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As social creatures, I think friends are very important, but when it comes right down to it, I think the biggest factor that determines a person's ability to resist temptation is a persons strength of will, personality, and quality of values.

Many people find their temptations are harder to resist when they are around others who willingly submit to those temptations. I myself have an obsessive compulsion to not give into peer pressure, so when everyone is encouraging me to do something I know I shouldn't, then it pretty much boils down to the more people trying to make me do something, the less likely I will be to do it. LOL

Some people are wired in a way that they can go into situations that others can't as to be a witness in those situations, but when people who aren't meant to be that way try to, it ends up badly for them... Some people need less support than others.

Yet, even so, it's healthier for a person to have at least one good friend to relax with and vent to. We all need an outlet, and we need all support at some point.

I think that is part of the reason we are here.

Most definitely. I'd first say personal experience and discovery determine my views, but when I reflect deeper, almost all of those experiences and discoveries at some point involved others, close friends, and even family. If not for the support of my friends, I wouldn't have had the strength early on to admit to my family that I didn't believe in God. On the same token, if it weren't for the support of my Christian friends, who have always showed me what may very well be God's work through them, I could easily be a stone cold atheist at this point. And who you choose to hang around with playes a role all the same. If you like being around people, in many cases, you inevtiably want at least some favor from them, not being disliked as a minimum. I mean, how often do people hang out with people they don't like? Well, I could imagine a few social structures that support that, but not my cup of tea anyway. Because of where I am in life, I need balance. I need voices that represent different walks of life. I need to be informed. I'm not attracted to groups of people that just gather and do nothing, because I'm not a do nothing kind of person, but I'm easily attracted to many groups that do something, as long as I see it as good. Even if my interaction with others is solely limited to my contributing in a common cause, it's worth a lot to me.
And if you hang out with a bad crowd hard and long enough, you're all the more likely to get pulled into some of their ways. The same goes for a good crowd. People have a tendancy to rub off on each other is what I'm pretty much trying to say here.