paizo aid another - are you your own friend?

[insaneogeddon]

Basically can you use aid another on yourself?

For that matter can you aid another AND fight defensively?

[ElyasRavenwood]

You can't use aid another on yourself. You could use "aid yourself" on yourself if it existed, but not aid another.

Yes you can fight defensively and use aid another.

I hope this helps

[SwiftyKun]

aid another:

In melee combat, you can help a friend attack or defend by distracting or interfering with an opponent. If you're in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat, you can attempt to aid your friend as a standard action. You make an attack roll against AC 10. If you succeed, your friend gains either a +2 bonus on his next attack roll against that opponent or a +2 bonus to AC against that opponent's next attack (your choice), as long as that attack comes before the beginning of your next turn. Multiple characters can aid the same friend, and similar bonuses stack.

You can also use this standard action to help a friend in other ways, such as when he is affected by a spell, or to assist another character's skill check.

fighting defensively:

You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC until the start of your next turn.

No, aid another must be used on someone else.

No, both aid another and fighting defensively are both standard actions and cannot be done together.

Hmm..:

Edit: To be more precise, you must make an attack in order to get the fighting defensively bonus, which requires a standard action.

I personally disagree with this and do think that you can come up with a reasonable argument to your GM as to why you can use fighting defnsively without attacking though.

Edit2: Hmm..I'm actually going to argue myself on this one. It does not say you MUST attack before receiving the penalties and buffs.

Conclusion: As per the wording, and it being listed underneath the standard/full round action list, no, you cannot fight defensively and use aid another in the same turn.

Argument:

The solid argument however with the GM to overrule this would be something along the lines of "I haven't attacked, but am choosing to take the negatives and positives for fighting defensively. By me not attacking I am simply putting myself in a position where I am gaining from the positive, but not using the negative. The negative still applies to me however due to the fact that the buff/debuff lasts until my next turn, at which time any attacks I make due to effects, such as attack of opportunity, are suffering from the debuff."

[Snow_Tiger]

I think that since aid another is an attack roll, it counts for fighting defensively.

[ElyasRavenwood]

Well I don't think it breaks the game to allow someone in a home game to aid another while fighting defensively.

[lemeres]

I can't resist:

"No, I am my own enemy."

[Arakhor]

I would say that if you can fight defensively whilst aiding another, you apply the defensive penalties to your attack roll to aid another.

[Cevah]

lemeres wrote:

I can't resist:

"No, I am my own enemy."

"I am my own worst enemy."

/cevah

[njharman]

SwiftyKun wrote:

you can use fighting defnsively without attacking though.

That is called Total Defense.

[SwiftyKun]

njharman wrote:

SwiftyKun wrote:

you can use fighting defnsively without attacking though.

That is called Total Defense.

It's not quite the same thing. Total defense means you're not even attempting to fight back. A duelist who waits for the enemy to attack just so they can parry and counter attack is fighting defensively without attacking first.