You place a hand on the object, gloved or not, and glare into its figurative or literal soul. You may even sniff or lick it depending on how confident you are that it won't kill you right away. Observers to this act may feel a mild to intense discomfort depending on what item it is (pray that it's not someone's clothing, cough cough) but you can insist that this is all for the sake of science.
On testing:
Delphyrion has always wanted to know everything. However, no matter how strong one's background is in chemistry, you'd usually need equipment and time to study an object's composition. Not to mention the amount of harm it could do to the item.
On chemistry:
This gift could be groundbreaking, but only if you know what you're looking at. There's no point if you don't recognize what chemical or molecular structure you find in the item, or what you can do with it. Chemistry is all about using what you have, and what's the use of a weapon that you know nothing about?
On questionable acts:
Look, living creatures are born with five senses for a reason. Delphyrion will use all five senses if it means new knowledge can be found. Sure, they've gotten sick from licking stuff for no reason, but at least now there is a reason to do so. This will do wonders for their immune system.
Spend a minute. Select a target Object within arm's reach. At the end of your investigation, roll Intellect + Investigation at Difficulty 6.
You learn all the following information about your target:
This Gift's Cost is capped at 2 and cannot be increased further.
You may only use this Effect once per day.
You cannot investigate the same target more than once per day.
You've learned to menace the Crown Chakra--bypassing the Body & attacking the Mind, and sometimes the very Soul: directly.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. Roll Brawn + Influence at Difficulty 6. Affected targets may resist by rolling Mind at Difficulty 8. If they are incapacitated or unconscious, they fail automatically and their Outcome is 0.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes Mind damage equal to the Contested Outcome. If you deal at least 3 Mind damage, the target will gain Phobias as a Trauma. This Trauma may be removed by Effects or mundane therapy, as normal. Targets that receive a new Trauma are aware that you are interacting with them but they do not view it as an attack or view the resulting Trauma as malicious. If their Trauma is treated, they will be able to see the reality of the situation.
Whip out your wand, point it at your foe and shout "Magic missile!" A bolt of bright, cold, octarine light whizzes toward your target. It's very Harry Potter until the missile actually hits. Then things get gory. When used as defelection beam, a lightning-like blast deflects an incoming attack.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. You must actively and obviously use A wand: a polished rod of metal or wood. to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Occult Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4.
You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.
If the Contested Outcome of your activation roll is 4 or higher, the activation cost of this Effect is refunded.
Vivian winds up her fist, slamming it into the bruised and battered grunt, sending them flying and impacting into the wall.
(legally distinct) BLACK FLASH!!!!
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a Living target within arm's reach. Roll Intellect + Brawl Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4.
If the target receives an Injury, they are knocked back 5 * Severity feet.
The target suffers a -3 dice penalty for the next hour or until the Injury is healed. This dice penalty does not stack multiple times on the same target.
From the elemental within her heart, through her veins and flesh, and out into the air fire moves. It leaps forth from her fingertips and onto unwitting things to be burned, when the elemental is being cooperative, that is.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within arm's reach which has both fuel and oxygen available (if you are starting a new fire). Roll a single d10, Difficulty 4. If you fail or botch, the Effect fails and you cannot activate it again for an hour.
You may start a new fire as large as a firepit's fire at your target. You may create fires the size of a lighter or candle flame without Exerting your Mind. Your fires require fuel and oxygen in order to continue burning.
Lighting a target on fire deals 4 Damage each Round on your turn, starting in the Round after the one in which they caught fire. This Damage is reduced by Armor, but the target’s Armor rating will be depleted by any Damage dealt, destroying the Armor once it reaches 0.
You may extinguish flames as a Reaction. This does not extend to explosives.
Lumi, using his staff as his conduit for mana, lets his mana flow into the orb on the rod. These orb then glow white and blue or purple and black, upon which, a ball of either light or void magic will appear at the location. The light seems to burn and singe whatever is there, undead especially seem susceptible to it as the light itself has holy energy to it.
While the darkness seems to become a black hole, sucking in the target and collapsing in on itself then it collapses and severely injuring them.
"I, who stand in the full light of the heavens, command thee, who opens the gates of hell. Come forth, divine lightning! This ends now! Indignation!!"
Newbie - "Reflection/Apocalypse"
Tagline - Burn from the light of purity! / Be crushed under the weight of your sins...
