I'm going to have to chime in to the COP discussion, too:
It IS a completely ROTTEN spell. I mean... look:
Question 1: Am I going to be attacked today.
Answer (rolled for true): Yes
Question 2: Am I going to be injured?
Answer(again rolled for true): Umm..... you WILL if I say so. Even if you stay in bed all day.
Question3: Am I going to die?
Answer (true again): You really want to push me, don't you? YES, you're going to die, because I say so. No, actually, because you asked!
(Question4: Is my contingency against death going to save me?
Answer: Uh.... here's your new character. He's called BARRY BARBARIAN.)
What happens later that day is that said wizard is attacked by rat, bitten by a flea, and then drops dead at 11:59pm from a heart attack because the answer had to be true. And guess what, just at that moment his party mate Fred Warblade twitches in his sleep and triggers his Antimagic torc. What did we win, here?
Basically COP puts a party, or at least a character, knee deep in railroad muck, because once answered those questions have to come true, even if the character does something completely different than what he was supposed to do.
So basically COP isn't the "Give me your notes" thing, it's "Put me on a rail, with really windy tracks, but really really fixed stops."