Witch Doctor
"Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang!"
- – The Witch Doctor
A Witch Doctor is a form of traditional healer and/or magic-user native to tribal cultures; whereas the Shaman communes with the spirits and is essentially a tribal Cleric, the Witch Doctor is more of a cleric/wizard hybrid, specializing in performing ritual magics and in warding off the debilitating effects of evil magic. Hence the name: they are "doctors" who specially combat "witchcraft".
The term is typically used on /tg/ to refer to a tribal wizard or sorcerer, often less focused on healing and more on non-blasty combat spells; curses, summons, that sort of thing. Ironically, their ability to call forth undead and spirit beings or inflict curses often means that they actually play like an actual witch, which isn't that unprecedented; some tribal belief systems basically present witches and witch doctors as two sides of the same coin, with the difference being whether they use their magic to help people or harm them.
The term isn't used much these days, along with several other similarly archetypical terms, because of its potentially racist presentations in older works and tendency to be used as a catch-all for other vaguely-similar-but-still-distinct cultural figures.
Witch Doctors are heavily associated with Voodoo, as it's the most prominent "tribal" religion in the mainstream consciousness; the Houngan and the Mambo are basically the masculine and feminine equivalents for Witch Doctor in the Voodoun heirarchy, whilst the Bokor is their version of a Witch.
BECMI D&D[edit | edit source]
In BECMI, the Witch Doctor motif is assimilated into the Wicca (later renamed the Wokani), the "Humanoid" version of the Wizard; described as a primitive "tribal" version of the wizard which evokes its spells through dancing, howling, roaring and shaking fetishes or talismans, the Wokani's theme is reinforced by its restriction to a spell-list based predominantly around utilitarian wizard spells (and a handful of offensive ones at higher level): This spell-list is listed below for reference, spells with a * at their end can be cast in reversed form (so Stone to Flesh reverses into Flesh to Stone)
Level 1:
- Detect Magic
- Light
- Protection from Evil
- Read Languages
- Read Magic
- Sleep
Level 2:
- Continual Light*
- Detect Evil
- Detect Invisible
- Invisibility
- Levitate
- Web
Level 3:
- Clairvoyance
- Dispel Magic
- Fireball
- Fly
- Lightning Bolt
- Water Breathing
Level 4:
- Charm Monster
- Growth of Plants
- Ice Storm/Wall
- Massmorph
- Remove Curse*
- Wall of Fire
Level 5:
- Animate Dead
- Cloudkill
- Dissolve*
- Hold Monster*
- Pass-Wall
- Wall of Stone
Level 6:
- Death Spell
- Move Earth
- Projected Image
- Reincarnation
- Stone to Flesh*
- Wall of Iron
AD&D[edit | edit source]
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the Witch Doctor is one of several "savage" kits introduced in the Complete Book of Humanoids, and is functionally a hyper-specialized cleric/wizard; this Cleric kit is... confusingly described. It's stated that it has the same special benefits as a Shaman, can take Wizard proficiencies without costing extra slots, are "limited to a single school of magic", "cannot gain priest or wizard spells outside the chosen spheres and school", and "cast wizard spells at half their level (rounded up)". Presumably, they gain the shaman's healing & herbalism skills and ability to cast Reincarnation as a 5th level spell from 9th level on, but it's unclear if they share the shaman's restriction of only three different spheres, being unable to turn/control undead, and never being allowed to cast Raise Dead or Resurrection.
An alternative to the Witch Doctor is the Obeah, which debuted in Dragon Magazine #251.
3e[edit | edit source]
In Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, the Witch Doctor was transformed into the less-/pol/-seeming Adept NPC class.
Deadlands[edit | edit source]
In Deadlands, the Voodooist is an Arcane Background based on the archetypical Voodoo witch doctor. "Conjure Doctor" is even one of its alternative names!
Warhammer Fantasy[edit | edit source]
The Pygmies (Warhammer Fantasy) had Witch Doctors, two in each village, one devoted to one of the two Brother Gods of the Pygmies, Beesbok or Brobat. They could summon the ghosts of the deceased or banish them, depending on if they followed Brobat or Beesbok.