Assist

You can help someone achieve success on a skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. After providing a flanking bonus, assisting on a skill is probably the second most-common co-operative bonus in Epic Path. It is not unusual to see a group of players chatting among themselves to see who will roll the main skill roll for a difficult task, and who will stand close by to help out. This is a great thing, and assists can make a big difference in how your table succeeds or fails at various tasks and challenges, so be sure to be offering assistance, or asking for, every chance you get!

NOTE: Assist requires you to be adjacent! If the party's lock-picker is working on something very cataclysmic, be sure you understand just how close you are to the point of maximum risk!

As a standard action, you can assist an adjacent ally on a skill check by rolling at least an Easy DC on the same skill, versus the same CR (challenge rating) as the main check.

• If successful, the ally you are assisting gets a +2 circumstance bonus on his or her check.
• If you roll less than an Easy DC result, you instead inflict a -1 circumstance penalty to the check being made by the ally you are assisting.

You can't take 10 on a skill check to assist. In many cases, assists are not possible or only a limited number of characters can help at once. In all cases, no more than 5 characters can ever assist with a skill check. Note that circumstance bonuses stack with all other bonuses including other circumstance bonuses.

If a skill is trained only, or requires a particular specialization (such as Perform, Piloting, or Profession), you must have at least one rank in the same skill or specialization to assist. GM's may adjudicate that some skills or specializations are complementary enough to also allow assistance.

If you wish to assist an ally with an epic skill use of a skill (a skill use which requires at least 21 ranks to attempt), you must also have at least 21 ranks in the skill in question.

Assisting an ally with a skill use that provokes attacks of opportunity also provokes attacks of opportunity.

Note: to provide combat bonuses to an ally, refer to Aid Another.