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I can't believe that I am actually having to post this; however, can anyone give me a guideline on how just how accurate this alternate racial spell-like ability is supposed to be.
The description says:
"Sylphs with this trait can spend a full-round action to predict the weather in an area for the next 24 hours. The sylph's prediction is always accurate, but cannot account for spells or supernatural effects that might alter the forecast."
I am almost embarrassed to ask about this, but I recently got into a stupid argument with 3 of my players, all of whom seemed to feel that, since it's a "magic" ability, the sylph PC should be able to know exactly what the weather is going to be--including the exact duration and intensity. They feel that the sylph would know that it will start raining at precisely 11:01 am, and end at precisely 11:42 am.
Any assistance here, beyond the usual "my campaign--my rule interpretation" argument, would be very much appreciated.
It's not unreasonable to know such precision, but it's unreasonable to see weather as switchon/switchoff rain/norain in the whole county at once.
More like...
"It'll rain before noon, but stop raining before noon. It'll start raining in the south of the county first, and kind of move north, but not get across the county before it stops."
In the same way the seasoned soldier might know "They'll have guard in patrols, probably three patrols...", but not "And the third patrol will be Sgt. Frobs, Spearman Dweem, and Spearman Saperson. Saperson's got a toothache..."
The Sylph cannot light a long blasting wick, knowing that the first raindrop of a gentle rain will land soon and put it out.
Locally, we interpret it as A) Sylph will not be caught offguard by weather. B) Sylph will recognize any magical weather as clashing with her foreknowledge. C) GM does not have to track weather he was not already going to be tracking, just to answer the Sylph.
Accurate, not precise. I'd probably say it's precise to the hour - it'll rain lightly from about 2 to 5 in the afternoon, after which it'll cool off.. etc.
Magic =/= perfect, anyway, and why do they care what the weather is at exactly 11:42 AM? Is your game *that* precise in terms of time use?