If my character with Diehard gets to negative hit points, can I have him collapse as a free action and pretend to be unconscious without needing a skill roll to fool anyone?
I mean, it's the middle of combat, and a guy collapses after taking catastrophic injuries... should they really be entitled to a Sense Motive/Perception check?
Sounds like a Bluff check, possibly with a +5 (target wants to believe you're down, if you put up a good fight) to up to +15 (if you have been convincingly stabbed enough) modifier.
This ruse would entail a full-round action. Anyone within range who sees through the lie would get an attack of opportunity (possibly turning your fake death into a real one).
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I'm not for the attack of opportunity, as we don't get attacks of opportunity when opponents hit the floor (drop prone), so doing a header (or a dramatic fall) into the floor and staying still shouldn't grant an AOO.
If they want to slit your throat or run a sword through, they should have to spend one of their attacks to do it, not do it for free. As I said, we don't get extra bonus attacks when our foes fall dead (think of how low we could take their hp if we did).
The bluff should probably only come around if your body is examined. Then either it is against a sense motive or vs. a heal (to make it fun and unusual). If they don't have much knowledge of the body and healing, a near-dead unresponsive person could easily be confused with a dead one. A limp fool covered in blood could easily be confused with a dead limp fool covered in blood.
Bonus points for you IQ if you have regen, you char falls covered in blood, the enemies mop up your party and barely survive, and then you stand up full health and murder them utterly.
I actually have a rough idea homebrew class where one of the ability paths actually gives it an ability to do this. Drop "dead" after being hit, allowing a Sense Motive versus the characters bluff. It's always seemed like a neat idea to me. Though I'm pretty sure there's no real ruling on how exactly this would play out with Diehard.
I think this could be covered by a Bluff check as Thanis said.
There's a Bluff option for Feign Harmlessness that might fit in the Giant Hunter's Handbook (which is a full round action). Combine that with the "convincing proof" of your wounds, you may not face any penalties (GM discretion). If you had dealt damage to the enemies, you'll take a -10 penalty to the Bluff check - but normal Bluff rules include up to a +10 bonus for having convincing proof of said lie.
Though keep in mind if you do go prone, you may provoke AoO's upon getting up... But I think this mostly falls under how your GM is willing to interpret these rules.