What skills have a blanket ban on being aided?
Recently I have been told that there is a blanket prohibition on using Aid Another with Knowledge skills, Disable Device, and Perception. Not that certain circumstances prevented aid at that time, but that aid could never be used with those skills at all. This is coming from multiple GMs.
RAW wise, only Use Magic Device has a blanket prohibition that I can find. For some reason that has not been on the list of skills various GMs have been saying cannot be aided.
It might just be something in your local gaming area; I don't see any reason why perception, knowledge, or disable device couldn't have people helping.
Talk things out with somebody about what's known, other person chimes in with a useful insight that helps remember/put something together for knowledge skills, for instance. Or reach over there and apply pressure here for fifteen seconds while I do this for disable device... Perception is a bit trickier, but splitting up what is to be observed between multiple people, comparing notes, etc. would all help, even if one person was significantly better than the others. "You three handle these three 120 degree arcs for two hundred feet and tell me if you notice anything. Until then I'll be looking at what's 200 or more feet away ".
I completely understand that there are some circumstances when using Aid Another is effectively impossible:
Most Knowledge checks are instantaneous reactions to see if you remember something about the thing that is trying to eat your face. Since you have no time to kibitz, Aiding is not possible. But what about when you are comparing notes in the tavern or doing research in a library?
Obviously you cannot assist to disable a trap that you cannot attempt to disable yourself ie magic trap without Trapfinding. Also space may be too constrained to allow more than one person to work on the device. But those are specific circumstances.
Sure, nobody can make you see/hear/smell better. But that des not mean that they cannot remind you to look under something that you may have otherwise forgotten to check. Or move something out of the way so that you can get a better look. Or shine a light source directly at the thing so you can get a better look. Or simply divide up the search area.
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The actual rule is;
"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."
There is no reason aid another could not be used with Disable Device against a large/complex trap (e.g. 'you hold this pressure plate down while I swap the idol for this bag of sand')... or with Perception to point out a fine detail (i.e. literally point at it)... or a Knowledge check to remember something (e.g. 'Oh, it's that guy with the crazy hat and the talking iguana... what is his name?')... et cetera.
Since Knowledge checks above DC 10 cannot be attempted untrained (w/o some special ability) an untrained character would fall under the "couldn't achieve alone" clause for such checks and would not be able to aid another. However, for lower DCs or if they are trained there is no restriction.
Collective Recollection lets you use Aid Another for knowledge checks at range as a free action. The flavor text is "You and your allies can quickly jog each other's memories to remember essential facts." Talking is a free action, too.