Holding the staff, he jabs it at the enemy like a spear and a sky blue crystal appears at the edge, from which a arrow of light shoots forth and attack the enemy.
Swinging the staff like he is smacking someone with it, two purple and black magic circle appears at his target and tries to crush the enemy.
Exert your Mind (unless you win a coin flip) and spend an Action. Select a target within 300 feet. You must actively and obviously use Staff/Shining rod to activate this Effect. Roll Intellect + Occult Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the Contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4.
You may use this Effect to Defend against any melee, projectile, or firearm Attacks within range or Clash against any Attack targeted at you. Using it to Defend deals no Damage but does not cost Exertion.
The Toon performs some sort of cartoonish act of violence. This may be handing someone a bomb, hitting someone with a cartoon mallet, burping a burp that is so noxious it melts flesh, or anything else as long as it is cartoonish.
The attack is more of a throwaway gag than a plot element, so any props or properties of the attack are incidental and disappear immediately. Animated mallets evaporate in a puff of smoke, fire does not spread, and electricity cannot power devices.
Exert your Mind and spend an Action. Select a target within 45 feet. Roll Charisma + Performance Difficulty 6. The target may contest by rolling to Dodge or Defend as a Reaction, Difficulty 6.
If the contested Outcome is positive, the target takes that much Damage plus 4. Armor is fully effective against this damage.
The mystic channels and communes directly with another person's spirit, allowing the two of them to freely exchange both physical and mental wounds between each other.
Exert your Mind and spend a minute. Select a Sapient target within arm's reach. Your target may Resist to cancel the transfer.
You may choose a single instance of one of the following to transfer from your target to yourself, or from yourself to them:
Whenever you transfer an Injury, it's Severity increases by 1. Whenever you transfer Mind damage or Traumas, the recipient takes an additional Mind damage.
After you finish activating this Effect, you cannot move quicker than a walk (max 15 feet per Round) for one minute and suffer a -1 dice penalty for an hour. Exhaustion’s penalty and duration stacks with multiple activations.
The mad scientist produces thorium cores that can be used to upgrade tools and other devices. The core supercharges the item, increasing its quality and rendering it indestructible for a period. However, once the core runs dry, the object is rendered less useful than it was before. The core crackles with blue electricity while active.
Spend 1 Action and use up this glowing blue disk. Select a non-Alien Device within arm's reach. Cannot be used to improve Armor.
Lasts the next two hours. Your target receives 2 extra dice to all actions taken for its intended use. Attacking with an upgraded weapon grants +2 Weapon Damage instead of additional dice. While it is upgraded, the item cannot be destroyed.
After the Effect ends, any upgraded targets suffer a -2 dice penalty until they are either repaired or upgraded again.
The doctor heals severe injuries in minutes using only standard medical supplies. Lacerations seal under the needle and thread, and reset bones can be used shortly after.
However, for the treatment to last, the patient must adhere to any aftercare regimen the doctor requires. Those who violate the doctor's orders suffer their injuries anew.
Exert your Mind and spend 15 minutes. Select a Living target within arm's reach. You must actively and obviously use basic medical supplies to activate this Effect. Choose a specific Injury on your target that has not yet been treated with this Effect and roll Intellect + Medicine at Difficulty 8.
If you succeed, the Injury is reduced in Severity by your Outcome. If you reduce its Severity to 0, the Injury is fully healed. Otherwise, it is partially healed and will heal the rest of the way at its natural rate.
This counts as a successful Makeshift Stabilization if the Injury was not already Stabilized; any Battle Scars caused by the Injury will remain. You may specify a specific condition that the patient must adhere to. If they break this condition, the treatment is immediately reversed. Record this regimen as a Condition.
The hacker is capable of crafting bottles of nanites. When poured on a broken object, the nanites go to work restoring it to a functioning state. The goop shimmers and crawls, sparking with blue electricity as it reforms broken parts.
Spend 10 Rounds and use up this a bottle of metallic fluid. Select a Object within arm's reach that is no larger than an SUV. Cannot be used on Alien technology. More than half the target object must be present in order to begin repairs. Roll 7 dice Difficulty 6, dice penalties do not apply.
If you succeed, your target is repaired back to a functional state. If you fail, you spend the full time working before realizing you cannot repair the target.