Why can we play landless characters, but still not Barons?
This is probably my biggest remaining wish for CK3.
We can now play landless adventurers, administrative rulers, nomads and soon theocracies (around Sep 30th "By God Alone" expansion) and merchant families (Q4 "Silk & Silver").
But somehow we still can’t play a guy who owns one castle.
I think Barons could add one of the best progression layers in the game.
Imagine starting landless, serving a Count for years, getting rewarded with a manor or castle, becoming a Baron, slowly building influence inside the county and only much later becoming a Count yourself.
Landless → Knight → Baron → Count → Duke → King
Right now, the jump from “nothing” to owning an entire county feels huge. Baron gameplay could make that rise much slower, more personal and more satisfying.
You could gain land through service, marriage, inheritance, buying rights, funding your liege, or being granted a newly built holding. Not every step upward would need to involve fabricating a claim and going to war.
And I think this would also help with another problem: for me, CK3 often becomes a bit less interesting once I’m a stable King.
The early game feels tense because every county, marriage and alliance matters. Later, it can start turning into claim → war → expand → repeat.
I’d love more depth at the bottom of the ladder, so simply becoming a Count already feels like a major achievement.
A full Baron / landed nobility expansion would honestly be one of the easiest DLC buys for me.