Like with any religion, cleric and warlock are your best bets, depending on your approach to the religion in question. Which subclass would depend far too heavily on your approach for me to answer.
Like with any religion, cleric and warlock are your best bets, depending on your approach to the religion in question. Which subclass would depend far too heavily on your approach for me to answer.
Divine Soul or maybe even Aberrant Mind (with some reflavoring) Sorcerer could work too. Necromancer Wizard. Circle of Spores Druid for sure. College of Spirits Bard. Depending on what the character wants to use the voodoo for, there's quite a lot of fitting options outside the overtly religious ones.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Like with any religion, cleric and warlock are your best bets, depending on your approach to the religion in question. Which subclass would depend far too heavily on your approach for me to answer.
Voodoo is all about curses, spirits, nature magic, and weird chants, so maybe that can help you with the subclass.
Like with any religion, cleric and warlock are your best bets, depending on your approach to the religion in question. Which subclass would depend far too heavily on your approach for me to answer.
Voodoo is all about curses, spirits, nature magic, and weird chants, so maybe that can help you with the subclass.
What quindraco's saying is that that's really broad and no class is going to be great at all of these, I believe. Your practicioner may be focusing on curses and hexes, or on raising zombies (there's some overlap there, but in D&D mechanics the two are fairly distinct), or on communing with the loa, etc. There are multiple forms of voodoo as well.
Like with any religion, cleric and warlock are your best bets, depending on your approach to the religion in question. Which subclass would depend far too heavily on your approach for me to answer.
Voodoo is all about curses, spirits, nature magic, and weird chants, so maybe that can help you with the subclass.
What quindraco's saying is that that's really broad and no class is going to be great at all of these, I believe. Your practicioner maybe focusing on curses and hexes, or on raising zombies (there's some overlap there, but in D&D mechanics the two are fairly distinct), or on communing with the loa, etc. There are multiple forms of voodoo as well.
K, thx for the info, but the one I am refering to is the stereotypical voodoo: voodoo dolls and stuff like that
Like with any religion, cleric and warlock are your best bets, depending on your approach to the religion in question. Which subclass would depend far too heavily on your approach for me to answer.
Voodoo is all about curses, spirits, nature magic, and weird chants, so maybe that can help you with the subclass.
What quindraco's saying is that that's really broad and no class is going to be great at all of these, I believe. Your practicioner maybe focusing on curses and hexes, or on raising zombies (there's some overlap there, but in D&D mechanics the two are fairly distinct), or on communing with the loa, etc. There are multiple forms of voodoo as well.
K, thx for the info, but the one I am refering to is the stereotypical voodoo: voodoo dolls and stuff like that
That's an aesthetic more than anything, more than something a character does anyway. I think you might want to look into debuffs and control spells though, and for that I'd suggest making a Bard. Spirits Bard is the more obvious choice, but Lore Bards are probably the best debuffers in the game.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
You haven't said what you want to be able to do. Voodoo Dolls, fine. Anything you do to the doll, you want to happen to the subject. How? What spells do you want to cast? Stick in a pin and what then? Can you do this at range to a target you cannot see? How do you find them? It is nearly impossible to give a satisfactory answer unless you tell us what you want to do and how you want it to look.
If you want to put Hexes on people, that's pretty Warlock like. Lots of classes can cast curses. An Ancestral Guardian Barbarian summons up spirits of their ancestors to protect themselves from harm. Do you want to make a voodoo doll of one of your former relatives so you can call up their spirit? If a Druid uses the Commune With Nature spell, you can say that was talking with the Loa of the forest.
People gave you pretty nice and complete answers. If you don't like the answers you got, tell us what it is you really want.
You haven't said what you want to be able to do. Voodoo Dolls, fine. Anything you do to the doll, you want to happen to the subject. How? What spells do you want to cast? Stick in a pin and what then? Can you do this at range to a target you cannot see? How do you find them? It is nearly impossible to give a satisfactory answer unless you tell us what you want to do and how you want it to look.
If you want to put Hexes on people, that's pretty Warlock like. Lots of classes can cast curses. An Ancestral Guardian Barbarian summons up spirits of their ancestors to protect themselves from harm. Do you want to make a voodoo doll of one of your former relatives so you can call up their spirit? If a Druid uses the Commune With Nature spell, you can say that was talking with the Loa of the forest.
People gave you pretty nice and complete answers. If you don't like the answers you got, tell us what it is you really want.
