Personal Lieutenant question...

[Black Cheese]

We're all familiar with Wick's interpretation of A New Hope, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out the Chewbacca Defense.

And R2-D2 as the ultimate Rebellion spy? That's Darths and Droids, man.

[Desertpuma]

Actually I prefer a Soldier with high ranks in Tactics and the following feats: Tactical Advantage, Fire Team Basics, Fire Team Mastery, Horde Basics, CQB Basics, CQB Mastery, and Officer.

[Jake]

Actually I prefer a Soldier with high ranks in Tactics and the following feats: Tactical Advantage, Fire Team Basics, Fire Team Mastery, Horde Basics, CQB Basics, CQB Mastery, and Officer.

I was thinking about how this solves the WM Hack problem that been discussed. It doesn't matter if you character stays in the van when you have another one.

[Black Cheese]

Yeah, I know: tl; dr. Short version: The Personal Lieutenant feat sucks because of the PL's lack of core abilities and wealth meters.
______________________________

I'm gonna rant here a little bit about the Personal Lieutenant (PL) feat.

It seems as though most folks are putting this feat in a combat context (stabilizes you when necessary, an extra set of actions, etc.) when, in fact, that is the least useful area a PL should be. I mean, really, we're talking about a character whose class level is half every other character's at the table. He's not going to be able to play shoot-up-the-baddies with the big boys anyway, especially considering his lower-than-normal ability score spread, his lack of gear options, his total absence of a core ability, his limited action dice, and his not inconsequential reduced Base Attack Bonus and skill ranks.

The only thing the PL contributes under the current rules is noncombat actions, low-level class features, largely pointless skills, and specific feats that might be out of the range of PCs or considered too narrow to be valid except by NPCs.

I was putting together iconic PCs (level 3) for fun, and was looking at the PL feat for a faceman. Consider:

• Advocate: The absolute certainty class feature is largely useless. The fast wealth advancement is equally uselss. No core ability means you can't send him off to write your programs or concoct your poisons. No.
  
• Explorer: He can grapple sort of well, except that anyone with maximum ranks and reasonable ability scores will beat him. His lack of a core ability means no psuedo-contacts. Fast wealth advancement remains useless. The only interesting thing is the Cultures successes; I can probably find a better feat for "translation via earpiece."
  
• Faceman: The free 1,000 Faces feat makes this one go, thus it might be the only one to actually be worth taking--this can actually get you out of jams. The fast wealth meter still hurts, but the later abilities are sort of awesome.
  
• Hacker: Maybe. It depends on the strength of the Computers skill in your campaign and if anyone else has the skill. If no one does, this is a valid choice, I guess, except for the gear and wealth meters.
  
• Intruder: Absolutely useless--maybe, depending on the parsing of the "you may choose 1 mission gear pick as if the mission's calber were 1 higher," which could mean that it's anybody's mission gear picks, making it sort of okay. Although, unless you're worried about your PL getting his by genades, you're going to have to pick something else as your PL's next level.
  
• Pointman: Absolutely stupid. Without his core ability, what should be the ultimate PL pick is blasted into oblivion. Oh, yeah, once you hit level 4 (for assistance) or 6 (for lead 1/session), it becomes pretty good… unless you've an actual Ptm on the team, who's levels 8 or 12. Then it kind of sucks.
  
• Scientist: Again, a solid choice blown by the lack of a core ability… and fast wealth and gear meters. So throw away 2 fast meters for a host of skill points, low vitality, and bad BAB for the False Start feat.
  
• Scout: "Hey, we need somebody who can track." "We'll use my PL!" "Okay, he's right down this way"--budda budda budda. There ends the usefulness of the scout as a PL.
  
• Sleuth: Maybe in a heavy combat game the sleuth as PL could work. The Investigation and Sense Motive skills are useful enough and noncombat enough that having someone on the team with these as automatic successes is a good thing. A passive video feed makes this go, allowing you to review evidence at your liesure. Not bad.
  
• Snoop: I'm not sure how you could convince your GC that waving your cell phone around counts as a Search check, but for the snoop I guess that's okay. The later class features--intuition and intercept communications--are awesome for an NPC, making this a valid long-range choice.
  
• Soldier: Pointless, unless you dress him ("Oh, goody, you get to play dress-up!") in heavy armor and massive weapons and bring him to battlefield. Then you can potentially exploit all of the feat you thought were cool but not cool enough. You must be unafraid of Reputation loss to do so, though.

Without core abilities and without wealth meters, I believe PLs are largely not worth it. The extra actions don't count for much when the PLs are gunned down willy-nilly (maybe even by a single shot just for show). In the van, they can't do much, either. I'd urge a reinstatement of the PLs' core abilities or their wealth and gear meters. Really, these dudes aren't as useful as they are made out to be.

[Agent 333]

I must disagree. A soldier Personal Lieutenant is at least as good in combat as the team scienctist.
Also, you skipped Wheelman, which really, is a good place for a PL.
Having played with PL giving gear, the players will just make a gear whore PL and basically get double the gear for one feat. Kinda makes the feats that give you one extra pick at a time kind of useless.

Even without gear and core abilities, PL is one of the best feats in the game. If you think otherwise, you haven't seen a well built one in action.

[Krensky]

If you think it's poor, don't take it.

If you don't like it because no option in it is as powerful as a full caster cohort in D&D, go away.

Personal Lieutentant is a perfectly fine feat, probably one of the more powerful ones in a game that is not focused on some zero-sum power struggle between the GC and players.

[Number Three]

Even without gear and core abilities, PL is one of the best feats in the game. If you think otherwise, you haven't seen a well built one in action.

I doubt Black Cheese is going to be swayed by such a shallow case, and I'm not either.  While B.C. admits that there are some builds that do well, I'd be more convinced if I saw said solider PL build and the advancement plan.  Mind you, I don't think PL is the abomination Black Cheese claims it is, but it's not the end all, be all either.

Stripping the wealth and gear out of the class is the easiest solution to a very messy problem, but it creates a couple in the process.  Removing two progressions that helped balance the class in the ruleset means having fast wealth and gear is a drawback in the PL system.  Slow gear and wealth should make the best PLs, but combat PLs lag in attack and durability by design.  You will always have to outfit them (three pics max), they will be always be broke (Spending Cash 1), and they will always look like unappealing bums (permanent Appearance Mod of -2)*, baring certain Origin options and your GM's opinon about Wealth stat bumps counting as "gain[ing] Wealth." (I don't.)

No core ability kicks out the very foundation of Spycraft character builds at first level.  The permanent 1 AD means that any class ability that lives on the "per starting action die" clause dies when it becomes "once per session".  While every class takes a huge hit, the Pointman PL in particular is absolutely gutted by this.  The very idea of the class crumples, even with theoretical future errata.

These are the limitations.  Do they cripple the feat?  Hell no.  But they certainly rule out some archetypes, and it's certainly not the "best feat in the game" by a long shot.  They fall well short of an equivelent PC of equal level, as the sidekick is a drain on the hero's resources.

*This entire sentence makes me wonder if it's too late to rename Personal Lieutenant to "Teenage Ward." 

[gaghiel42]

My PL is a wheelman/Martial artist who uses lash basics and a bunch of other fun feats to become an eevil whirling machine of death.  She fits well along side my main character who is a hacker/Scientist/captain with 27 weath, and only 2 bab at lv 6..