Does anyone find beast tamer trait useful?

Hm sounds like I had to try it out, it does not sound fun to me though. (taming my own precious Experience points! xD)

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

I have tried it with no real success (only a few times though)

I use it to devastating effect in the early game - it's extremely powerful.  Wolves and black widows are best off the start - stalkers will kill you, baby bears are too weak.  I do think it's uses spell hit though - so if you're not a mage, it's going to miss fairly often.  I'll often leave spider webs in my territory - when they respawn, I tame the new spider.

You do have to get the timing down - if it's just your sov in the army, you need to wait to cast it until they move one-turns movement away from you.  Then you take 1-2 hits, cast, win.  If you have another unit in the army, you can either let that unit tank the beast or move your second unit right behind your sov and the beast will often move next to your sov.  Settlers make great tanks - every creature wants to eat them and it doesn't matter if they lose nearly all their hp, they can still found a city or an outpost.

Other creatures - all spiders typically work well, but don't try to tame ones way up-level from you, you'll miss.  Ophidians (sp?) almost always resist.  Baby bears die in like 1 hit, so they're kind of worthless.  Other bears, nearly on level, are great.  Najas are good.  Stalkers are awesome (4 move), but them moving first makes them hard to get early in the game and hard not to kill with counterattack later.  Umberdroths are awesome, but I haven't seen one in a while.

I just started a game with a mage / beastmaster sovereign, By turn 40-ish, I have 3 black widows running with my sov, 2 sets of 3 wolves with 2 other champions, and a single wolf scouting (4 move scouts FTW).

Edit: the game says you gain xp from the win, but it doesn't actually add to your xp total. 

Yes it can be quite fun to run around with a beast army, but it is difficult to use that spell at times.  I think that if the range of the spell is to stay at 1, than the casting time should be instant rather than 1 round.  Personally I would like to see the range of the spell move to 2 or 3 with the casting time remaining at 1.

Thanks for the input! It just seems like too much work in tactical combat for the output of the weak stuff you get! I much prefer just to summon something!

I combined Beastmaster and Hunter to make a decent trait. 

I consider it possibly the best vocation/background in the game given that spiders (immobilize, the harridens also are hitting quite heavily and hoarder spiders kill. Lots), Umberdroths (Gamechanger if you can get one), great wolves (very powerful with swarms of Wolves / Spiders) and a few other nasties are beasts and tamed beasts cost no wages as well as pumping up faction power (say hello to tribute payments and non-aggressive pacts with a bonus on riddiculous). Bears and Cave bears do pack quite a punch (especially the later), baby bears not so much but still better than nothing.
Ophidians are Spell Immune so you whould need Spell power at about 150 to tame them (not likely to get that when they are still useful, rather try to get one via a quest.)
To utilize it focus on: high initiative, high spell power (brilliant is basically a must, but its a stellar trait anyways) . The fake XP and damage (also is erased if the following applies), slow and immobilization effects (those tamed spiders help with that...) only happens when all animals in a fight are tamed (kill one and all effects from the battle actually apply.)

Very nice place to get beasts: Ruins and Quests (got 5 full Spider Armies of 5 spider swarms each from one. Combine with a great wolf for much oumph...). Easier to do when having Relias near or being an Altarian civ... Also the Plague Wildland...

Not easy to use though and a rather steamrolling mechanic (if you get it roling early it pays of massively, if not: Not so much...)

Summons cost mana which is hard to come by early in the game as well as getting the spheres early...

So very worthwhile Imo. The XP and damage stuff seems a bug given that killing one of the beasts seems enough to get the reward (also for the newly tamed bests included which doubles nicely...)

Takes alot of time to fully utilize though...

I enjoy it. Cave Bears are awesome, so are Umberdroths, Harridans, and Corpse Spiders. I love finding that rat hunting quest because I know I'm going to have a chance to tame a Corpse Spider.

An army with 2 umberdoths...fluffy and beauregard...and a decent sov is a dragon killer.

BUT it is a mechanic that takes work you need all the tips on this page AND very difficult to tame a beast that is higher level than your sov.

Doths will just bite your head off. spiders will poison the hell out you while you are trying to give them a treat. The silver goblet helps with that.

I always try to armor up my sov so they can withstand the attacks.

Yeah, it's harder to use than the similar Silver Tongue (Diplomat) ability, although that costs influence and (I think) can only be used once per battle, so maybe it balances out. I've not had much luck with Beastmaster yet, but am enjoying reading these tips & might give it another go.

Nice! That would be a badass sovereign.