During a recent session, I have a Chiss player right at the start of combat, look to his left to the wookie player and say " I use my leadership to inspire the wookie" It caught me off guard. So I said it was an average check, and he got two successes. So I said the wookie gets two boost dice on his first attack. Does anyone think this is a good use of leadership. I ruled this could be done once an encounter.

Read up on the Inspiring Rhetoric talent from the Politico tree. It sounds more along the lines of what he's suggesting. Specifically the Improved version. I can't say that what you adjudicated was unbalanced -- I can't see how giving up an action to give two boost dice to another player is a net gain -- but it just doesn't seem right with the rules to me...

Why not. Doesn't sound OP to me and probably the Leadership guy enjoyed his character.

I would say you made a good call mechanically with the Average Leadership check but the player flat out saying "I use my leadership to inspire the wookie" would not fly with me as GM. Had the player taken charge, given orders then yes I would allow the check to happen. Think of the scene in "The Avengers" when Iron Man asks Captain America for his orders. Captain takes charge and gives his orders and the heroes take off with an assurance that the Captain knows what he is doing. That is leadership. So if the player doesn't give a good roleplay for the Leadership check, I'd say no.

I think two Boost given to the Wookie on his next check may be excessive but that is subjective. I would probably would have awarded the Boost to the Wookie for the first success and either give the Wookie another Boost on his next check after the first Boosted check or given another PC a Boost on their next check.

Edit: Braedig makes a good point on the ImproveD Inspiring Rhetoric talent. I also think your ruling of once per encounter is spot on.

I think thats a great bit of GMing on the fly. Using Knowledge skills and Leadership in combat to boost other players should be something every non combat character should do occasionally... hell any non combat skill could be used to assist another character in some way. The important part would be the player giving some narrative indication of how he is helping.

• fighting a AT-ST the mechanic says due to his prior knowledge from working on these there is a particular panel that falls off more regularly than anything else, he would like to tell the gunner this and point it out. Rolls a mechanics check for a boost, advantage may give another player advantage, Triumph could give an upgrade?
• Going into negotiations with a Senator regarding a possible job, the party doctor helps the scoundrel out before hand, giving key information about the senators home planet and customs, as well as making sure he is dressed well for the occasion, then rolls a Knowledge Core Worlds check to assist in the negotiations.
• a Driver could help deceiving a swoop gang leader due to his knowledge of the particular swoops they ride,
• a pilot could help with negotiations with pirates due to knowledge of the star fighters they fly
• an assassin could help planing protection of a diplomat due to his previous "Experience" with such tasks...

the main thing is to keep in mind talents like Inspiring Rhetoric that give mechanical benefits, and making sure your always making it harder than those talents, or less beneficial; so only 1 boost, or only one person affected, or its a Hard check not Average.

Anyone can perform as Assist maneuver and give another PC a boost die. Two is completely appropriate for an action spent, and the cited talent is a Strain heal and is significantly better. In addition the rules clearly state GMs and PCs are encouraged to to find unique and interesting ways to spend excess successes on skill checks outside the suggestions. I think your decision meets all those quite nicely.

Why not. Doesn't sound OP to me and probably the Leadership guy enjoyed his character.

I wish I had an answer for that. As I said, it doesn't seem overpowered (if anything, it seems underpowered) and, as others have said, it does fit with the narrative aspect of play.

I guess the main reason it feels wrong to me is that there's already a mechanic within the existing rules system that allows for something similar that requires a moderate expenditure of XP. This is similar to the discussion regarding the juryrigging talent in the other thread. As the rules already allow and outline something similar to this, I would lean toward emphasizing those over this kind of ad hoc ruling.

Again, there's nothing -wrong- with it, but it seems to cheapen one of the central abilities of certain classes by allowing just anyone to do this without any XP investment.

Inspiring Rhetoric is vastly better, this suggested use doesn't cheapen the talent at all, and once a PC attains it they aren't going to bother with what the OP suggested anymore anyway. The rules do specifically encourage creative use of excess successes on a skill check, completely acceptable.

Normally, you can spend your action and maneuver to assist an engaged ally for 2 boost dice. The dice roll seems to be a good way to do so at range, so why not?

2 boost dice, +1 for every 2 successes. Spend an advantage to give one of the dice to another character, splitting the dice?

-EF