I'm currently building a homebrew pantheon by starting with a list of archetypical roles for the deities and filling in crunchy details. But for two of them, the motherly Mistress of the Hearth, and the majestic King of the Heavens, I am drawing a blank for favored weapons.
Overall I am trying yo make deities favored weapons martial or exotic, to make free proficiency meaningful when classes get it.
Thanks in advance for the flood of great ideas I anticipate.
What are their alignments?
Both LG, king of heaven domains are good, law, sun, glory and nobility.
Hearth mistress is healing, community, good, law, and one undecided.
I'd need much more information than that. If you make a fully fleshed out deity, then it should be obvious what weapon would fit them. Title and role alone do not suffice.
No one would ever guess why my goddess of runes, healing, and artifice would have a light pick for a favored weapon until they learn that she dug through the earth in search for life and created a race by carving stone and giving it flesh and blood.
Exactly right Cyrad. My problem is that my inspiration well is running a bit dry on these two, they are obvius roles, at least to me, that need filling in the pantheon, but I am coming up fairly bland on the lore for these two. Coming at it backwards I was thin,ing that starting at the end (favored weapon symbolism) could give me more inspiration for the feel of the deity.
This pantheon encompasses the religions of the known world, with regional color added (kinda like demonitional variations among RL religions). It also does not claim creation of the world or races, they are sort of the second generation of divinity, first generation and the orogin of these gods is a bit mysterious (fodder for possible high level campaigns.)
I see the king as a majestic lord of the gods, patron and inspiration to worldly kings, indentified with the sun as the powerful principal of truth and dominion in the sky. Using Good as a method to achieve Law ond order. He teaches that society is greater than a sum of individuals, but only when it has the direction and cohesion supplied by strong leadership to guide it. This is contrasted with the wild, individual power of the CG Storm Lord that rivals him for domain over the sky.
The hearth mistress is the nurturing maternal figure that represents the loving community and compassion for all, minorly associated with farming and simple crafts. In this the spirit of community, Law, is used to achieve the greater Good. This can be contrasted with the Lunar Lady, who stands apart from the whole and shows the way to the mysteries of the night and fate to empower her followers.
In the greek mythos, Hestia the goddess of the hearth enters into very few stories considering she and her siblings are the original six Olympians. The only one that comes to my mind is that she originally held a place amongth the twelve main gods but later gave her seat to Dionysus.
Pretty boring for a major diety, heh? Not all of your dieties need a bunch of details. My gut says to make your hearth goddess's favored weapon a one-handed bludgeoning weapon of some kind and assign fire as her final domain. Would it be weird to make a torch her favored weapon?
For the lord of the gods, I suggest the longbow or a reach weapon.
For the hearth goddess, how about a fire iron? Make it a one handed martial weapon, bludgeoning and piercing damage, 1d6 for small, 1d8 for medium. crit: 20x3.
Or if you want it to be a simple weapon, make it the same stats as a Morningstar.
As a bonus, it's also a tool and represents tending a dangerous thing (fire) and converting it to bring life and warmth to a home.
For the hearth goddess, how about a fire iron? Make it a one handed martial weapon, bludgeoning and piercing damage, 1d6 for small, 1d8 for medium. crit: 20x3.
Way back when I first learned what an Ankus was, I immediately thought it looked like a fire poker. There are now stats for it in the Melee Tactics Toolbox, so, definitely consider that.
Otherwise, if she's associated with farming, the Scythe or Crook (also from the melee tactics toolbox) might be a good idea. Nunchaku/Flails were also originally farming tools.
Or, for something more exotic, you could also come up with some kind of hearth lighting ritual with Battle Poi. Warpriests of her might be super awesome, especially with Weapon Versatility.
The god of the heavens is all noble and crap, so, what about a Knobkerrie? Or, a more useful weapon that looks like the sun. A Dorn Dergar with a stylized sun as the striking end? A Tongi that looks like half a sunburst? Is he the night sky too? A Falcata or shotel is roughly shaped like a half moon. A Chakram that looks like the sun disc?
There are a lot of options, even if you don't want to/can't flesh out their personal stories more.
Don't forget, the Morningstar is the classic weapon that looks like the sun.
Lets get creative, a small shield for the hearth mistress? Or maybe Scythe.
For the Lord of the gods...I see warhammer.
What about Meteor Hammer for the Hearth Mistress? Many fireplaces had chains in them to hold cookware and the like, and orbs are often associated with feminine/motherly figures (presumably because of the shape of pregnancy)- add to that the fact that it's a fairly defensive weapon (I think it gives an AC bonus when using reach instead of treating it as a double weapon, doesn't it), and it seems like a good fit.
For the Sun King, why not give him a giant scepter (very kingly) that he wields in combat? Have it function as a tetsubo and make that his favored weapon.
Both of these weapons are listed as 'eastern weapons' in pathfinder but you could easily rename and/or reskin them if you feel like that would help with the feel for your campaign.
If you don't like those options: you can make any weapon their favored one and have it make sense if you just make up one line about why they have a unique version of it... The Hearth Mistress carries [insert name], a [insert weapon type] crafted from [insert outrageous material] for her by [insert name of fallen/missing/dead god] before his [insert tragedy]. You could just as easily use one of the other living/active gods too if they have some important connection. that's just one example, any little one sentence throw away story can adequately explain a unique/favored weapon.