Cooperative Feinting

[AvatarVecna]

I'm playing a character that doesn't really want to fight very much themselves (doesn't like hurting people for moral reasons), but still wants to support her allies in combat. It occurred to me that the idea of distracting an opponent in combat for the benefit of my ally seems like "Feinting on their behalf", but I'm pretty sure that's not a thing you could normally do. Is there another way to do the thing I'm thinking of (using my action to attempt a maneuver to distract an enemy against the next attack on it), or would we need to houserule something letting me "Feint For Someone Else"? If the latter, what do you think is fair? Upgrading the action required to feint (standard or full), requiring a feat for it, a feat chain, giving up a class feature...what?

[Psyren]

This is basically what Aid Another in combat is meant to simulate. You can optimize it further beyond that basic usage, but that's ultimately what it is.

[zlefin]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat/#TOC-Aid-Another
just giving the link for convenience.
note that aid another tends to be pretty weak on its own (without taking feats or something to improve it)

[Ellrin]

Look up aid another builds. While that +2 for a standard action isn't particularly impressive in and of itself, you can get some crazy bonuses with the right builds, as well as reducing the type of action it takes to do the aid another. It's still not as powerful support as magic, of course, but it's an interesting way to run a character. Don't forget that aid another can also be used to boost another character's skill checks and for boosting his AC, too.

[Bucky]

You can Dirty Trick someone into being blinded for a round; this has the desired effect of making them flat-footed against an ally's attack.

If you're not comfortable with that, ask your DM about making them flat-footed instead; this is technically not allowed by RAW but it should be permissible in practice as a reduction of blinding them.

[The Random NPC]

There's also Improved Feint Partner (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/improved-feint-partner-combat-teamwork/), but as a teamwork feat it may not be very good.

[CharonsHelper]

If you get Greater Feint it makes them lose their Dex bonus entirely until your next turn and not only against you.


Benefit: Whenever you use feint to cause an opponent to lose his Dexterity bonus, he loses that bonus until the beginning of your next turn, in addition to losing his Dexterity bonus against your next attack.

I had a melee bard who was tanky but had mediocre damage, so I got Greater Feint to use with my rogue buddy whenever he couldn't get a flank and for use against foes with really high DEX/dodge mods.

Totally worth using my movement action and losing my bard's iterative attack.