So, I have improved feint, ranged feint, a shadowshooting heavy wrist launcher, and a flying viper familiar. My bluff is high (so my viper's bluff is high). But, for an extra buff, could my familiar aid me with my bluff skill check when I feint?
As a DM....I don't know how I'd rule that. I mean, it might be too much to say that the aiding character has to have the ranged feint feat as well.
In close combat, I'd say there wouldn't be any issue for the familiar to help me. But how would the viper effectively help here?
I'm sure I could work up some way, with magic items or whatever, to get the viper a ranged attack. In which case, would that be good enough? It uses a standard action to "aid another", which would be present as shooting a ranged attack (one that is designed to not hit the enemy, so it wouldn't be doing damage). It rolls bluff, tries to hit 10, and I get my bonus.
That would be agreeable to most DMs, yeah?
You can aid another an ally for skill checks. It doesn't require you to specify how you do so, but maybe your serpent gives you a feeling of confidence for a moment to hide your tells via it's empathic link? Maybe it hisses at the right time to help distract?
Performing a bluff check doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity so it can do so freely. It just has to meet a DC of 10 with its skill check as its standard action and it can indeed give you a +2 to your next bluff check to feint.
Just be aware that if you have it actually feint for you, it does nothing for you unless it has a means to pass you the benefits. You don't innately benefit from it using feint (nor does it from you feinting).
If successful, the next melee attack you make against the target does not allow him to use his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). This attack must be made on or before your next turn.
Oh, and I should mention that aiding you in a skill check is actively helping you, not hindering the enemy. As a result it can stay safely with you out of harm's reach. It doesn't need to threaten the enemy you want to pop a shadowstuff bolt into.
That's good to hear. I generally try to be less generous on my rulings, when building a character to play. But if this is universally acceptable, I won't worry about trying to figure out how to give a viper a ranged attack, heh.
Which is especially good, because headbands, belts, eyepieces, slotless items.....still haven't found anything that lets it cast ray of frost or anything at will :|
And yeah, the viper won't be the one making the feint, just giving me a bonus in mine.
It's 100% expected behaviour. In fact, the familiar is smart enough to be asked to help and do it on its own with no checks or commands. If you could give it a voice with, say, a ring to speak and convince a DM it can manipulate items (Maybe with its tail, or an item to mimic hands? There are ways.) it can even use your Use Magic Device skill to help with buffs, healing, or even messing with enemies a bit.
Extra Item Slot can help with that, or with your other desire for it to have some fun trinkets to use.
Note there are some items that improve aid another bonuses, as well as some traits. There are even feats to make it more viable. It really depends on how much you want to invest in it. Personally I'd say you're likely to bluff really well without another +1 here or there for thousands of gold.
I don't know if I totally agree. If the viper has no ability related to giving you a surge of confidence then that wouldn't work IMO.
If it's using bluff on its own on the enemy for the aid another I wouldn't allow that outside say sneak attack range, 30'. If it has a ranged attack I'd allow that to the range of the ranged attack.
Aid Another rules require you to be within range to affect things, like for a melee attack aid another you must be within range to be able to make a melee attack against the creature.
I would say this requirement applies as well, so any limitations on range of feint and so forth should probably apply.
So your familiar would probably need ranged feint feat.
I'm already using Extra Item Slot for armor. +5 Benevolent Silken Ceremonial armor. +6 AC, four times a round (the viper is a protector now, I've decided), is better than +1 bluff. Especially when my bluff is already pretty decent. Really, I don't even need the +2 from Aid Another, but I'm a minmaxer, so....
Trying to make sure I'm not biased, but it does seem a fair ruling, that the snake whispers advice on where to attack. The snake is aiding me, not debuffing the enemy (good argument).
Though the snake can't talk to me, we share an empathetic link. The snake has INT 6, so knows what I'm trying to do. I feel a surge of enthusiasm, that's the snake saying "Shoot!". Not trying to trick the system, it's a real thing, as basketball fans will tell you.
But, I could see a reasonable GM saying "Nah, snake can't assist here." And I'd be fine with that.
Whispering where to attack doesn't make sense (in my opinion), as mechanically the snake has to make a C 10 bluff check to help you feint.
If it's telling you where/when/how then that might be a knowledge check for the aid. Possibly the same kind as that used to identify a monster's abilities or weaknesses. It's certainly not a bluff check.
But trying to aid the feint action would definitely be a bluff check.
Aiding another in a skill check requires making the same skill check. And feint requires making a bluff check.
Yeah, they were going with what makes sense, not necessarily RAW. I think bluff could be sensical, though. If the snake were to feint, it'd attack....now! So it's giving it's opinion on when/how to feint, which uses a bluff check. It's not using the bluff to lie, I mean.
Okay, so let's go with that. No more aiding another with allied skill checks unless you threaten a target.
No. Come on now.
That's nonsensical. If I can aid another a friend who's using Diplomacy by just nodding my head when he talks and looking sure of it, or my buddy can aid another my Spellcraft check by saying "What was it you said about that book one time, with the thing?" (these are about a skill check of 10 honestly) then his snake can aid another him in feeling more confident in deceit when it has a direct empathic link to him that allows him and it to feel emotions of each other at will and is the pinnacle example spirit animal for a deceiver.
Come on guys. Really.
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.
Strictly speaking, I don't think the familiar could aid the PC on ranged feint check unless it also had the Ranged Feint feat because without that feat, it cannot perform a ranged feint at all.
The GM might still allow the familiar to aid the PC but it would probably have to follow the normal rules for feinting:
You can feint only with a melee weapon, and only against a creature you threaten with that weapon.
I imagine that is not the original poster's preferred option though.
Lucas has quoted the appropriate rule. You can only aid another on a skill check if you could theoretically accomplish the skill check alone. If the familiar cannot feint in a particular situation, they cannot help someone else feint either.