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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 5705562" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Let's look at the premise behind a skill check, Aid Another, Take 10 and Take 20.A skill check is one person, who we'll call a Primary, trying to do something challenging enough to call for a dice roll under normal circumstances.Aid Another is a person, who we'll call a Secondary, trying to help a Primary, coordinating with them to get a better result.Take 10 presumes that you take your time and work carefully to get an average result.  Take 20 presumes that you keep trying, over and over again, until you get it right.  Further, it presumes that it will take you 20 times as long as a normal check to "get it right".  This implies (though doesn't state) that you "get it right" at the end of the 20th try (because you would have quit after the third try if you'd gotten the "20" on that roll).So the problem with either Take 10 or Take 20 while trying to help somebody else at a task might be timing.  The Primary is doing his/her best on a normal attempt, taking the time needed for a single attempt.  Someone trying to Take 10 or Take 20 to help them is working much slower, not coordinating at all.Consider helping someone climb a wall.  You want to give them a leg up at the start.  If you don't lift at the same moment they push off, the two of you end up in a tangle.  It's like, "We'll go on 3.  1... 2... 3..?", where the second person is going on 17 instead.  If the people aren't working together, it just doesn't work.Can we think of examples where Aid doesn't need to coordinate the same way?  Sure.  Holding a ladder, keeping a climbing rope taut, and yeah, probably holding a light for someone.  But the general rule says no because there are so many situations where relatively passive aid isn't what's called for.</blockquote>

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