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{{trope}}
[[File:beastmaster.jpg|link=Dungeons and Dragons|frame|[[Baby Talk|Is you daddy's little hellbeast? Yes you is!]] ''[[Baby Talk|Yes you is!]]'']]
A [[An Adventurer Is You|type of character]] who uses the assistance of an animal, force of nature, or just some sort of not-highly-sentient creature [[Mind Control|(with free will)]] to help them fight.
'''There are a few variations to this:'''
* The creature in question has befriended
* The
* The beast being used is [[Bond Creatures|actually mystical in nature]], such as an elemental or spirit, typically requiring a [[Summoning Ritual|pact]]; and is normally called with [[Summon Magic|magic]].
* The ally is [[Golem|artificial in nature]], normally constructed by the master. Is either a [[Robot Buddy]], or a [[Marionette Master|puppet controlled by either magic or plain-old strings]].
* The
* The
In video games, the
Due to the fact that the ally is, at best, another damage dealer/[[Stone Wall|damage taker]], Beastmasters are generally able to do things on their own in an MMORPG environment.
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[[Dragon Rider]], [[Marionette Master]], and [[The Minion Master]] are specific subtropes, compare with [[Summon Magic]] also see [[Mons]]. May overlap with [[Fluffy Tamer]].
Not to be confused with ''[[The Beastmaster]]'', which was a 1982 fantasy movie and [[BeastMaster|a
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime is pretty much a multi-series embodiment of this trope. It's the entire point of the video games as well; see below.
* The Anima from ''[[Tower of God]]''. Special in this case would be the fact that they are all aquatically themed, since the Tower is filled with water-like Shinsoo.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
*
* ''[[Marvel Comics]]''{{'}} own [[Squirrel Girl]]. If you can summon squirrels to beat Doctor Doom, Thanos, MODOK, and Pluto, you deserve to be on this list.
* B'wana Beast has the power to both [[Mix-and-Match Critters|combine]] and command animals.
* In most continuities, [[Batman]]'s enemy the Penguin is this for birds, having had a [[Friendless Background]] where he spent most of his free time with the birds in his mother's pet shop and later majoring in ornithology in college. As a villain, he trains birds of prey like hawks, falcons, and vultures to act as accomplices to assault enemies, and trains smaller birds to steal for him.
* Marvel's Scarecrow is a criminal who uses a flock of trained attack crows to assist him.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In [[Vathara]]'s ''Upon A Fiery Steed'', some of the residents of the L3 colony, and some residents of another planet visited in the story, are Beastmasters
==
▲* In [[Vathara]]'s ''Upon A Fiery Steed'' some of the residents of the L3 colony, and some residents of another planet visited in the story, are Beastmasters; people with the ability to communicate with, partially control and fight alongside animals. Examples shown in-story are bat-winged cat-like creatures called esmeril, hawks, dogs and lizards.
* Appears in ''[[Brotherhood of the Wolf]]''.
* ''[[Avatar]]''. All the Na'vi are beastmasters to an extent, thanks to the [[Fan Nickname|Bio-USB]].
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* Jennifer from ''[[Phenomena (film)|Phenomena]]'' can telepathically communicate with insects and command them to attack people.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* [[Andre Norton]] was quite fond of this trope.
**
** ''Catseye'': Troy gathers some [[True Companions]], of which he is the only human member
** ''The Zero Stone'' features Eet, kinda a cat.
** The ''Moon Singer'' series: The Thassa form strong bonds with various animals. They are mostly peaceful, but it's best not to annoy them.
* Fitz from [[Robin Hobb]]'s "[[Realm of the Elderlings|Fitzchivalry]]" and "Tawny Man" trilogies.
* ''[[Tortall Universe]]'': In Tamora Pierce's ''Immortal's Quartet'' Daine the Wildmage can communicate with animals and even shapeshift into them.
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* In ''[[Who Cut the Cheese?]]'' by Stilton Jarlsberg, the cat {{spoiler|belongs to Hi}}.
== [[Live
* ''[[The Legend of Dick and Dom]]'': A character who is actually called "The Beast Master" is the [[Big Bad]]. He's seen controlling many types of animals, although he tends to foil his own schemes by (for example) trying to get ants to capture his ememies. Prone to throwing tantrums when he fails- he's seen roasting a pair of pigeons at one point. Can also turn parts of his body into animals ("My powerful caterpillar arm will devour you!"), and other people into animals, who are then under his power.
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' is this way with his powers as a Dragonlord. He can call the dragons and they are bound to obey him, and it also works on their relatives the wyverns.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
▲== Tabletop Games ==
* This is an aspect of many ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' classes, though the Druid is the king of it. And of course, there are monsters with such abilities, like [[Our Werebeasts Are Different|Werebeast and Beastweres]] commanding their non-sentient cousins or Vampires calling upon "children of the night".
** AD&D2 era [[sourcebook]]s provided several kits with this theme. ''The Complete Fighter's Handbook'' has Beast-Rider (barbarian "knight" specialized in dealing with and riding [[Horse of a Different Color|exotic mount species]] of choice), ''The Complete Ranger's Handbook'' got Beastmaster and Falconer specialized in commanding critters beyond the basic class abilities. ''The Complete Barbarian's Handbook'' got Forest Lord - the totemist version. ''The Complete Druid's Handbook'' has Beastfriend and Hivemaster.
