Chancellor skill levels fluctuate now?

[Athan.]

It's been a few months since I played, and I just picked up the Legacy of Rome DLC (but not the Islam DLC). During two separate MP games with a friend over LAN, I've had my Chancellor's Diplomacy level fluctuate. In one example, I had a Diplomacy 19 unit sitting on a province to Fabricate a claim, and when I checked back on him he was suddenly Diplomacy 10, far too low to have a shot at a Duchy and pretty poor for even the County. I tried appointing a new person, and suddenly no one in my court had higher than 10. Thinking I just misread the 19 previously, I went back to playing the game, but when I returned to him later he was now skill level 16.

Is this a new feature, tied to something else (e.g. event or vassal opinion)? I've had good vassal opinions as far as I can tell the entire time. If it had happened once or twice I would just brush it off, but since it's been constant for that one Council role I am beginning to wonder if I missed some update. I haven't seen it happen with the other Council members so far.

I also searched the Bug Report and regular forums but didn't see any mention of it, though if I missed one please link it here. In my second game I started swapping out the Chancellor whenever this happened, but it became so frequent that I had a lot of vassals annoyed for being fired from the Council.

 

[whosthebestcop]

Open up his character portrait screen, and see why his diplomacy is what it is. The Fabulous feast can boost diplomacy and there are other events that can give a temp boost for a year as well.

Then there are events that can lower it, sickness etc. The feast usually bumps up diplomacy +5

 

[Mutineer]

yes, it was allways this way. if your chancelor is landowner, he can have state and events whcih modify his diplomacy temporally. Difference could be big if you lucky.

 

[Talq]

Temporary modifiers (fabulous feast being the biggy). Health traits can also mess with things (although they tend to stick around for longer).

 

[Athan.]

Thanks for replies all. I knew about the minor modifiers, didn't realize Fabulous Feast was +5. Guess I got lucky with that and a couple other ones bumping him up.