Well, I want curses and all of that stuff. It would be hard for me to explain what I really want, but like I said, I am going for a stereotypical voodoo practitioner. Think of the hero Ezili from BTD6 - that is around the style I am going for.
Ok. Bard. College of Spirits. Charlatan background. They come from some exotic place your DM will have to set up for you, so they speak Common with an accent that makes them difficult to understand at times. They wear fancy costumes to impress their audience. 99% of what they do is fakery, but they are highly entertaining, which is the stereotypical Voodooo Practitioner in most forms of entertainment I have seen. If then need to, they can back up their stuff with real spells and bardic abilities. The Spirits you can summon do helpful things after all. If all else fails, cast Bard spells, such as Bestow Curse, or Comprehend Languages, or Clairvoyance. Call yourself "Miss Cleo" for added effect.
Ok. Bard. College of Spirits. Charlatan background. They come from some exotic place your DM will have to set up for you, so they speak Common with an accent that makes them difficult to understand at times. They wear fancy costumes to impress their audience. 99% of what they do is fakery, but they are highly entertaining, which is the stereotypical Voodooo Practitioner in most forms of entertainment I have seen. If then need to, they can back up their stuff with real spells and bardic abilities. The Spirits you can summon do helpful things after all. If all else fails, cast Bard spells, such as Bestow Curse, or Comprehend Languages, or Clairvoyance. Call yourself "Miss Cleo" for added effect.
Ok, good suggestion, but my version of a stereotypcial voodoo practitioner is the wooden mask and totem, chicken bones, frog eyes, and other stuff for weird rituals (bonus points for crazy chanting), voodoo dolls, sprits, and other cursing/hex magic, also known as witch doctors.
It may also help by describing the character I want to create: a "swamp witch" who meddles in other peoples affairs by creating voodoo dolls of them, and applying curses and strange effects to intruders.
Also, think of the main villain from Disneys Princess and the Frog. You know, the guy who converses with his "friends on the other side," and is the guy who turned the prince INTO the frog in the first place?
I'm a little bothered by the ask here. Let's be a little careful. So you want someone similar to a cartoonish video game character who in no way actually resembles any of the actual spiritual practices that often get gathered under "voodoo?" Keep in mind what you're calling stereotypical voodoo practitioner through this thread sounds alarmingly close to problematic caricature. So if you want Elzili from BTD6, fine say so and folks might work with you. If you want something resembling of actual voodoo, with the caveat that it's often considered problematic designing PCs as adherents of real world faiths, maybe start with getting more of a sense of what voodoo actually is.
But to take your request in good faith: Honestly, the supernaturalism sometimes associated with "Voodoo" broadly would be hard to capture in a game with D&D's magical/supernatural mechanics. Voodoo "magic" is more a long game, so to speak, that has a role in a community than stuff that would be useful to an adventuring party during an adventure. Sure, during downtime there's things that could be crafted, guidance sought, rituals practiced. That said life or death domains could accomodate a D&D-ified version of a lot of practices associated under the broad concept of Voodoo. Druids to, though there's theism to pay attention to. Warlock would be another route for a character who makes pacts with entities associated with some practices. I'd say some forms of Ranger (Horizon Walker) and maybe Oath of Ancients Palladin could be flavored as warrior guided by some forms of voodoo. And if you want to go the cartoon/caricature route, there's necromancers.
Actual "voodoo" tradtitions have a complicated, though very interesting, history and story tied to western christianity, mostly Catholicism, coming into aggressive contact with faiths and spiritual practices of predominantly African origins. It's tied up in many countries' histories of slavery, race relations, and in some instances revolution or at least resistance to oppression. Good game could come from it, but it'd take a very talented DM and assistance from a willing player to really bring all that real worldness into most D&D fantasy settings. If it's something you want to just fool around with, that doesn't really work at my table, and while your table may be fine with it, it could rub a lot of people the wrong way besides me. Appropriation is best done with care, if it's to be done at all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Or if you want to make an actual practitioner of the religion take the Acolyte background, but yes I also think the College of Spirits works pretty well. Maybe see if the DM will include gris-gris bags as a viable Spiritual Focus.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I'm a little bothered by the ask here. Let's be a little careful. So you want someone similar to a cartoonish video game character who in no way actually resembles any of the actual spiritual practices that often get gathered under "voodoo?" Keep in mind what you're calling stereotypical voodoo practitioner through this thread sounds alarmingly close to problematic caricature. So if you want Elzili from BTD6, fine say so and folks might work with you. If you want something resembling of actual voodoo, with the caveat that it's often considered problematic designing PCs as adherents of real world faiths, maybe start with getting more of a sense of what voodoo actually is.
