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I have always thought that, in any circumstance, you could make a Knowledge check for both your PC and his familiar or, alternately, that your familiar can use aid another to give you a +2 on your Knowledge check, provided it could clearly communicate with you of course.
This was based on my image of the Familiar being an expression of your unconscious mind and thus acceding the same data as your conscious mind (ie, you) but with a different "processor" and being able to remember something that you did not. Thus, I believed that your own efforts and your familiar's ones were complementary and not exclusive.
However, I recently had 2 different GMs, including one in PFS, forbid the Aid another on Knowledge rolls, or even the second Knowledge check, because they saw the Familiar as knowing (and remembering) exactly the same things as his master, thus allowing only a single roll (and no aid another) for the pair.
What is the common understanding on this ?
1) Can your familiar make Knowledge checks in addition to your own ?
2) Can a talking familiar give you an aid another bonus on Knowledge checks ?
oh boy, such a mess and such little response...what a shame. familiars ain't gettin no love here it seems ;)
seems your GMs weren't quite thinking straight for arguing that a familiar knows exactly what it's master does carries its own can of worms.
but back to the matter at hand:
1) yes. nothing's keeping it from doing so rules-wise. why bother with skill ranks and seperate class skills otherwise?
2) yes. familiars are seperate creatures and can do stuff other creatures can, which includes aiding another. knowlegde skills can be aided on.
so, there ya go!
I had some GMs with this mindset in Living Greyhawk. Unfortunately, they should be looking at RAW instead of their interpretation of RAI.
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What I have always seen is that familiar's can make their own checks.
Aiding another for a knowledge check has always been a can of worms. My personal take on it is that it's fine in situations where characters are either engaged in research and/or have the opportunity to discuss their findings. I don't permit it when the check is an immediate recollection kinda thing...such as monster knowledge checks in combat. YMMV.
Regarding familiars and knowledge checks: Familiars get the same ranks. They don't get the same total plus due to different Intelligence and/or feats. To say that this is represented by knowing the same exact thing makes no sense to me. And, I find it amusing as The Abyss to see the situation where the familiar remembers what the PC does not.
This all said, in an organized play environment, you will run into variant rulings. It happens. Some of them may be commonplace in the area you play. Your local area likely has local groups organized through Yahoo, Google Groups, etc., for organization and announcements. I'd suggest making a rules based pitch and try to gain a consensus, but avoid arguing the point at the table.
Best of luck!
Aiding another on a knowledge check is a bit iffy. I could see it working, with people going back and forth trying to talk something out, one person getting the name on the tip of their toung, the other person remembering the first letter etc.
Skills: For each skill in which either the master or the familiar has ranks, use either the normal skill ranks for an animal of that type or the master's skill ranks, whichever is better. In either case, the familiar uses its own ability modifiers. Regardless of a familiar's total skill modifiers, some skills may remain beyond the familiar's ability to use. Familiars treat Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, Perception, Stealth, and Swim as class skills.
So the familiar does in fact have knowledge: history if you do. Thematically, the bird was probably in class with you for that lecture on the runelords, and may have been paying attention when you were trying to pass Judy Brightsword a note asking her to the dance.