I remember when the Harmony Therapy (and later books) also protected your wolf even when you sent her out to fight. You could sit there in the circle, send your wolf out to attack a monster, and that monster won't even acknowledge the wolf. It will just take damage, walk around randomly, and die.
Too bad they 'fixed' that...

For European characters, bards have the Noise skills that you can cast on yourself and, in some books, cast on party members. Noise travels with you and has the same preemptive attack prevention that the harmony circles do. So you're not stuck sitting in one place. Only thing is, the Noise skills don't regenerate your HP/MP if I recall correctly.