The lack of healing ability in the game has always got me pondering how to implement it into the game that wouldn't make it tedious or required for everyone.

What do you guys think of a type of lifesteal weapon? Most likely a sword, since it would probably need to have a very small range or no combo attack or pushback to balance. It could also maybe only heal using the charge attack, and when executed it would heal you if you hit an enemy and would deal minimal damage to the enemy to compensate. This would implement a risk/reward component: if you can charge up an attack and hit an enemy safely you would come out with a little more health.

There may be some balance issues, like if you corner off a faerie or something and just heal to full off of it, perhaps limit it to only 1 strike per enemy then it would no longer heal you. It might work, could be fun and rewarding and wouldn't hold back a run or anything, let me know what you think.