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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.
Emphasis mine.
Say you have a character with charisma 8, no ranks in Diplomacy (so total -1), and there's a DC 20 diplomacy check to be made. Can or can't you aid another?
Does this rule apply only to skills that can't be used untrained (knowledges, disable device, linguistics etc.)?
Short Answer - Yes, the rule only applies to skills which say "trained or no attempt"
Long Answer - Diplomacy does not require training, so the character doesn't trigger the bolded section's qualifier - "... where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results". Despite the fact that the character in question cannot roll a number high enough to pass the DC, there is nothing in the skill that prevents him from rolling.
Now, the best part as usual is the sentence after what you marked as bold. The GM can decide to limit aid others to only situations where the aiding PC is trained in the skill (a house rule I routinely use), but then again... even without the caveat from the quote you gave, it is always the GM's option to do that kind of thing.
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Short Answer - Yes, the rule only applies to skills which say "trained or no attempt"
Long Answer - Diplomacy does not require training, so the character doesn't trigger the bolded section's qualifier - "... where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results". Despite the fact that the character in question cannot roll a number high enough to pass the DC, there is nothing in the skill that prevents him from rolling.
Now, the best part as usual is the sentence after what you marked as bold. The GM can decide to limit aid others to only situations where the aiding PC is trained in the skill (a house rule I routinely use), but then again... even without the caveat from the quote you gave, it is always the GM's option to do that kind of thing.
I thank you for your thorough answer.
Long Answer - Diplomacy does not require training, so the character doesn't trigger the bolded section's qualifier - "... where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results". Despite the fact that the character in question cannot roll a number high enough to pass the DC, there is nothing in the skill that prevents him from rolling.
Unless they have a -11 mod, they can make the DC of 10 for the Aid Another attempt.
On a separate note, some skills do not allow help. You cannot aid Use Magic Device.
/cevah