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Making myself a custom pantheon for a home campaign setting, and having difficulty picking a favoured weapon for the Earth Mother Goddess and the Trickster.
The Earth Mother oversees agriculture and domestic happiness, and is the protector of the home. I'm a bit torn here about the weapon, as it seems there's a lot of good options but no perfect one. The scythe follows the obvious agricultural theme, but the bardiche and swordbreaker dagger have interesting tactical defensive applications, depending on whether you prefer reach and power or finesse and the ability to use shields. Or possibly something that a common person would be likely to use?
For the Trickster (also associated with shapeshifting and possession), I'm looking for something that could easily be concealed - Switchblade, Butterfly Knife, or Sword Cane come to mind. Also considering a Kukri as a high-crit light weapon. EDIT: It's also, I understand, used as a tool, and might draw less attention than other weapons.
Looking for a combination of good flavour and viable, balanced combat options for clerics. Not sure clerics of either of these deities are likely to spend a lot of effort on direct attack, though, so I don't want to assume a feat-intensive combat style. Other favoured weapons in the pantheon are Bastard Sword, Repeating Crossbow, Double Axe, Longbow, Lucerne Hammer, Falchion, and Rapier (or scimitar - they seem popular weapons, though, so I'm not sure I want a deity to add favour to them).
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I'd also consider a hammer type weapon for your goddess. Or a trident. Hammer would make some sense on a farm as it can be used for other things. Also you can leave the trident as it is or re-skin it as a pitchfork. Given the similarity weapon wise. I'd go sickle or swordbreaker dagger.
For a trickster why not a I favor sword cane or the butterfly sword.
Those are just my opinions. I sympathize. It can be very hard to select a weapon for a homebrew deity sometimes.
I'll give my two cents here when I have the time.
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Butterfly sword like most can be used with two weapon fighting, but from what I gather its not necessary to run up that tree to use two weapons in combat. As soon as you gain a second attack you can fight with two weapons. You just have to roll the 1st attack with 1 weapon at your highest attack. Then roll the 2nd attack with the other weapon at the lower bonus.
All TWF grants is an additional attack. So as long as you just use the attacks you have available rather than use feats to get extra attacks your good to go.
But I gather it is supposed to make two weapon fighting easier and keeps your second blade hidden so it looks like you are only carrying one blade not two.
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For an agriculture/burial god in my pantheon I indeed used the scythe. The religion draws a parallel between planting seeds and burying bodies, and harvest as the end of growth, and death; necessary and righteous. It's a lawful good god with Plant, Earth and Repose domains.
I'd allocated the kukri to the god of swamps, snakes, reeds, water creatures and so forth.
To the trickster/intoxication god I've given Catch Off-Guard instead of a regular weapon, figuring that surprise and versatility were more important.
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Sword cane is probably better for the Trickster than Butterfly Sword. I could see his worshippers pretending to be blind, aged, or infirm. Catch Off-Guard sounds interesting, but if I'm not going with a single manufactured weapon, what about unarmed strike/natural attack? Clerics/Inquisitors without natural attacks gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, while those with natural attacks gain Weapon Focus in one form. How does the unarmed favoured weapon work for Irori?
Scythe sounds like a great choice for an agriculture/burial god (and I love the concept), but my concept is a little different. Early in the development of the world, she oversaw all plant growth and fertility, both wild and cultivated. The fey were her special servants and her first people. When a divine conflict forced her to choose between civilization and the wild, she chose civilization and became an agricultural goddess with a stronger domestic aspect. Her last act as the goddess of the woodlands was to order her fey servants to care for wild places in her stead. Now official church doctrine is that the fey corrupted the wilderness, leading the goddess to reject both. Scattered cults still worship her fey aspect, but they're considered heretical.
Now considering giving her the kukri as a sort of large utility knife, to reflect wilder beginnings, especially if the trickster gets something un-knifelike. Still torn, though, as hammer and scythe are both strong options. A little less fond of the pitchfork.
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I think I gave the hammer to a god of blacksmithing. (That god was a devil-smith who kinda makes and sells weapons to those willing to pay the price - even if they don't quite understand just how steep the price is...)
I like the kukri for your goddess. On the one hand it's a badass weapon (look at pictures, look at the crit range), so that'll make the players happy. On the other hand it's perfectly appropriate for a half-tame goddess as a wilderness tool.
Weapons for trickster gods are difficult. One the one hand you want the weapon to have a certain class; butterfly knives are just a bit too obscure/niche. What about bolas or whips? Weapons that can do some maneuvers have a leg up for Trickery gods.
