foretell ability

[Alatar the White]

For the foretell ability of the foresight school of divination, it says that you can utter a prediction of the immediate future. Then your allies gain a bonus or your enemies get a penalty. In order to generate the bonus and penalty, does the player of the wizard have to actually make a prediction in real life and only if this prediction comes true does the bonus or penalty take effect? Or is the prediction descriptive fluff, meaning the player can assume he generates the bonus or penalty without making the prediction in real life?

[supervillan]

There's no requirement in the rules text stating that a player must make a prediction that comes true. So it's "fluff". Like most school powers it only requires a standard action to activate.

[merpius]

Indeed, even the fluff doesn't indicate that the prediction is actually accurate! :D I would take the fluff to mean they say something like "I think we're going to defeat you, this time!", or even (Obi Wan) "I don't think so". If it is treated as an attempt at a specific, accurate divination of the future, and things went the wrong way, it is an indication that this diviner has poor foresight, and, indeed, people should probably not trust thier predictions. That is definitely not fun, unless the character is more like a rogue con-man, rather than a magical actual-predictor-of-the-future.