The weapon takes the shape of a weapon favored by your deity or a weapon with some spiritual significance or symbolism to you (see below) and has the same threat range and critical multipliers as a real weapon of its form.
So far, so good.
A spiritual weapon's AC against touch attacks is 12 (10 + size bonus for Tiny object).
Which, of course, is true for yout typical one-handed weapon for medium sized users.
However, (let's assume the weapon appears in the correct size for medium clerics) things like a two-handed sword (say hello to Gorum) or a dagger (Naderi) aren't exactly tiny objects.
What'd you do? Give the thingies different size AC bonuses (Spiritual weapons of different clerics are already different, after all, just look at the crit numbers), or disregard the effect?
Bonus question: Does anything change if the favored weapon of your deity happens to be a ranged weapon? Since 'it always strikes from your direction', suddenly applying rules for cover or shooting into melee would pretty much nix the value of this spell...
There are very very few dieties. (none in the Golarion pantheon) that don't have a favored melee weapon.
Erastil. Favored Weapon: Longbow.
Sure, apply the correct size bonus. I don't think anything really can damage it though, but that's just going from memory.
I'd assume it'd just become a ranged weapon.
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There are very very few dieties. (none in the Golarion pantheon) that don't have a favored melee weapon.Erastil. Favored Weapon: Longbow.Then pick an appropriate melee weapon from the alignment choices.
Case closed... Next!
Even if the spiritual weapon is a ranged weapon, use the spell's range, not the weapon's normal range increment, and switching targets still is a move action.
"Make it a melee weapon instead" is not a valid answer, as the spell explicitly allows for it to be a ranged weapon.
Hmmm. That's an interesting question. I'd say that since it's a spell it should be functionally the same no matter what the weapon type is since it's essentially just what the spell looks like that changes from deity to deity. It's function wouldn't change, just it's form, imo. Though, admittedly, I don't think there's anything specific in the rules that say so.
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That does appear at first glance to be a bit conflicting, though I think if I was going to go by RAW, or try to in this case, I'd let it keep the +2 AC for being 'tiny' even if it is a medium sized greatsword.
My reasoning is, it's not a real weapon, it's a spell affect that summons a force effect that does define what damage it does, crit ranges, and what the AC is, without pointing out it would lose AC for becoming a different weapon size etc.
Makes a god with a greatsword version seem better than a dagger to me, but I'm OK with that in the end.
Ah ok, reading the spell, even if it's a ranged weapon, you use the range of the spell, not the weapon, and switching targets is still a move action.