Amongst the clergy in the priesthoods of most of the goblinoid pantheons are both shamans and witch doctors. There are a number of different versions of shamans available to players and DMs to use; the most prominent being the Shaman kit for clerics in the Complete Book of Humanoids and the Shaman class in Player’s Option: Spells & Magic/Faiths & Avatars. However, the only option for Witch Doctors is the kit in the Complete Book of Humanoids. One thing I’m going to do is create a class, similar to the S&M/F&A shaman class, as another option. Basically, this would be used in games that prefer the more detailed and powerful shaman to the earlier kit. Purely optional, of course, so DMs can allow either one, or both (perhaps as a greater/lesser witch doctor or something, so some faiths or tribes would have one or the other).
I haven’t worked out the details, but I’m thinking that the witch doctors would have most of the details of the Shaman, but with wizard spell access instead of spirit access. Alternately, I may allow SOME spirit access as well as wizard spell access, as witch doctors are supposed to be pretty similar to shamans. I’m interested in hearing what other people think.
Posted by AuldDragon