So I've reached maximum affinity with Codsworth, and I actually like him, despite not being able to negotiate better mission fees with him in tow. Piper has offered to become a follower, and I'm wondering if she'd be more or less effective a companion than Codsworth. My character is a sneaky energy weapons wielder (my laser pistol does as much damage as Righteous Authority, but, hey, that's another post), with a sawed off shotgun as backup. Of course, I can't romance a robot, but I wonder if Piper can shoot as well as Codsworth slices and fries. What's Piper's skill set ('scuse me, perk set?) My Google-fu is failing to find a perk list for her.

Well my personal opinion wud be to reach maximum affinity with multiple companions, since that way not only you get all of their perks(and some of them are good ones-they all work all the time not just when companion is in the party), but also to let them develop as characters and play trough their personal stories.

Cant rly help you with her exact skillset, though i can tell you she prefers to use pistols(and can be decently effective with them if you are willing to give her a heavily modeed weapon and keep her suplied with ammo(all companions have base weapon that uses magic ammo, but that one is hidden and thus unmodable), also unlike Codsworth any humaniod companion can be armored(even using PA if you want to) so while they do start weaker than Codsworth you can fully kite em out with improved weapons/defences which makes em considerably stronger than base Codsworth which will always remain the same.

Well her pen is mightier than her non-existent sword.

But other than that, she's good at cracking one-liners.

You can give her a sword if you want to:) not that she is super effective in melle combat unless you deck her out with a good set of PA(anoying part of that is you will have to repair it for her as well once the parts get broken), i just gave her her Alien blaster since i am not rly speced into pistols and modified it to use MF cells after she ran out of alien ammo(personaly i mostly give companions laser weapons and 0,45 weapons since i dont use any of those myself anymore which makes it a lot easier for me to keep them stocked with the ammo they need and also both of those amunitions are relativly cheap incase i ever need to buy some for them but the fully moded weapons that can use em still do great dmg), must say though that she is quiet deadly with it:)

Oh yeah and another thing try avoiding giving them any automatic weapons cuz they will burn trough the ammo far to fast that way.

Thing is, having Codsworth's melee/close support fire has saved my bacon a few times against deathshead/legendary enemies. I can't afford a companion who can't pull his/her/its weight in combat, no matter how charming they may be. As far as a modded pistol goes, I can't give her my modded laser pistol, since I'd also have to give her all/most of my ammo for Righteous Authority. I do have a fairly nice sawed off shotgun, and plenty of shells. Would that count as a pistol?

As far as i know shotguns normaly fall under rifles perk, but as i said while humanoid companions do start weaker than Codsworth they can become much tougher and deadlier in combat than him once equiped, I normaly supply em with balistic weawe moded army fatigues, army helmet/cap, patrolmans sunglases and a full set of moded combat armor(usualy sturdy version of it will upgrade to heavy once my lvl is high enough to start getting enough drops of heavy verson) and ofcourse a good weapon to go with it, in such setup they are quiet tanky and do lovely dmg.

She can use shotguns or any other weapons as well its just that presumably since pistol is her weapon of choice i wud assume she has gunslinger perks.

But as i said before their long term potential is what makes em better than Codsworth and i am sure you can live with a bit diminshed effectivity at start(i play exclusivly at survival dif) and didnt rly have any problems using any of the companions.

I'm still pretty early in the game, so I'm not getting the good stuff yet. Armor is mostly leathers with the occasional metal bit thrown in. Can't afford to keep my PA powered up all the time, so I'm mostly sneaking around in leather armor. So the best I could do for Piper would be some lightly modded raider armor. Not finding many good pistols, though there are some tasty sniper rifles starting to pop up. I could give her a pipe auto pistol and plenty of .38 ammo to keep her happy, but I don't think that would be very helpful. Perhaps I should wait until combat armor starts coming up, then recruit her and kit her out in some decent armor.

Well I use X6-88 or Cait for any fire support backup I need anyway.

Piper's job is to man the home-front.

Use Cait, she's the best companion, IMO. Especially if you decide to steal or pickpocket, she approves of those actions as well as drugs and alcohols. One of the biggest pluses is that she won't attack you if you attack NPC like Piper or Curie, she would actually help you fight them instead and give you approval. If you like to negotiate caps, she gain approval everytime you ask for money for demanding more money while Piper disapprove. Another perk from Cait is she's very good at picking locks and can even open level 4 locks even if your character cannot.

The only reason I use Danse more is because he's my main romance, and his power armor makes every fight a cake walk.

Not that easy, unless you play human chameleon. One hates actions the other loves. Which brought me to mission based companion use. If I know beforehand that I have to be altruistic at some point, I certainly won't take McGready or Cait. If I know I have to be mean, I won't take Nick, Piper or Curie. Codsworth is fun to have for a while and he's even quite effective, compared to other companions.

I don't believe that the perks do stay once you have dismissed them

I personally use Piper as I like the XP increase from speech and locations but whenever I have dismissed her I do not seem to get the increase in XP so I have been using her for as long as I can remember now.

She doesn't like you asking for more money on missions though but she likes you lockpicking and most quests she will love so it's pretty easy to get romantic with her. I blatantly pulled a singer in a bar and went back to a hotel room whilst Piper she watched, she disliked it but not enough to not still sleep with me 1 minute later. Player

As far as i know they do stay when companions are not with you wasnt rly paying atention to Pipers one but i am 100% sure that combat based ones def work when companion giving them isnt present

Once you have mmaxed her disposition, the perk stays. Romancing Piper certainly added to my experience boost, even if she was parked in Sanctuary.

I found Cait a lot better than Piper, plus Cait actually likes it when you ask for more caps and be sarcastic all the time, or when you drink alcohol, or pop some drugs, ... or walk around naked. But if you are playing a Saint-like character Piper will appreciate that. As far as weapons go my character wasn't using energy weapons at all so I just gave them a good Institute rifle and all my energy ammo and they did rather well.

She is better for gaining exp from speech checks and finding new locations but she does not come with a buzz saw and flame thrower.

She can be equiped with better wepons than those though:) same as any other humanoid companion just takes extra effort and resources from you.

yes but I like how quickly he can switch, if I were to give her a flamer and sword she will never pull out the sword when they get close to her.

I'm not sure they switch. I noted that when I used Cait she had some club for melee and used a shotgun for ranged, but after I gave her a energy rifle that was all she ever used. When I gave her a bladed tire iron that was all she ever used. She never would switch on her own.