The Doctor: Who to Save and When

• Faction: 💊 Villagers (Town)
• Ability: Each night, choose one player to protect from the Werewolves' night action
• When you act: Night phase
• Win condition: All Werewolves and the Maniac (if present) are eliminated

After the Werewolves secretly choose their target, the Game Master checks your protection. If you've protected the same player the Werewolves targeted, that player survives. The GM announces a "peaceful night" in the morning, and the table knows a save was made. Nobody learns who was targeted or who was protected — just that the night action was blocked.

Most rulesets include two important restrictions. First, you usually cannot protect the same player two nights in a row. This forces you to rotate targets and makes permanent shielding impossible. Second, in most variants you cannot protect yourself. You're vulnerable every single night, which means your survival depends entirely on the Werewolves not knowing who you are.

A successful save is one of the most impactful moments in the game. It wastes the Werewolves' entire night action, keeps a valuable player alive, and gives the town an extra round of discussion and voting. Two successful saves in a single game can completely shift the balance. Three saves is almost always game-winning.

The flipside: a wasted protection — guarding a player the Werewolves didn't target — costs you nothing directly. But it means someone else was lost who might have lived if you'd read the situation differently. Every wrong guess is a life you didn't save.

1. Night 1: protect the loudest Day 1 player. You don't know who the Seer is yet (unless they've hinted), but the Werewolves often eliminate the most active, seemingly competent Villager first. If someone dominated Day 1 with sharp logic and good reads, they're a likely Werewolf target. Protect them.

2. After the Seer reveals, protect the Seer every possible night. This is the highest-value protection in the game. A revealed Seer with confirmed Werewolf names is the town's most critical asset, and the Werewolves will attempt to take them out immediately. If the no-consecutive rule applies, alternate: protect the Seer on Night 3, someone else on Night 4, back to the Seer on Night 5.

3. Read the table to predict Werewolf targets. Think like the Werewolves: who do they want gone most? It's usually the player generating the most accurate suspicion, not necessarily the loudest one. Watch who's building methodical cases, tracking votes, asking questions that make the Werewolves uncomfortable. That's where your protection should go.

4. Don't reveal your role unless you absolutely must. The Doctor's power depends entirely on the Werewolves not knowing who you are. If they identify you, they'll either take you out directly (removing all protection from the table) or factor your known presence into targeting decisions (avoiding whoever you'd obviously protect). Stay hidden as long as possible.

5. Track your saves and use them as information. If you protected Player 4 and nobody was taken out, Player 4 was almost certainly the Werewolves' target. That tells you two things: the Werewolves see Player 4 as a threat (useful for your reads), and Player 4 is likely not a Werewolf (they don't go after their own). Use this data to refine both your protection choices and your day-phase voting.

Staying under the radar during day discussion: "I don't have strong reads yet. Player 6's argument against Player 9 made sense to me, but I want to hear Player 9's side before I decide anything. Still putting the picture together."

Subtly steering without revealing: "Can we agree that Player 3 is probably the most important voice at this table right now? They've been right about two votes in a row, and they're asking the questions nobody else is asking. If the Werewolves are smart, Player 3 should be worried tonight."

Defending yourself when accused: "You're accusing me based on what — that I've been quiet? I've been listening. Not everyone needs to deliver a speech every round to be useful. Look at my voting record: I've been on the correct side of every elimination. That's not luck."

Revealing when about to be voted out: "Stop. Before you vote, you need to know — I'm the Doctor. I saved Player 3 last night. Nobody was lost, remember? That was me. If you vote me out right now, the Werewolves get a free night tonight with zero protection on the table. Think about that."

After a successful save, without revealing: "Nobody was lost last night — the Doctor made a save. Good news. Now here's the question: who did the Werewolves go after? Because whoever it was, they're important enough that the Werewolves wanted them gone. If we can figure out who was targeted, that tells us who the Werewolves fear most."

Guiding the table after a player is eliminated: "We lost Player 8. Think about why. Player 8 was asking hard questions about the voting bloc between Players 3 and 5. The Werewolves silenced them for a reason. Let's pick up exactly where Player 8 left off."

Protecting the same player in an obvious alternating pattern. If you cycle between Player 3 and Player 7 every night, a sharp Werewolf team will figure it out and time their night actions for the gap nights. Be less predictable. Occasionally protect someone unexpected to keep the Werewolves guessing.

Revealing early to earn trust. A revealed Doctor is a dead Doctor. Unlike the Seer, who gains value by sharing information publicly, the Doctor gains nothing from being known. Revealing forfeits your power — the Werewolves take you out the next night, or they simply avoid your obvious protection target.

Self-protecting instead of protecting the Seer. In variants that allow self-healing, it's tempting to prioritize your own survival. But your survival is only valuable if you're protecting the right people. If the Seer is lost while you're busy saving yourself, the town loses its best information source and you've protected a player with no night ability.

Ignoring the no-consecutive rule. Forgetting this restriction and trying to protect the same player twice will be overridden by the GM, wasting your night action entirely. Know the rules. Plan around the gap nights. Your alternate-night protection target matters almost as much as your primary one.

The Seer is your primary protection priority. A living Seer generates verified information every night; a lost one is just a memory. After the Seer reveals, your job becomes simple: keep them alive at all costs. The no-consecutive rule creates a dangerous gap every other night, which is one reason experienced Seers sometimes delay their reveal — to avoid creating a "protect / gap / protect" cycle that the Werewolves can time around.

The Werewolves are your nightly adversary. You're trying to predict their target; they're trying to avoid your prediction. This is a pure mind game. Will they target the obvious choice — the loudest, most threatening Villager? Or will they go for someone unexpected to dodge your protection? Your success depends on thinking like the Werewolves and reading their priorities correctly.

The Courtesan can accidentally neutralize you. If the Courtesan blocks you on the same night you would have saved someone, your protection doesn't activate. The target is lost even though you chose correctly. There's nothing you can do about this — you won't even know it happened. A "failed save" doesn't always mean you guessed wrong; it might mean you were blocked.

When you're unsure who to protect, use this mental checklist:

Has the Seer revealed? If yes, protect the Seer (or alternate with another likely target if the no-consecutive rule applies). Nothing else comes close in value.

Has nobody revealed? Protect the player who contributed the most accurate analysis during the day. The Werewolves target threats, not bystanders.

Are you the most likely night target? If you're under heavy suspicion during the day, the Werewolves might target you specifically to remove protection from the board. In self-heal variants, this is the one time self-protection makes sense.

Is it late in the game? With fewer players, the Werewolves' target becomes easier to predict. Protect the player who's been driving the most correct votes — the Werewolves need them gone to survive.

• The Seer: When to Reveal and Who to Divine
• The Villager: How to Win Without Special Powers
• The Courtesan: Blocking the Right Player
• Playing as Werewolf: Bluffing, Strategy, and Survival
• all roles explained

The app won't let the Doctor heal the same person twice in a row — a rule the game master often forgets to enforce manually.