Thank you, I wanted to make a post like this, but I'm tired from some other conversations that have been happening. Keep up the good work.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I'm a little bothered by the ask here. Let's be a little careful. So you want someone similar to a cartoonish video game character who in no way actually resembles any of the actual spiritual practices that often get gathered under "voodoo?" Keep in mind what you're calling stereotypical voodoo practitioner through this thread sounds alarmingly close to problematic caricature. So if you want Elzili from BTD6, fine say so and folks might work with you. If you want something resembling of actual voodoo, with the caveat that it's often considered problematic designing PCs as adherents of real world faiths, maybe start with getting more of a sense of what voodoo actually is.
But to take your request in good faith: Honestly, the supernaturalism sometimes associated with "Voodoo" broadly would be hard to capture in a game with D&D's magical/supernatural mechanics. Voodoo "magic" is more a long game, so to speak, that has a role in a community than stuff that would be useful to an adventuring party during an adventure. Sure, during downtime there's things that could be crafted, guidance sought, rituals practiced. That said life or death domains could accomodate a D&D-ified version of a lot of practices associated under the broad concept of Voodoo. Druids to, though there's theism to pay attention to. Warlock would be another route for a character who makes pacts with entities associated with some practices. I'd say some forms of Ranger (Horizon Walker) and maybe Oath of Ancients Palladin could be flavored as warrior guided by some forms of voodoo. And if you want to go the cartoon/caricature route, there's necromancers.
Actual "voodoo" tradtitions have a complicated, though very interesting, history and story tied to western christianity, mostly Catholicism, coming into aggressive contact with faiths and spiritual practices of predominantly African origins. It's tied up in many countries' histories of slavery, race relations, and in some instances revolution or at least resistance to oppression. Good game could come from it, but it'd take a very talented DM and assistance from a willing player to really bring all that real worldness into most D&D fantasy settings. If it's something you want to just fool around with, that doesn't really work at my table, and while your table may be fine with it, it could rub a lot of people the wrong way besides me. Appropriation is best done with care, if it's to be done at all.
Also, think of the main villain from Disneys Princess and the Frog. You know, the guy who converses with his "friends on the other side," and is the guy who turned the prince INTO the frog in the first place?
Dr Facilier is described as a bokor, who practices the dark side of Vodoun. There was definitely a light side, involving blessings for health, fertility, and such, but that's probably not what you're after. Anyway the fearsome reputation of the bokor to create zombies is from their use of a tetrodotoxin (venom from puffer fish) to send people into a deathlike torpor. So maybe take proficiency with a poisoner's kit, combine it with the Suggestion spell and other mind control effects and you've got your bokor or caplata if she's a woman.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Asterix and Obelix are farcical, and knowingly so. The vibe I'm and others are getting here ain't that. I won't digress further into the morality of humor other than saying I think between you and I when I drop an emoji, my brows are higher?
Still gonna say this all begs the question how "voodoo" sits in the game world, unless the game world is video gamey in which case spam hex and bane away. I mean it's sort of like a player sitting down and saying they want to play a Kabalaistic Rabbi with golem making powers.
Older editions had actually thoughtful Witches and practitioners of "hedge magic", but per usual advice being offered here is only going to be as solid as the player's character concept.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Still gonna say this all begs the question how "voodoo" sits in the game world, unless the game world is video gamey in which case spam hex and bane away. I mean it's sort of like a player sitting down and saying they want to play a Kabalaistic Rabbi with golem making powers.
His examples are Disney villain and a literal purple monkey comic figure while throwing curses into the realm of a witch doctor. 🤪
While i understand that depiction of real religions should be handled with care, i thought its very clear that this character is nothing remotely grounded in reality.
Not sure if doing a deep dive into vodun would help other then confuse him even more, as the clear fictional stuff he draws his character concept from suddenly is facing gris-gris, priestesses, healer roles, ancestor spirits, loas etc. and it just gets deeper and deeper. And lets not forget about voodoo and hoodoo. Suddenly he spends 3 days researching the real life roots and while he might have learned something interesting, he is now faced with the dilemma of playing a fun char concept thats fake from the ground up and pretty easily known as such or start to portray a real practitioner, facing the dilemma of trying to not hurt peoples feelings while heavily burrowing from the real world instead of picking a couple of terms and trope characteristics used in a multitude of video games and movies that clearly isn't meant to depict the real religion, but a fake hollywood adaptation.
