts as you, a relative or a wanderer, and why some halves skip one of them, is explained in the Skills guide.

Every other Charm perk half and skill effect works for every hero: you, relatives and wanderers.

All Charm effects

Every effect site of the Charm perks, skill effects and skill level. Values are what each site applies; a value that grows with skill is shown at the perk's required skill (skill effects and skill levels: per skill point). ×N marks N identical sites.

Practical tips

• You are the effective hero. Every relation gain involving you uses your Charm and your In Bloom or Young And Respectful, whoever the other hero is.
• Gender perks. If most of the lords and notables you deal with are of the opposite gender, In Bloom covers them; if of your own gender, Young And Respectful does.
• Oratory needs the quest route. If you want its renown and influence, solve issues yourself through their quest, not by sending a companion with troops.
• Oratory and Warlord relations only come when your party leads the winning side against a lord's party.
• Governor perks work from anywhere. Virile, Meaningful Favors, In Bloom, Young And Respectful and Moral Leader relation bonuses fire whether or not the governor is in the settlement; Public Speaker's building bonus needs the governor present.
• Parade only helps your own clan's fiefs, and every holder of your clan that it counts adds +5 daily loyalty.
• Flexible Ethics also cuts your own support. It lowers the cost of backing your clan's proposals and of overriding a decision, not only of voting for others.
• Good Natured protects losing votes. If you often back outcomes that lose, it removes the half-cost you would otherwise pay.
• Camaraderie doubles the relation for helping a lord, so it grows with how much you contributed to the battle.
• At sea, Warlord's battle influence bonus is reduced; the tooltip says "Reduced effect at sea".