exceptions granted to [sic] herbalists

Anyone who has played 3 will know those herbalists are the ones next in line to be burned at the stake. Tomira, the "big booty" herbalist in White Orchard gets attacked in one endings of the game by Radovid's soldiers if Radovid survives the game. You have the option to save Tomira but otherwise she is burned to death by the soldiers when they set her hut aflame.

There are several characters who end up suffering similar fates, often as a consequence of their own actions believing they will somehow be spared the fate of others of their like. Without exception they all get executed or sentenced to with a few lasting long enough to maybe get rescued at one point in the game story.

Any fans of the first game will also take note that Kalkstein, the Master alchemist you get to know quite well, dies after being burned at the stake by Radovid's men, possibly just to point out how much Radovid isn't one of the good guys. That said, most people aren't good in the Witcher world which is part of the point with some decisions like those surrounding the Bloody Baron. Kalkstein at least goes out with a bang, literally.

He supposedly went out with a "bang". When he died on a pyre, fiery beasts surrounded him and shot into the air to form letters which spelled "Radovid sucks flaccid cock"