Death Spike

This long, wrought iron spear is clearly capable of causing devastating wounds. Blackened ritual runes of death appear along its length.

A death spike allows you to draw the life energy out of a dying target, granting you temporary vitality. It functions as a +1 cold iron spear, but whenever you reduce a living creature to –⁠1 or fewer hit points on a melee attack with the spear, you can activate it to gain 1d8 temporary hit points and a +2 morale bonus on damage rolls. These benefits last for 1 hour; multiple uses of the spear don’t stack. The spear can be activated three times per day.

If you also wear a magic item that grants a bonus to your Charisma score, you can add the item’s bonus to the temporary hit points granted by the spear.

Prerequisites: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, death knell, magic weapon.

Cost to Create: 2,000 gp (plus 304 gp for masterwork cold iron spear, plus 2,000 gp for enhancing cold iron), 160 XP, 4 days.

Source: Magic Item Compendium, page 50.