History Main / TheMagicTouch

* ''Webcomic/ScoobAndShag'': Scoob's Ballyhoo, "Power", allows him to massively increase the power and durability of any weapon he wields. This includes improvised weapons like a pipe.

* A [=McDonald's=] commercial has the Hamburglar imagine what life would be like if everything he touched would turn into [=McDonald's=] cheeseburgers. When Ronald won't let him touch Grimace, a frustrated Hamburglar accidentally touches himself, turning him into a cheeseburger.

* In the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series, Dante can shoot enchanted bullets, shotgun blasts and grenades when using his Devil Trigger. It's implicitly his touch that makes this possible.
** Similarly, in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'', Nero charges his shots by holding the [[HandCannon gun]] with his [[RedRightHand demonic arm]].

[[folder:TabletopRPG]]

** In ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', a lot of Clauses seem to work by empowering a prop, this is most clear in the case of the Entitlements: College of Worms, The Scarecrow Ministry, Bodhisattvas of the Broken Cage, and Squires of the Broken Bough.
** In ''TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial'', the Fist of Nightmares Merit allows a Beast to "store" a [[MindRape Nightmare]] inside her hands so she can release it on someone by mere touch.
* In ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'', [[ShapedLikeItself Mages]] can imbue objects with energy, thus for example allowing them to hit ghosts.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': The first few stages of the [[BottomlessMagazines obliterator]] virus work like this, up until you can't remove your weapons or armor anymore.
* Played with a bit in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' -- when it comes to magic, "standard" spells work best on things the caster can, indeed, touch, and the chance of success then drops off fairly quickly with distance (effective skill is -1 per ''yard'' between caster and target, in a 3d6-roll-under-skill system). This is exactly the main benefit of a {{magic staff}} in the game, too: properly enchanted, touching something with ''it'' counts as touching it personally and it extends the user's reach accordingly as well.

* ''Webcomic/ScoobAndShagìì: Scoob's Ballyhoo, "Power", allows him to massively increase the power and durability of any weapon he wields. This includes improvised weapons like a pipe.

* ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': Discord cursed Filthy Rich/Onyx Tiara so that any pony he touched transformed into a submissive duplicate of his wife (even [[GenderBender a colt]]). He suffered SanitySlippage and had an orgy with them, rejecting his real wife when she showed up. When Discord was defeated and all his enchantments ended, it was a very traumatizing experience.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Smurfette's Sweet Tooth", Smurfette gained the power of turning whatever she touched into smurfberry candy.

* In ''The Chocolate Touch'' a boy has the same gift as Midas but with chocolate instead of gold.

See also: ElementalPunch, ItemAmplifier, MidasTouch, and SpellBlade. TouchedByVorlons is when your touch [[SuperEmpowering gives people superpowers]]. When your touch kills instead, it's the TouchOfDeath.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': Gauntlets of Ghost-Fighting for when you want to kill incorporeal things but don't want to enchant all of your stuff. Even older are Gauntlets of Weaponry Arcane that make any weapon held count for purpose of immunities as silver and +1 to what it normally is.
** Or for a less flavorful version you could learn the magic weapon/fang spell and hope the enchantment lasted long enough.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'':

* ''Film/GhostRider'': Johnny's motorcycle and a random shotgun.

* In the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series, Dante can shoot enchanted bullets, shotgun blasts and grenades when using his Devil Trigger. It's impicitly his touch that makes this possible.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Viewer Mail #2" Peter's cursed with the power of turning everyone and everything he touches into a clone of Creator/RobinWilliams.

* Skittles gives us [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fojrw_vU0k8 the Skittles touch,]] a poor old man whose touch turns everything to Skittles. It's surprisingly dark for a candy commercial.

* ''Literature/FateStrangeFake'': Saber can turn anything he holds into a copy of the legendary sword Excalibur. The higher quality the object is, the stronger it is. It is mentioned his copies are never as powerful as the real Excalibur, and if he were holding the real one, he would be able to use it, but not be able to bring out its full potential.

* Berserker, the resident HeroKiller of ''LightNovel/FateZero'', has a combination of this power, InstantExpert, ImplausibleFencingPowers and SuperStrength, with the result that he can rip a telephone pole out of the ground and use it to completely overwhelm a legendary swordsman with an InfinityPlusOneSword. Oh, and any magic weapon he holds responds to him as if he were its master. One of the biggest OhCrap moments in the story comes when [[spoiler:he manages to get his hands on a ''jet fighter'']].

** Sugar's Hobby Hobby Fruit lets him turn people or animals into toys with the touch of her hands. It has the side effect of [[RetGone making everyone forget about the victim.]] When Robin got her pinned with her hand-multiplication powers, Sugar simply touches one of Robin's "growth hands" with her own hand and Robin gets turned into a toy. She gets better though.

* ''Disney/{{Cinderella}}'': The pumpkin [[strike:king]] coach and partially the nifty dress.

* Suzuka from ''Manga/OutlawStar'' has a wooden katana that acts as a conduit for her KiAttacks.

* In ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'', every PlayerCharacter uses their weapons as a kind of magic wand, overlapping with this and KiAttacks. Oh, and it's modern-day UrbanFantasy, and an [[MoreDakka Assault Rifle]] or [[GunFu pair of pistols]] conducts magic just as easily as a sword or traditional magic focus.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Smurfette's Sweet Tooth", Smurfette gained the power of turning whatever she touched into smurfberry candy.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Viewer Mail #2" Peter's cursed with the power of turning everyone and everything he touches into a clone of Creator/RobinWilliams.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SillySymphony'' short "WesternAnimation/TheGoldenTouch" retells the story of Midas.
* ''WesternAnimation/HerculesTheAnimatedSeries'' also did its own take on Midas, as a Franchise/JamesBond spoof. Here, Midas is a Blofeld-type supervillain who wants to launch himself into space and be able to turn the whole world to gold.
* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': Chat Noir's SpecialAttack works along these lines, causing anything he touches to ''disintegrate''. It's not clear what it would do to a ''person'', but one episode where Chat was turned against his partner with MindControl strongly implies that it would not be pretty.

Depending on what specifically happens when you touch things, there may be potentials to this; "turning to gold" touch makes you rich, "turning to food" touch makes you never hungry, etc. However, if [[PowerIncontinence there are no way of limiting this]] (whether innate control of the power, or a PowerLimiter), it could become messy quickly.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rubbadubbers}}'' has Terrance "If Only" himself with the power to turn anything he touches into bubbles. He enjoys it until he turns Winona into bubbles.

* In ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'', [[{{Tautology}} Mages]] can imbue objects with energy, thus for example allowing them to hit ghosts.

** Aside from turning himself invisible, Absalom can also make everything he touches invisible with his Devil Fruit power. This becomes much worse when,[[spoiler: he's killed]] and his [[spoiler: devil fruit stolen]] by [[spoiler: Shiliew of the Rain. A very dangerous member of the Blackbeard Pirates and the former Warden of Impel Down]]. Who you can bet will use [[spoiler: his new devil fruit powers to their fullest extent]].

** Aside from turning himself invisible, Absalom can also make everything he touches invisible with his Devil Fruit power.

See also: ElementalPunch, ItemAmplifier, and SpellBlade. TouchedByVorlons is when your touch [[SuperEmpowering gives people superpowers]]. When your touch kills instead, it's the TouchOfDeath.