crusader-kings-2
Has anyone had an issue, appointing council members beyond the top 5? There are extra positions, and when you go to appoint someone it says you don't have any honorary titles to give them. Yet there are plenty. When I go to give them an honorary title, like Kings Right Hand, they pop in there, then immediately disappear again. Almost like they aren't eligible.
I'd like to fill my council full up, but can't see to figure out how.
To find out why people don't like you, hover over the opinion number to find out why: (alas, the cursor isn't showing in this screenshot. I assure you, it's hovering over the number.)
You can find out why people don't like you from any screen that shows their opinion number. Here's another example:
Vassals often rebel because they don't like you. Once you've worked out why they hate you, try to do something about it. If you have 98% of the titles in a realm, then, as you mentioned in the comments, they probably think your demesne is too large. (Fun fact: "demesne" is actually pronounced like "domain." Language is weird.)
To fix both of your problems (demesne too large, nobles hate you when you give out a title), you need to give out a lot of titles at the same time. Your demesne limit is in the upper-right corner of the screen; for you, it probably says something like "20/5", which means your demesne limit is 5, and you have 20 titles. The "20" will be red, and there's probably a notification at the top of the screen talking about that (unless you made it go away).
You need to do three things:
If you can, arrange it so that you have 2 duchies, and all of the counties within those 2 duchies, and you're within your demesne limit. Spread out the titles a bit, so you don't have one Super Duke who's going to challenge your power.
There's some other advice for preventing revolts over at this other Arquade answer, but this will get you started.
Many thanks to @svick for figuring out the actual problem here.
(As a side note, you probably also have some note about being the "wrong holder type" for your titles. You're a noble, you'll get the best benefit from holding castles (i.e., baron titles) and counties (count/earl titles). Give away your cities and churches to other people. (And when you hit your demesne limit, give away the baron titles and keep the count titles.))
It generally has no effect - they all perform their jobs without any penalty.
However, they do count as being in your court, and so get a bonus to plot power against you (and disliking you, they are quite likely to join in plots against you). Furthermore, your spymaster gets a massive bonus to plot power against you as well. Definitely don't let someone who hates you become your spymaster.
Best Answer
Are you a king or an emperor? According to the wiki article about the council, kings and emperors get 1 and 2 "advisors", respectively, which are additional council members. I just created a kingdom and noticed the new advisor slot:
Now I can appoint people to the council:
The tooltip seems to simply be misleading; presumably "advisor" is considered an honorary title and the tooltip is saying "no applicable (advisor) titles available", but the wording makes it seem like you need to assign one of the other honorary titles.