How much money does a god have, and what equipment does he spend it on?

Question

In Dungeons and Dragons 3.5's Deities and Demigods gods are given gear. I'm thinking it's good for world-building and, y'know, just in case to figure out a god's gear when creating one. Pathfinder, however, lacks a resource like Deities and Demigods, so the gods of my homebrew setting are really just very high-level characters.

But here's the problem: I'm statting out the Silver Sentinel, a warrior god of law, as a Fighter 20 / Inquisitor 20. The game provides guidelines for doing this, but those guidelines omit a Wealth by Level table that goes beyond level 20. Further, Pathfinder lacks the epic rules of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 so there's no epic gear, and no example characters with full equipment have quite this many character levels.

1. Understanding that Pathfinder's Wealth by Level is different from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5's Wealth by Level, has someone extrapolated Pathfinder's Wealth by Level table beyond level 20?
2. What magic items are typical or necessary for an extremely high-level character like the Silver Sentinel?

I imagine the Silver Sentinel wearing full plate, wielding a warhammer, and employing a heavy steel shield.

I have read Pathfinder core rule book; Ultimate Magic, Combat, and Equipment; the Advanced Player's Guide; and Advanced Race Guide. Items and information from those sources are preferred.

Answer 1

In 3.5e

The only gear gods have listed in their possessions line in the 3.5e Deities and Demigods is zero or one iconic items, often a weapon but sometimes something else (like the crown of Thoth) that is either an artifact or a real powerful mash-up item. The rest of gear doesn't matter, and you'll note stat lines are pretty full of "+12 divine" or whatnot instead of real gear. Some do have +5 armor of whatever sort seems appropriate (Heironeous, Hextor), but it kinda seems like color because they also have "+28 natural, +15 divine" which means "the writer made it up."

So don't worry about gear for your god except for some specific thing they are known for. In this case probably the warhammer, which would have whatever stuff you want to throw on it. Like Thor's Mjolnir is a "+5 chaotic distance ghost touch holy mighty cleaving returning thundering warhammer." Thor's a rare example of a deity with some other possessions, but they're not "+3 whatever" they're "a chariot he can fold up and put in his pocket." Or, if you want to stress his defender aspect, either the armor or the shield - like Yondalla's more signature item is a super snazzy buckler (and a random +5 sword with just 3 specials on it).

So ideally one thing, which should have a name, and be iconic, and tempt characters to use it in curses. "By Moradin's Hairy Mattock!!!"

In Pathfinder

Don't bother. They did away with deity stats entirely. They can appear in many forms. Instead they have stats for powerful servitors - see Inner Sea Gods for examples.

James Jacobs writes on the subject of deity stats:

1) NASCENT DEITIES: We have things like nascent demon lords (like Treerazer) who can grant spells but are only CR 21 to CR 25. These guys are meant to fill the role of "let's kill an evil god as a capstone for this 1st to 20th level campaign" basically.

2) DEMIGODS: These guys are what mortals can (in theory) fight and defeat if the mortals are powerful and lucky enough. Demigods include things like demon lords, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and some regional deities like Achaekek (the mantis god) or Besmara (the pirate goddess). Whatever "CR" demigods end up at will occupy about the same niche as nascent deities do right now—+1 to +5 over whatever that ultimate, final level cap ends up being.

3) DEITIES: These are NOT things mortals can fight. They can oppose them, and given the right combination of legendary feats, they can even be defeated, but they won't ever have stat blocks. At least, not unless we decide to do a "Deity level ruleset" or something like that, but even then... I'm not keen on letting actual combat stats out for deities. The game would probably have to be completely different to accommodate that type of play experience.

Now that the Mythic rules are out you can see some examples of this second class in e.g. Mythic Realms (like The Whispering Tyrant, CR26/MR10 human mythic lich necromancer 20). They do have a full suite of gear.

Answer 2

Unless your god is one of poverty, this is irrelevant.

A god is more than a being with 40 class levels. They have a divine spark, power beyond even the most potent of mortals. They can do things that draw awe and reverance from the common folk, and gain power from this in return. It is why they are gods. They can draw upon forces, allies and resources worth entire worlds.

Then ask yourself: why would a god, with all the sacrifices of their followers and their personal fortune gathered over eons, ever be short on coin? If this would come out to their followers they'd get upset either because their god squandered the sacrifices they made or they begin to see their deity as falliable, which is not good for the size of the congregation. You don't steal all of a god's treasure, even if you're a god of thievery. There's just too much to go around, hidden in places only the deity themselves knows.

The question "What magic items does my god use?" is not answered by their wealth. It is determined by their theme, their domains and personal preferences. Many of the gods in the Deities and Demigods book use suboptimal weapons and they could create far better. Nor do they wear full sets of optimalized magic items. But why would they? They're gods, they don't care. And people who call them out can expect a swift bolt of divine retribution to set them straight.

Answer 3

Don't worry about gear. If your players have a confident plan to attack a god, it almost certainly won't come down to gear that the god has. Instead, figure out the style of his/her gear and go from there. 20th level npc wealth by level in pathfinder is 159kgp. Pulling random links from the internet, we have 11mgp at 35th level. Short version: "anything a god wears will be enchanted to the god's specifications, choose style over substance and remember that most gods have either divine creation abilities or know someone who does."

Do give the god an iconic artefact. The hand of vecna, the wand of orcus, these are campaign-defining artefacts. The most common interaction between the avatar of a friendly god and PCs is an avatar saying: "It's dangerous to go alone, take this!" (maybe after the PCs recover the "this" in question). So, use the god's artefact and the history of the god's artefact to drive narrative interactions with the game. Figure out what rumors or popular knowledge says about the artefact and stop there. Don't stat out things that you don't want your players to kill and/or possess.

More to the point, don't waste effort on setting details that your players won't interact with. There is plenty to prep in a world with limited time that your players can encounter. Designing high level NPCs of whatever stripe is not a useful use of time unless your players have clearly telegraphed the session before that they plan to fight that character. Figure out what narritive support is needed and move on.