Guild agent rogue archetype - worth it?

[Hobokhajiit]

The archetype as a whole does seem very interesting and seems to have many potential applications. However, I was wondering if anyone had played them and what their experience with the archetype was.

Many thanks in advance!

[Wonderstell]

In short:
I wouldn't recommend any PC to take this archetype, unless they played in a game with no combat. And even then there are better archetypes to complement your social skills.

The Guild Agent archetype replaces most of the Rogue's defensive abilities for lackluster social abilities. Then ties said social abilities to a certain location, while allowing the GM to completely negate them on a whim.

In depth:

Guild Connections (Ex):

At 2nd level, a guild agent gains the black market connections rogue talent.

Furthermore, he can ask his guild for tips about the local scene, granting him a bonus equal to half his rogue level on Knowledge (local) checks and Diplomacy checks to gather information, as long as the information in question pertains to the guild agent’s base of operations.

At 4th level, the guild agent also gains the gossip collector vigilante social talent, and his base of operations counts as his area of renown for the purpose of determining the effects of gossip collector.

This ability replaces evasion and uncanny dodge.
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So we're trading away Evasion and Uncanny Dodge for:

Black Market Connections; A Rogue Talent for increasing the availability of magic items.
Only comes into play very seldom, since most GMs I've played with weren't even aware of the rules this Rogue Talent modifies.

An untyped bonus to Know: Local and a specific use of the Diplomacy skill, in a specific area.
Could be useful if it wasn't for the fact that none of those skill rolls require a high modifier.

Gossip Collector; A Social Talent for reducing the time spent using the Diplomacy skill to gather information.
Synergizes with the skill bonus, but it's generally not important to lower the time spent.

Two strong defensive abilities traded away for skill bonuses with few uses, and two of the weakest Talents available for the Rogue and Vigilante.

Pull Rank (Ex):

At 8th level, a guild agent has attained sufficient rank to call in lesser guild members to assist him with a job. He can call lesser members of a number and level equal to the number of followers he would have if he had the Leadership feat (including the +2 bonus for his guildhouse), to a maximum of a number of lesser members equal to his rogue level. If the guild agent possesses the Leadership feat, he gains twice as many followers as normal. If he spends a favor, he can combine this with the command team organizational influence benefit to gain even more lesser members for a particularly difficult job. Each time the guild agent uses the lesser members recklessly and gets them killed, he loses at least 1 influence with his guild.

This ability replaces Improved Uncanny Dodge.
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A gimped version of the Leadership feat, and without what makes the Leadership feat good. The cohorts.

In fact, this whole archetype is weaker than the Leadership feat itself. Why not simply make your own Guild with the Leadership feat?

And remember:

Honor Among Thieves (Ex):

A guild agent must remain a member in good standing of a thieves’ guild (he starts at rank 1 with her guild when using the organizational influence system on pages 109–117). If the guild agent leaves his guild, he loses all of the abilities granted by this archetype and does not gain their replacements.
If he joins a new guild, the guild agent regains his abilities, though depending on how he joins the guild, he may regain his abilities all at once or gradually over time. Even if the guild in question operates in multiple locations, the guild agent chooses a settlement as a base of operations for his own activities.
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Your GM could say "Yeah someone spread a rumor* that you are actually an undercover agent, so the guild kicked you out" at any time, and you'd lose every single benefit this archetype grants you.

Not to mention that if you're outside of your settlement, you're literally just a worse Rogue than if you hadn't taken the archetype.

*:

Actually possible as early as lv 3 with the Charlatan archetype

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I'd recommend the Vigilante and his Social Talents if you want to achieve the mechanical benefit of being part of a guild.
Renown, Safe House and Loyal Aid would be great talents for this.