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Whips have gone to the LE god of slavery, exploitative debtors, and lawyers. I suppose I could shift him over to the spiked chain and give the trickster god whips, but I like Whips better on the LE god.
A subtle favoured weapon is probably better for the Trickster than one that lends itself to maneuvers, since his followers don't exactly want to announce themselves.
Is the bladed scarf too obscure?
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I think bladed scarf is perfect. A weapon that can be hidden in plain sight.
If by too obscure you mean people can't get the damage and such for it you can always reference where to find it.
For my players I tell them where the weapon is or what it is a reskin of. Sometimes I provide the weapon to them on the site to simplify things.
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Mostly worrying about the weapon being interesting to players, something with appropriate flavor that doesn't have to have its utility explained. The bladed scarf is a little less well-known and iconic than the whip. But it does have disarm and trip properties, can be used with Weapon Finesse, doesn't look like a weapon, and lets you deal a small amount damage to anyone who successfully grapples you. Very nice options.
Might have to provide less-flashy variants, though, since the standard version is a dancing scarf. Maybe simple cloth belts, carefully tied. Or a simply-patterned shawl.
If your deity's favoured weapon is the Unarmed Strike (such as the case with Irori), the Cleric gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.
I like pitchfork (trident is just a military fork in that case) for agriculture or the sickle.
Scythe is more DEATH.
Trickster.... hand cross bow? or shuriken?
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Hand crossbow went to the goddess of trade and invention. Shuriken is a poor weapon unless you're a flurrying monk - I want players to want to use their deity's favoured weapon. Still inclined towards bladed scarf or unarmed strike for the Trickster.
The death association is why I had second thoughts on the scythe. Sickle is flavourful but a simple weapon, so it doesn't give a bonus proficiency to the cleric or inquisitor. I was considering the flail, but a recent campaign had a prominent agricultural goddess with a flail, and I feel like I'd be ripping that off. Pitchfork isn't bad (agricultural flavour, one-handed weapon with brace) but it seems a touch inelegant.
Would it be odd to give a Deity two favoured weapons? I had good second choices for most of the other deities as well.
I'd imagine a dual-formed deity would have two favoured weapons.
Like, a duality deity of the sun and moon (though they're not opposites), or life and death.
Some dragon deities had two favoured weapons, one being a specific natural attack and another being an actual weapon.
a cool deity favored weapon might be one who favored two weapon fighting, like a TWF rapier/dagger god.
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Bladed scarf is certainly nice. A weapon that doesn't look like a weapon, and can be used in "trickery" (trip & disarm).
A butterfly knife just seemed a bit too pedestrian to me for an actual favored weapon.. it's more like a knife with a weird way of storing it than really a separate weapon. The scarf feels more special/exotic.
Another option for a trickery god would be the blowgun; it might be possible to make one that doubles as a flute.
I remain convinced that the bolas is a good trickster weapons. In my view, trickster priests don't intend to win fights by massive damage but rather by maneuvering until they achieve the advantage in the situation.
I think the scythe is perfectly appropriate for an agricultural god, being an agricultural tool and symbol of harvest and all. Sure, it's also associated with death, but that's because death is shown as harvesting people whose time has come. The scythe suggests that death is coming on the proper time, not prematurely; the right and necessary conclusion to life.
Flails are indeed also agricultural, I hadn't thought of that, but I do like it. May use that myself.
An earth god(dess) could also have a mining pick as a weapon, but then you're moving away from agriculture. Otherwise I'd consider some sort of sling (maybe that halfling sling staff); use the stones you find on the ground to do the work of the earth goddess.
I think I gave crossbows to a god of invention too. I gave the god of architecture and fortification the Bill, since it's a weapon with way too many different defensive bonuses and traits; definitely a techie's weapon.
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I'll have to give the god of love a rapier and dagger fighting style. He's a bit of a flamboyant duelist.
Ascalaphus, as joining the domains of agriculture and death is an excellent concept, but in this pantheon they are separate deities and the scythe might promote an overlap that I don't necessarily want.
I think I might need to confer with my players before making a final decision, but this discussion has been very helpful. Don't think I can make a wrong choice now.
For the earth mother, what about something like the light pick? It was often used to break up the ground for planting. The heavy pick or pickaxe could also work, though those tend to be associated with mining.
For the trickster, I like the sap. Non-lethal, designed to be struck to the back of the head by surprise. There is also the net, but I prefer that for fishing gods.