Humanoid Necromancers
Humanoid cultures, such as the orcs, bugbears, gnolls, hobgoblins, and goblins, embrace violence and death, surpassing even humans in this respect. Their societies are usually organized along tribal lines, with the clan chief ruling as the undisputed leader in temporal affairs. The clan priest or shaman takes care of the tribe’s spiritual matters.
Finally, the tribal wizard (a member of the Savage Wizard kit from the WH) oversees the purely magical rituals and protections for the tribe. In most cases, the role of the shaman conflicts with that of the witch doctor, since at low levels the powers of a wizard can hardly compare with those of a priest. Indeed, few humanoid races have much talent for wizardry, making the witch doctor’s role almost superfluous unless the shaman is absent.
Many of the humanoid races are widely known to have witch doctors as permanent members of a tribal community. Witch doctors almost never rise above the 4th level of experience, but rare individuals capable of casting 3rd-level spells have been reported in the more heavily populated humanoid areas, like the Sword Coast in the Realms.
As noted earlier, the odds of randomly generating a human necromancer with the requisite ability scores are at least 2%. Among orcs, this probability would be even lower. According to the Monstrous Manual, the odds of encountering an orcish witch doctor (let alone a necromancer witch doctor) are 5 in 1000! Except in a major orcish city, the likelihood of encountering an orcish necromancer is small indeed.