Is taunting some guy into attacking you possible? Just so I can call self-defense.

Other than casting fury and trespassing/getting too close to baddies' hideouts, I don't know that there's a way to provoke a fight.

Who are you trying to taunt?

You can "taunt" certain mobs for sure, like the Thalmor walking a prisoner or NOT backing away from Imperials or Stormcloaks escorting a prisoner (basically any of the that tell you to move away). Beyond that there aren't a lot of friendly mobs that have dialog that allows you to "taunt" them. There are probably other ways to do it, but I've never researched or tried any.

Cheers

Bram

Not generally, although some of the Dark Brotherhood targets can be goaded into attacking you. I think if you can cast fury on someone without being detected, then they'll attack the nearest person, if that's a guard they will fight back and kill the person, generally (if it's another NPC they'll probably also fight back, but the one you want to die might win.) Oh, yes, forgot about the Thalmor. I've never had the other soldier patrols turn hostile from just staying too close to them, but if the Imperials have a Stormcloak Soldier prisoner you can give him a spare weapon and they'll aggro on you when you free him (so it won't be a crime when you fight back).

They took that game mechanic out after Morrowind. It was basically a way to Murder some one without getting a bounty. Ironically, if your Speechcraft was not high enough, and you taunted them down to 0 and they did not attack, you had to Admire or Bribe them up to like 40 or 50 again to start the taunting again....

Then there is this NPC

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Taunting_Adventurer

If I kill one of those after I made him/her hostile, will it count as self defense (as in, I won't get the bounty)?

Huh. I didn't know we could pick a fight with them. I guess I should talk to more people. The more I know

The Aggressive Adventurer (just labelled as 'High Elf' or whatever) attacks you on sight, in my experience, often before I've spotted them. Oops, sorry, I was thinking of a different one, misread the link when I hovered over it. Yes, if you annoy them, they'll become hostile and attack you, so you don't get a bounty.

(Also, if you kill someone in the wilderness, your bounty will generally be cleared as there usually won't be any other witnesses, so the bounty will come up for attacking them, then be cleared when they die - although sometimes there might be another witness that you haven't noticed - e.g. chickens and some other animals seem to count as witnesses, also sometimes you might meet someone coming toward you from one direction, attack them, and only after that realise that there was a Thalmor patrol or something behind you, who will often aggro on you, not a great plan if you're low level and poorly equipped).

I think the only NPC you can do that is Imperial or Thalmor patrol with heretic nord in tow, you just have to hang around them long enough or trough conversation. Some time you can find Stormcloak soldier that give you warning when you approach them, this the stormcloak that just finished fighting imperial patrol, you can also provoke them. The other I think either turn hostile immediately or you have to attack them first.