Review my Item of Power

[Magicpockets]

Hello all,
I need your advice on an Item of Power that I custom-designed for a character.

Daemortus [-2]
Description: An ancient, cursed blade powered by the soul of a vengeful Red Court Vampire.
Musts: You must have an aspect related to your possession of this item.
Skills Affected: Discipline, Endurance, Might, Weapons
Effects:
[-0] Purpose. Daemortus thirsts for souls, and its only purpose is to spread bloodshed. It cannot be wielded by those of true faith.
[-0] It Is What It Is. A longsword adorned with gothic runes. Weapon 3.
[-0] Unbreakable. As an Item of Power, this item cannot be broken except with a magical ritual predicated upon perverting its purpose.
[+2] One-Time Discount. Daemortus is not easy to conceal, because it's a full-sized sword.
[-1] True Aim. When swung in keeping with its purpose, Daemortus grants a +1 bonus to the wielder’s Weapons skill.
[-1] Blood Drinker
[+1] Feeding Dependency, affecting:
[-2] Fueled by Souls. Daemortus increases its wielder's strength. As long as the wielder maintains physical contact with Daemortus, increase that wielder's strength by one step. (Normal strength becomes Inhuman, Inhuman becomes Supernatural, etc.)
[-2] Unholy Resilience. Daemortus shields its wielder from harm. As long as the wielder maintains physical contact with Daemortus, increase that wielder's toughness by one step. (Normal toughness becomes Inhuman, Inhuman becomes Supernatural, etc.)
[+1] The Catch is holy weaponry and expressions of faith. If the wielder has toughness abilities from another source, this catch is in addition to the one it already has.

Is this item balanced? The costs should be spot on, but I'd still like opinions on it. Demonic Copilot would probably fit the theme, but I think that power is badly written, so I tried to avoid it. Failure to feed Daemortus would result in a temporary loss of powers, as usual, and if taken out by feeding stress from the sword, bad things happen.

[Mr. Death]

I might recommend losing True Aim (more of a personal thing--I just think it fits more with holy weapons than with anti-holy weapons), but otherwise, it looks fine.

What happens if a Vampire wields it, though? Remove Blood Drinker and Feeding Dependency, I imagine?

On a related note, can I swipe this for one of my vampire villains?

[Magicpockets]

I might recommend losing True Aim (more of a personal thing--I just think it fits more with holy weapons than with anti-holy weapons), but otherwise, it looks fine.

True aim isn't really necessary for this weapon, I agree. I copied the basic template from the IoP master list, and the weapon in question just happened to have it. I'm somewhat concerned about Blood Drinker+True Aim as a combo, to be honest; +2 to Weapon attacks might be a bit much.

What happens if a Vampire wields it, though? Remove Blood Drinker and Feeding Dependency, I imagine?

Hadn't thought about that, but it would make sense. Costwise, they cancel each other out, so there shouldn't be any balance issues. Do note that Fueled by Souls and Unholy Toughness are intentionally designed to cause increased Hunger stress for those already possessing the Inhuman/Supernatural variants of Strength and Toughness, since the benefit also increases. Basically, the sword really wants its wielder to use the Taste of Death trapping of Blood Drinker.

On a related note, can I swipe this for one of my vampire villains?

Sure, go ahead 

[Sanctaphrax]

Looks fine to me. I wouldn't worry about True Aim.

Hadn't thought about that, but it would make sense. Costwise, they cancel each other out, so there shouldn't be any balance issues. Do note that Fueled by Souls and Unholy Toughness are intentionally designed to cause increased Hunger stress for those already possessing the Inhuman/Supernatural variants of Strength and Toughness, since the benefit also increases. Basically, the sword really wants its wielder to use the Taste of Death trapping of Blood Drinker.

This is a pretty good example of why I don't like Feeding Dependency.

[synobal]

Reminds me of the Soul Reaver (the physical one) wielded by Kain from the Legacy of Kain series.

[Magicpockets]

This is a pretty good example of why I don't like Feeding Dependency.

Why do you dislike Feeding Dependency? Is it too strong/weak? Is there a good alternative to it?

Reminds me of the Soul Reaver (the physical one) wielded by Kain from the Legacy of Kain series.

The original inspiration was the Death Knight's Runeblade from Warcraft, although soul-eating swords are hardly original, I imagine.

[Locnil]

The original inspiration was the Death Knight's Runeblade from Warcraft, although soul-eating swords are hardly original, I imagine.

Not since Moorcock, no. And Moorcock didn't exactly invent them wholesale either.

[Tedronai]

Why do you dislike Feeding Dependency? Is it too strong/weak? Is there a good alternative to it?

Depending on how Feeding Dependency is interpreted, it's effect on a character can vary drastically.
Depending on the character taking Feeding Dependency, it's impact can vary drastically.
Depending on the powers Feeding Dependency is applied to, it's impact can vary drastically.

Overall, yes, Feeding Dependency is 'too strong/weak'.
On some characters, or in some games, or on some characters in some games, it is too strong, on/in/on&in others it is too weak.

Various members of this forum attempted a rewrite of the power a while back, with the result being available on the Custom Powers Master List thread (and the downloadable and searchable version linked in the respective OP).
If that rewrite is not to your satisfaction, you could instead abstract the issue further and simply apply the Limitation custom power available on the same list.

[Sanctaphrax]

Yeah, that.

[Taran]

Man.  Limitation custom power seems to be the catch-all solution for lots of problems.  I guess it's about time I read up on it...

[Hick Jr]

It helps a lot, but the rebate varies from game to game and GM to GM. It often causes more problems than it solves.

[fantazero]

magic sword

[Sanctaphrax]

Limitation is not exactly a conventional Power. It's more like a set of guidelines for making rebate Powers.

This makes it incredibly flexible but also kind of hard to use.