The most significant modification in Common Sense is the new provincial development system. Building space in a province is now limited by its terrain and Development Value. The more developed a province is, the greater wealth and power you can squeeze out of it. By spending monarch points, you can now customize your trading hubs or make great recruiting centers. Fewer, more powerful buildings means that every decision about construction has greater importance – if you want a manufactory and have no building slots in Champagne, what will you destroy?

• Theocracies now have heirs that are chosen by event, with each choice having a different effect and unlocking certain events that can happen once that heir becomes monarch.
• Theocracies now have Devotion, which is similar to Legitimacy and Republican Tradition. Devotion goes up from high stability and pious acts and goes down from low stability and low religious unity. Devotion affects your Papal Influence, Church Power, Prestige and Tax Income.
• Constitutional Monarchy, Constitutional Republic and English Monarchy now have Parliaments. Countries with Parliaments have to grant a certain number of their provinces Seats in Parliament, which then allows those seats to vote on issues. The country with the parliament can choose between a few randomly picked issues, and then have a number of years to secure enough votes for the issue to go through. Votes are secured either through events or by bribing parliament seats with things which that particular province wants. After five years of an issue being debated, there is a random chance that the vote will go through at the end of each month, with the chance of winning the vote depending on how many seats are backing it. If the vote goes through, the country gets the benefits of that issue for 10 years, otherwise it suffers a penalty to prestige.
• Protestantism now has Church Power. Church Power accumulates over time and can be used to buy aspects, which are permanent modifiers added to that country's particular version of Protestantism. A country can only have 3 aspects, after which Church Power can be used to trade in an existing aspect for a new one.
• The diplomatic action Remove Electorate is now available to the Emperor, to remove an elector at the expense of worsened relations with other electors and 10 IA. This action is not available unless the HRE has an official religion.
• Implemented Government Ranks feature. Each Government type can now have up to 3 ranks, with higher ranks conferring better bonuses, and higher government ranks lowering cooldown on changing your National Focus. Players with the Common Sense expansion can dynamically change their government rank through the Government screen and various events and decisions while those without are locked to rank 1 or 2 depending on whether they are independent, unless they are playing a historical empire such as Byzantium and Ming.
• Buddhists now have Karma. Karma decreases from aggressive conquest and increases from honoring alliances and releasing nations. Rulers with too high Karma become detached from the world and suffer a penalty to diplomatic reputation, while rulers with too low Karma will lose the trust of their mind and get a penalty to discipline. Rulers with balanced Karma get a bonus to both discipline and diplomatic reputation.
• Can now return an owned province to another existing nation that has a core on it for an opinion boost, at the cost of 10 prestige. Doing so will remove your own cores and claims on the province. This cannot be done while at war.
• The Emperor can now grant Free City status to nations in the HRE that only own one province. Free Cities get a special republican government, a bonus to tax income and will always be able to call in the Emperor when they are attacked, even in internal HRE wars. The Emperor gets a bonus to tax income, manpower and imperial authority for each Free City in the HRE, but there can only be 7 Free Cities in total at any given time. A Free City that gains a second province or leaves the HRE will lose their Free City status. Free Cities cannot be Electors.
• Can now Pause Westernization. While it is paused, no monarch power will be spent towards westernization progress and no westernization events will fire, but the country will continue to experience unrest.
• Added Subject Interactions for all subject types. These are special actions and toggles you can enact on your subjects, such as forcing a colonial nation to declare war on another colony, placating a vassal to lower their liberty desire or forcing a lesser union partner to adopt your culture. Subject interactions are accessed through the country subjects screen.
• You can now increase the base tax, base production and base manpower of your provinces at the cost of admin, diplomatic and military power respectively. Cost of developing a province depends on the terrain, the climate, and how many times the province has previously been developed. Certain ideas and modifiers will also increase or decrease development cost. For those without the expansion, reduced development cost ideas will instead give other beneficial effects.
• If you have money to burn, you can now dismiss an advisor from the pool, allowing greater control of the advisors you can select.
• Numerous new events for Buddhists, Protestants, Theocracies, The Papal State, Subject Interactions and Parliaments.
• National Focus is now also available for players with the Common Sense expansion, even if they do not own Res Publica.