I have a player who is the politico and the face of the group. He has been trying to use the leadership skill to support the other players since he does not have any combat skills. Basically like a buff, handing out boosts.

As a GM i have been trying to work with him on it but from the core rules im not sure if or how this should work. How would you all handle this? Is there a difference in combat versus not in combat?

Thoughts?

I would think he could make leadership or some such skill checks to add a boost or setback die to the combat skill rolls of others.

Thats what I would think too and have been doing so, but then it comes down to how often can he do this? every round? and what do extra successes do versus advantage, threat, or fails.

Since there is already an assist action, what does leadership do extra or different when used on a another PC or group of PCs? I can see advantage being used to give boost to extra PCs.

Have you looked at the Inspiring Rhetoric talent in the Politico talent tree?

I just looked it up and it seems to allow the recovering of strain at first level and then improved he can add boost dice to affected targets.

So are you saying I should not allow him to use leadership like this until he gets the talents.

Maybe that what the issue is and he should not be allowed to use the skill like he has been. Just really confused here as to how to handle the situation.

In a few games I've allowed PCs to use their social skills to shout at the enemy. For example a couple of PCs had some bad guys pinned down inside a building. As it was a little more of a standoff they were using coerce etc. to shout at the NPCs to inflict strain damage. After a bit of back and forth, with the odd blaster shot in between the NPCs threw down their guns and gave up.

The politico can do a lot of nice stuff. Add black dice to enemies and add blue to friends, while causing strain to enemies and relieving friends of strain. A support character could work very well if he would like that concept. He should pick up bodyguard as well and refluff it to his tactics helping friends.

In a few games I've allowed PCs to use their social skills to shout at the enemy. For example a couple of PCs had some bad guys pinned down inside a building. As it was a little more of a standoff they were using coerce etc. to shout at the NPCs to inflict strain damage. After a bit of back and forth, with the odd blaster shot in between the NPCs threw down their guns and gave up.

There is a politico talent that does that. Careful you don't make the social talents pointless. It would be the same if you allowed a check to gain more defense.

as Gallows notes, as a guideline, I wouldn't let a player do something that an ability they don't have clearly details, and what your describing is basically Scathing Tirade.

In general, this is less a game of "No," and more a game of "Yes, and" or "Yes, but...", so I feel a little bad advocating limiting a PC's options, but if you basically give him Scathing Tirade for free, why would he ever invest in it?

However, I would consider letting a non-combat character make an opposed skill check to perform an Assist maneuver (basically, shouting good advice to his ally and/or trash-talking his opponent).

Personally, I'd permit a Leadership check to add a Boost die, but only for a single target, no matter how many successes or advantages were rolled. As noted, there's already a talent for Politicos that lets them add Boost dice to multiple targets

There is so much depth in the talent trees in terms of teamplay, supporting each other etc., so I'll be quite strict in not allowing skill use to do anything mechanics wise in combat. I'll rather let players do special stuff if they have a talent that could be used creatively to support a skill check.