Now it boils down what you rather deal with in your game and what you personally enjoy more. I personally have no problem burrowing from real religions and cultures to flavor up my roleplay, but i stay away from trying to mimic or portray real cultures 100% (or even 50%) of the way or trying to state that "what i play is the true face of culture/religion/etc." - even if i'm part of it irl - i don't deem it fitting. I did get the vibe that he just wanted to have a fun character concept based on some game/movie concepts he knows. And i don't blame him for doing so either. Curse away, pink witch doctor with a painted face!
See title.
Practicioner or victim?
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Like with any religion, cleric and warlock are your best bets, depending on your approach to the religion in question. Which subclass would depend far too heavily on your approach for me to answer.
The practitioner
Divine Soul or maybe even Aberrant Mind (with some reflavoring) Sorcerer could work too. Necromancer Wizard. Circle of Spores Druid for sure. College of Spirits Bard. Depending on what the character wants to use the voodoo for, there's quite a lot of fitting options outside the overtly religious ones.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Voodoo is all about curses, spirits, nature magic, and weird chants, so maybe that can help you with the subclass.
What quindraco's saying is that that's really broad and no class is going to be great at all of these, I believe. Your practicioner may be focusing on curses and hexes, or on raising zombies (there's some overlap there, but in D&D mechanics the two are fairly distinct), or on communing with the loa, etc. There are multiple forms of voodoo as well.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
K, thx for the info, but the one I am refering to is the stereotypical voodoo: voodoo dolls and stuff like that
That's an aesthetic more than anything, more than something a character does anyway. I think you might want to look into debuffs and control spells though, and for that I'd suggest making a Bard. Spirits Bard is the more obvious choice, but Lore Bards are probably the best debuffers in the game.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
You haven't said what you want to be able to do. Voodoo Dolls, fine. Anything you do to the doll, you want to happen to the subject. How? What spells do you want to cast? Stick in a pin and what then? Can you do this at range to a target you cannot see? How do you find them? It is nearly impossible to give a satisfactory answer unless you tell us what you want to do and how you want it to look.
If you want to put Hexes on people, that's pretty Warlock like. Lots of classes can cast curses. An Ancestral Guardian Barbarian summons up spirits of their ancestors to protect themselves from harm. Do you want to make a voodoo doll of one of your former relatives so you can call up their spirit? If a Druid uses the Commune With Nature spell, you can say that was talking with the Loa of the forest.
People gave you pretty nice and complete answers. If you don't like the answers you got, tell us what it is you really want.
<Insert clever signature here>
Well, I want curses and all of that stuff. It would be hard for me to explain what I really want, but like I said, I am going for a stereotypical voodoo practitioner. Think of the hero Ezili from BTD6 - that is around the style I am going for.
Ok. Bard. College of Spirits. Charlatan background. They come from some exotic place your DM will have to set up for you, so they speak Common with an accent that makes them difficult to understand at times. They wear fancy costumes to impress their audience. 99% of what they do is fakery, but they are highly entertaining, which is the stereotypical Voodooo Practitioner in most forms of entertainment I have seen. If then need to, they can back up their stuff with real spells and bardic abilities. The Spirits you can summon do helpful things after all. If all else fails, cast Bard spells, such as Bestow Curse, or Comprehend Languages, or Clairvoyance. Call yourself "Miss Cleo" for added effect.
<Insert clever signature here>
Ok, good suggestion, but my version of a stereotypcial voodoo practitioner is the wooden mask and totem, chicken bones, frog eyes, and other stuff for weird rituals (bonus points for crazy chanting), voodoo dolls, sprits, and other cursing/hex magic, also known as witch doctors.
It may also help by describing the character I want to create: a "swamp witch" who meddles in other peoples affairs by creating voodoo dolls of them, and applying curses and strange effects to intruders.
Also, think of the main villain from Disneys Princess and the Frog. You know, the guy who converses with his "friends on the other side," and is the guy who turned the prince INTO the frog in the first place?
I'm a little bothered by the ask here. Let's be a little careful. So you want someone similar to a cartoonish video game character who in no way actually resembles any of the actual spiritual practices that often get gathered under "voodoo?" Keep in mind what you're calling stereotypical voodoo practitioner through this thread sounds alarmingly close to problematic caricature. So if you want Elzili from BTD6, fine say so and folks might work with you. If you want something resembling of actual voodoo, with the caveat that it's often considered problematic designing PCs as adherents of real world faiths, maybe start with getting more of a sense of what voodoo actually is.
