Nearby familiars provide the alertness feat which gives a +2 bonus on perception/ sense motive skill checks. Can a familiar also aid another to provide an additional +2, or make their own seperate check?
I feel the by RAW they probably can, but not so sure about RAI. What say you?
You can aid another on any skill check. But it seems like the alertness feat is providing a kind of "auto-success" aid another from the familiar. It seems odd (to me) to get that bonus again.
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Well... One's magical, while the other is mundane. For instance, if a familiar felt uneasy of a guy his master was talking to, his master would feel that from his familiar and take note of it. But if the familiar was trying to see if that guy was untrustworthy, then not only would his gut tell him, but he would have a guess as to why. The familiar could then communicate that he has a gut feeling about the guy AND why he has that gut feeling.
You can aid another on any skill check.
That's untrue: Aid another
You can help someone achieve success on a skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. If you roll a 10 or higher on your check, the character you're helping gets a +2 bonus on his or her check. (You can't take 10 on a skill check to aid another.) In many cases, a character's help won't be beneficial, or only a limited number of characters can help at once.
In cases where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results, such as trying to open a lock using Disable Device,you can't aid another to grant a bonus to a task that your character couldn't achieve alone. The GM might impose further restrictions to aiding another on a case-by-case basis as well.
For Perception, I would allow Aid Another only after one character has seen something, then they can point it out to those that haven't, although I would also apply further benefiial modifiers in that case, at least +2.
The Familiar can always make their own independent checks, that's what it's skills are for.