Variant Death Deity Favored Weapon

[Henry]

The Kali-flavored goddess Kina from the Black Company uses a "rumel" (essentially a garrotte-sash) for strangling.

In myths, the Norse Goddess Hel or Hela was described as having "a knife."
The Celtic God Arawn used a club.
The Egyptian God Osiris weilded a flail. (He wasn't strictly "god of the dead" but Anubis doesn't have an iconic weapon).
The Indian god Yama has a "red mace?" (According to the Legends & Lore, anyway).

There's just a few, but frankly ANY weapon could be a good explainable symbol for a god of death... Especially a Mancatcher.

 

[domino]

I've got it. The sap.

But only if the god of death is also the god of irony.

 

[Zweihänder]

Piano wire; hey, then they could double as the god of music!

 

[Sejs]

Greatsword, greataxe, or halberd - headsman's tools, or derivations thereof.

Flails - another agriculture based reference, drawing from a threshing flail used to seperate the grain (soul) from the chaff (body).

Mace - circular head; the striking mallet for a funeral gong or bell.

Scimitar - representative of the shears used to cut the thread of life when a person dies. Possibly substitute a kukri if you prefer. The focus here being a curved blade for emphasis on cleanly slicing rather than chopping or hacking.

 

[MaxKaladin]

A staff. Call it a shepherd's crook and say it's symbolic of gathering the souls of the dead to him.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

So, upon reading this thread, I'd say the consensus is, "Pick anything and make up a cool reason and it works."

 

[6pakofdwarves]

In my homebrew both the God of Wars and Deaths clerics could have any weapon as "favored". The reason was that they all are used in war and they all kill

 

[adwyn]

IMC the clerics of the death god get the same weapons as a wizard and gain Improved Unarmed Strike representing the touch of death. Another cult uses a low level poison with a range of 5 that is blown from the hand and called Death's Kiss.

However you do it the weapon should represent some aspect of death.
Death, the Harvester of Souls agrarian tools; scythe, sickle, flail
Death, the Eternal Foe of Man Sword, axe, or any other combat weapon
Death, the Stalker Anything related to hunting, such as bows and spears, or maybe knife
Death, the Mother of Souls more domestic weapons; knife, switch

 

[Taloras]

heh. in our FR game, Cyric now uses the longbow.....(long story, part of the old campaign). Id say that considering who is now Cyric in that game, a bow is quite worthy of being the weapon of a death god.

What about the scourge(ala Loviatar?) Make it a god of death/pain?

 

[Conaill]

I was going to suggest noose, with a garotte as the weapon her clerics use.

I think this works on a number of levels -- it makes the death worshippers much creepier, adds a symbolic religious aspect to when criminals (and others) are hanged and makes the entire act of killing more intimate for her followers, which is appropriate for the religion.

That's what I was going to suggest too. Alternatively, a sacrificial knife could be cool too!