But to take your request in good faith: Honestly, the supernaturalism sometimes associated with "Voodoo" broadly would be hard to capture in a game with D&D's magical/supernatural mechanics. Voodoo "magic" is more a long game, so to speak, that has a role in a community than stuff that would be useful to an adventuring party during an adventure. Sure, during downtime there's things that could be crafted, guidance sought, rituals practiced. That said life or death domains could accomodate a D&D-ified version of a lot of practices associated under the broad concept of Voodoo. Druids to, though there's theism to pay attention to. Warlock would be another route for a character who makes pacts with entities associated with some practices. I'd say some forms of Ranger (Horizon Walker) and maybe Oath of Ancients Palladin could be flavored as warrior guided by some forms of voodoo. And if you want to go the cartoon/caricature route, there's necromancers.
Actual "voodoo" tradtitions have a complicated, though very interesting, history and story tied to western christianity, mostly Catholicism, coming into aggressive contact with faiths and spiritual practices of predominantly African origins. It's tied up in many countries' histories of slavery, race relations, and in some instances revolution or at least resistance to oppression. Good game could come from it, but it'd take a very talented DM and assistance from a willing player to really bring all that real worldness into most D&D fantasy settings. If it's something you want to just fool around with, that doesn't really work at my table, and while your table may be fine with it, it could rub a lot of people the wrong way besides me. Appropriation is best done with care, if it's to be done at all.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Or if you want to make an actual practitioner of the religion take the Acolyte background, but yes I also think the College of Spirits works pretty well. Maybe see if the DM will include gris-gris bags as a viable Spiritual Focus.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Thank you, I wanted to make a post like this, but I'm tired from some other conversations that have been happening. Keep up the good work.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
You must hate Asterix & Obelix :D
DId you take a look at the homebrew on dndbeyond? https://www.dndbeyond.com/homebrew/subclasses?filter-name=vood&filter-author=&filter-author-previous=&filter-author-symbol=&filter-rating=-34&sort=rating
I haven't read through all of them, but there are some that offer dolls and curses and maybe one of those is interesting in concept. ;)
Dr Facilier is described as a bokor, who practices the dark side of Vodoun. There was definitely a light side, involving blessings for health, fertility, and such, but that's probably not what you're after. Anyway the fearsome reputation of the bokor to create zombies is from their use of a tetrodotoxin (venom from puffer fish) to send people into a deathlike torpor. So maybe take proficiency with a poisoner's kit, combine it with the Suggestion spell and other mind control effects and you've got your bokor or caplata if she's a woman.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Asterix and Obelix are farcical, and knowingly so. The vibe I'm and others are getting here ain't that. I won't digress further into the morality of humor other than saying I think between you and I when I drop an emoji, my brows are higher?
Still gonna say this all begs the question how "voodoo" sits in the game world, unless the game world is video gamey in which case spam hex and bane away. I mean it's sort of like a player sitting down and saying they want to play a Kabalaistic Rabbi with golem making powers.
Older editions had actually thoughtful Witches and practitioners of "hedge magic", but per usual advice being offered here is only going to be as solid as the player's character concept.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
His examples are Disney villain and a literal purple monkey comic figure while throwing curses into the realm of a witch doctor. 🤪
While i understand that depiction of real religions should be handled with care, i thought its very clear that this character is nothing remotely grounded in reality.
Not sure if doing a deep dive into vodun would help other then confuse him even more, as the clear fictional stuff he draws his character concept from suddenly is facing gris-gris, priestesses, healer roles, ancestor spirits, loas etc. and it just gets deeper and deeper. And lets not forget about voodoo and hoodoo. Suddenly he spends 3 days researching the real life roots and while he might have learned something interesting, he is now faced with the dilemma of playing a fun char concept thats fake from the ground up and pretty easily known as such or start to portray a real practitioner, facing the dilemma of trying to not hurt peoples feelings while heavily burrowing from the real world instead of picking a couple of terms and trope characteristics used in a multitude of video games and movies that clearly isn't meant to depict the real religion, but a fake hollywood adaptation.
Now it boils down what you rather deal with in your game and what you personally enjoy more. I personally have no problem burrowing from real religions and cultures to flavor up my roleplay, but i stay away from trying to mimic or portray real cultures 100% (or even 50%) of the way or trying to state that "what i play is the true face of culture/religion/etc." - even if i'm part of it irl - i don't deem it fitting. I did get the vibe that he just wanted to have a fun character concept based on some game/movie concepts he knows. And i don't blame him for doing so either. Curse away, pink witch doctor with a painted face!