sword of souls, item create

[Count Coltello]

So I wannabuild weapons based around:

Soul Consumption (Su): When a living creature within 30 feet of a ravener dies, that creature's soul is torn from its body and pulled into the ravener's maw if the dying creature fails a Will save (DC equals the save DC of the ravener's breath weapon). This adds a number of hit points to the ravener's soul ward equal to the dead creature's Hit Dice. Creatures that have their souls consumed in this way can only be brought back to life through miracle, true resurrection, or wish.

A sword that is "hungry" if it doesn't eat it refuses to work

Edit: maybe 1 soul and it gets +1? 10 souls and gets flaming (or something) 200 souls and it gets +5 and flameburst?

open to suggestions,

Other thoughts I think intelligent item/cursed item would be easiest with mechanics if fed it's intelligent if not fed cursed.

Then second thought is a armor with the:

Soul Ward (Su): An intangible field of siphoned soul energy protects a ravener from destruction. This ward has a maximum number of hit points equal to twice the ravener's Hit Dice, but starts at half this amount. Whenever a ravener would be reduced below 1 hit point, all damage in excess of that which would reduce it to 1 hit point is instead dealt to its soul ward. If this damage reduces the soul ward to fewer than 0 hit points, the ravener is destroyed.

Same concept as sword but I don't know

Maybe a ring that "captured and holds it" then the player can "unleash" a certain amount into weapon or armor?

[Timebomb]

I would make it an intelligent magic item with its own magus arcane pool that it can use to buff itself. The pool wouldn't regenerate at all, only gaining points when a soul is consumed. The weapon would also get stronger as the wielder defeated enemies, for simplicity's sake I would make it so the pool was equivalent in size/versatility to a magus of the wielder's level. This also makes it pretty simple to transfer the ability to armors, just replace all instances of "weapon" with "armor" and the list of weapon properties with the list of armor properties.

It being an intelligent item allows it to have ego wars with the wielder, which can cause it to just completely shut off (return to a masterwork item with no apparent magic properties), or actively try to get the wielder killed if it suspects there is a better option (a different creature that is more willing to preform wanton slaughter of sentient creatures)

Also I think it would be cool for the item(s) to have Detect Thoughts at will, but without the 3rd round ability to read thoughts. This would give the soul eater the ability to know if there is food around it, and I think would be an interesting ability to have in the world.

If you wanted to beef up the power a little more you could have the weapon/armor bestow Summoner evolutions to the wielder/wearer at certain ranks (1 evolution point while it holds X souls, 2 points at 2X souls, 3 points at 3X souls or some such, probably capping out at 3 or 4 evolution points [I would choose a value of 4 as X personally])

[Count Coltello]

But does it have to be so many hit die before it counts or could they kill beetles and get soul eater abilities?

[Timebomb]

I would go by The Soul Trade which says that non-sentient creatures (vermin and animals) have spirits, not souls, and are virtually worthless.

I would go with 1 point for basic souls (the vasy majority of sentient enemies), 2 for noteworthy souls (minibosses and tough solo-encounters), and 3 for grand souls (BBEG, kings, and the like)

Assuming you are working off the model of a pool, the pool would probably be quite small (less than 5 points total assuming low level) and would fill up quickly given a bandit encounter or similar.

It really depends on how you want the item to feel: more like a magic item where the powers don't change too much, or more like a resource pool where you are expecting it to fill up and drain completely throughout the day/week.

[Count Coltello]

Not quiet sure mostly the first one but somewhat the second one

I would like them to be a magical item that doesn't need to be charged as often
but I would eventually like it to be awesome enough so pcs don't just sell it

so maybe short too long term enchants