Need some help designing a special healing item

[ChaosHarbinger]

Hi folks!

So, long story short, my party is a bit short on healing spells. They have also released and made "friends" with a super powerful devil guy whose only reason for not taking over the whole damn continent is a magical contract that keeps him from leaving a particular tower.(Basically he decided they were amusing enough not to partywhipe them. No kidding, they had no business messing with devils, they just turned level 5)

So, I thought it'd be fun if he'd give them a special gift to commemorate their friendship. Since they are having trouble keeping their tank upright and conscious in combat, a healing wand or something similar would do nicely.

I want this item to be unique, but also evil-ish to the point of them not really wanting to use it unless they have to. Therefore, it has to be so useful/powerful that they will still want to use it, and understandably this is hard to do without it being imbalanced.

Two criteria:
1. It has to have limited uses/charges so they have a reason to come back to devilguy to have it recharged
2. It would be cool if it'd heal for stupidly huge amounts, but also damage whoever is doing the healing. I just can't get the numbers right. Any suggestions?
(adding a third; 3. Maybe it could be ranged healing?)

Thanks in advance!

[VRMH]

A slave, who loses hitpoints in order to give them to the party?

[ChaosHarbinger]

Ooh, that'd be cool too xD They'd never go for that though. Too evil. Also, they have to be able to take whatever it is into a mostly lawful good nearby town and not get arrested. So, yeah. I think it has to be an inconspicuous item.

[Brf]

How about a wand that does like Cure Moderate Wounds or Cure Serious Wounds on the target, but also does Cause Light Wounds on the caster?

[Syrus Terrigan]

I second Brf's contribution; keep it to CrMW/CsLW, make it a "staff" or "rod", useable no more than 5/day.

Returning to devilguy to get it recharged could be an interesting story element -- key it to lunar cycles, or solstices/equinoxes??

[My Self]

Heals target for 2 hp/level as if they had gotten a good night's sleep, but fatigues caster, as if they had missed last night's sleep? Or perhaps brands a painful demonic mark on the caster's face/hand/buttocks for 1 day, that deals 1 hp/level? Oh, and if the same person uses the same item three times in the same day, the mark becomes permanent?

Perhaps it's also powered by souls or blood sacrifice. Or maybe the devil's own ichor.

Close range (25 ft. + 5/2 levels) is reasonable. It's ranged, but not some sort of heal-snipe.

[ChaosHarbinger]

I like the Cure Moderate wound / Inflict Light wound thing, and making it cast-able at Close Range. So thanks on the advice :) It's going to have 10 charges.

I still have a question though; wand, rod or staff?
1. A wand would be problematic, because it will use the creator's CL, which is quite possibly too high (it will definitely reach the maximum bonus of +10) and will make it so that the damage aspect will blast away half of the caster's HP. That would need to be tweaked.
2. I've heard of metamagic rods, but how would rods containing spells work? I thought that was what wands were for?
3. Staves usually hold multiple spells of higher levels, right? That won't fit the design. And I can pretty much guarantee that a full staff would be too big to conceal and unpopular to be equipped fulltime due to evilness and general party composition.

Also; If I were to go with a wand option, what would the approximate gp value of such a wand be? (not for selling, just for tracking PC net worth)

[FrodoOf9Fingers]

Where do you want them to use this item? If it's in combat, doing inflict wounds on the caster would be a major pain, and rarely used IMO. Personally, I would go more for a wand of cure serious wounds that -can- be recharged by the party. Then, make the recharging process the evil drawback. The party would return to the devil to "power up" the item, making it more effective in combat as they progress.

One idea is to make the item intelligent. Say it contains the trapped soul of a good aligned cleric, but who's soul was twisted in the magic item creation. The devil then tells the party that it is fueled by the life force of their fallen foes, and as it gains more life force, he can improve the item for greater potential. In reality, this is just a lie. The "life force being drained" is really the soul being sucked to hell, and he only upgrades the item because he trusts the party to continue doing his dirty work. The item being "recharged" by sucking souls is just the item refusing to work for the party unless it gets souls. The intelligence of the item is not from the twisted soul of a good cleric, just a mirror of the devil's evil intentions.

If it want it to do more than one spell, then a staff or rod is appropriate. If yo want it to do just 1 spell, then a rod or a wand is appropriate. I personally would go for a rod, they have the most unique abilities of those three. Remember that there are more types of rods than just meta magic rods, in fact you would not be using a meta magic rod.

[ChaosHarbinger]

That is an AWESOME idea! So much story potential.. Thanks a lot!
I'm thinking of having it start off as a moderate cure though, not just for the size of the numbers, but also to give more room for upgrading.

Over time I could add multiple kinds of spells, if it turns out they like the item. No trapped good aligned souls though, that would never fly with at least half the party :P I'll come up with a different way to phrase it. Thanks again for the inspiration, please don't hesitate to add more if you happen to think of something cool.

[Crag_Irons]

FrodoOf9Fingers that is a great suggestion and inspired this item below.

Minor Artifact

Rod of the Challenger
Slot None; Aura strong (conjuration, enchantment, and necromancy); CL 15th; Weight veritable
This rod can look like any weapon, regardless of its form it functions the same. The user of the rod can call out a challenge against an opponent. This challenge effects the target as a Suggestion spell inciting them to attack the challenger (Will DC 17). In battle all critical hits are treated as vampiric touch (weapon damage + 10d6 temporary hit point gained (these last for one hour). If foe is slain by this weapon that failed against the suggestion ability it tries to absorb the foe's soul into one of the gems embedded in the hilt of the weapon (as trap the soul Will DC 22). These gems take on a glow if this is successful. The weapon can be held, and a command word spoken to release healing energy from the gems. The user heals 1d8 + (1 per hit dice of the slain foe), and a + 2 enhancement bonus to Strength, and a + 1 to caster level. The enhancement bonuses last for one hour. Once the gems have been used in this way it can not be used again until new gems are placed into the weapon as per the trap the soul spell.
This weapon only has 9 gems embedded into it. (One for each level of hell.)
The devil that created this weapon can take out the gems that have souls that have been stripped down to their raw essence to trade in hell for favors.
DESTRUCTION
This I will leave up to the DM.