frankthedm said:
Getting ANY healing without dipping into the action economy is a HUGE thing, look at the high price of the ring of regeneration.
The real question is how high do you think you have to raise the price so a summoner doesn't buy an Amulet of Might Fists, +0 Vampiric for his pouncing eidolon. I am sure the summoner will pay 20,000 for that amulet. Most will pay 45,000 for it easily. If you are facing a claw/claw/claw/claw/bite pouncer that is is healing 5d6 and has high AC, forget-about-it!.
There is a reason why it doesn't exist. And eidolon's are not the only reason. Druid's tigers or monks would be nasty with this too.
These are both really good points. Amulet of Mighty Fists allows it to apply to too many attacks in a round, which makes it overpowered even at +3 or +4. How about... hm.
You could either have it be something that triggers on a critical hit, like Bodyfeeder, or requires an action of some type to activate, or can only work a certain number of times per day.
Of those, I think I like the idea of requiring an immediate action to activate the best. It would cut down significantly on the impact of multiple attacks, since you'd only get 1d6 healing out of it per turn and eat up your swift action.
A power that triggers on a critical hit could work, but I prefer the control be on the player, rather than requiring luck for the primary ability of the weapon to work. Bodyfeeder is a good thing to look at for price comparison, though.
A certain number of times per day could work, I suppose, but it would just encourage rounds of "nova-ing", where a significant boost of power happens for a limited amount of time. It doesn't do that much to cut down on the power level, just how often it can unbalance things. I don't really like that as a weapon property; I'd rather have something less powerful but more consistent.
How about this? The action economy limits it quite a bit. It's an immediate action rather than a swift so the wielder can use it out of turn, but it still limits them to 1d6 healing per round and uses the swift action.
Revised Version said:
Vampiric
Aura: Moderate necromancy, CL 5th, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, vampiric touch, price +2 bonus
This ability may only be added to a melee weapon.
This weapon crackles with black energy. When a vampiric weapon strikes a living creature, the target takes 1d6 points of negative energy damage. The wielder of the weapon may, as an immediate action, draw this life force from the target and into himself, healing the wielder an amount of damage equal to the negative energy damage taken by the target.