** ''[[Dark Sun]]'' with
** ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' has specialized priests of Malar the Beastlord called the Beastmasters, who tend to live in wilderness, use magic to become leaders of most local predators and clash with local druids, if any.
** The Ranger of 4th Edition has a Beastmaster build option which allows him to fight alongside a beast that he has forged a bond with. The build even gives the ranger a ritual that he can use to raise the beast should it die in battle.
* In ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', the players themselves may count as this if they're playing the right creatures, but there are specific character examples as well, such as the planeswalker [https://web.archive.org/web/20081015033421/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=Garruk%20Wildspeaker Garruk Wildspeaker].
** More mundanely there's the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191064 Master of the Wild Hunt], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=140194 Wren's Run Packmaster] and [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=152728 Wolf-Skull Shaman], all of which create wolfpacks around them.
*** As does [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=169971 Turntimber Ranger], which brings along a wolf for every fellow adventurer you summon. (One hilarious combo uses [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227544 Xenograft] set to Ally to produce an infinite loop, leading to an arbitrarily large Ranger and a similarly huge number of wolves.)
* Ogre Hunters in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]] Battles'' can be accompanied by one or two trained sabertoothed tigers (Sabertusks) that they have trained.
** The Amber Wizards and the Beastmen as well. In fact, anyone capable of using the wind Ghur can be this.
*''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''
** The Dark Eldar beastmasters generally use three different types of beasts - clawed fiend (large behemoth resembling yeti with oversized teeth and claws), khymera ([[Hell Hound|semi-material beast literally born of nightmares]]), and razorwing [[Death of a Thousand Cuts|flock]] of carnivorous, [[Razor Wings|sharp-feathered]] birds). There are, of course, more exotic creatures, like [[Giant Spider|Helspider]] or Megasaur (those are considered difficult - by the same people who beat into submission living nightmares, yes).
** Ork Runtherdz specialize on raising, training and herding squigs and grots. Squigs are creatures of many breeds, but averages on little more than a toothy mouth with legs, tiny eyes and vicious attitude.
** The Kroot keep Kroot hounds, knarlocs, great knarlocs and krootoxes (the last 3 are used as mounts as well as attack beasts), which are presumed to be non-sapient offshoots of Kroot. Though they don't have dedicated specialists.
** Space Wolves hunt, domesticate and sometimes ride Fenrisian Wolves - predator from their home world (an average adult is the size of a horse, except of stockier and more solid build, and a large adult is the size of an APC).
* The power of the Animalism discipline in both ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' and ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]''.
== [[Toys]] ==
* The Mask of Rahi Control grants this power in ''[[Bionicle]]''.
** All Makuta can do this as well.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* The ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' series is this trope, the game revolves around the strategy of recruiting monsters and using them to fight other heroes and creatures.
** In ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] III'' there is a class of heroes called Beastmasters, who control creatures of the swamp such as Hydras, Basilisks and Wyverns.
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** It also has Necromancers, who have an archetype called the "summonmancer", they are generally held to make better pure summoners then druids (Druid summons are mainly for support)
* ''[[Ultima Online]]'' had tamers as a skill set who depending on the circumstances could be either pretty powerful or near useless. They were commanded by typed commands or clicked ones. Tamers would need to make sure both that their pets would attack when needed and protect them when needed as well.
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has the Mastermind class, capable of calling upon a number of controllable minions.
** A number of other archetypes can also summon pets or allies to aid them, with top-end powers making it available for every class. Unlike the Mastermind, however, these allies are rarely fully controllable and usually only stay for a few minutes.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Online'' has the Squig Herder (a goblin and his pet fungus creatures), and the White Lion (an elf and his pet . . . white lion).
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** Native Warchiefs take it to another level. They can train animals and convert treasure guardians, which frequently results in the warchief being followed around by a menagerie of jaguars, wolves, and bears.
* In ''[[Nethack]]'' the player character always starts out with a pet and may end up taming additional monsters. The care, feeding, and proper use of such pets is a science of its own since a number of parameters influence their behavior.
* Aruruw of ''[[Utawarerumono]]'' adopts the tiger Mukkur early in the storyline, which apparently carries a title and makes her 'Mother of the Forest.' A mook who tries kidnapping her finds out she is ''not'' just a helpless [[Token
* Every class in ''[[Geneforge]]'' has at least a basic ability to do this, with Shapers, Lifecrafters and Shock Troopers specializing in it. Somewhat unusually, you make your own monsters through genetic engineering, sacrificing [[Mana|essence]] until they die or you "absorb" them.
* Free Korean [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]'' includes a pet feature. All pets possess a number of abilities beyond combat; including healing and carrying items. Certain pets possess additional useful and entertainment abilities such as rideable mounts, combat-oriented [[Shapeshifting|transformation]], "fetching" random items, producing crafting supplies (such as wool from pet sheep), and dancing. The Mabinogi pet system is different from most, in that pets have a selectable AI, with a powerful scripting language available to create custom [[AI]]s far more complex than those used by monsters. Players can also play ''as'' their pets, instead of their characters, which is good for level grinding. Pets also grant variable stat boosts, and are subject to the same levelling, aging and hunger mechanics as player characters.
** The Dark Knight released in Generation 3 possesses the Control of Darkness skill, which allows the player to control any animal or "Fomor" (non-human sentient beings). Control is far more limited than with pets, and is predominantly combat-oriented.
** Starting with Generation 7, all players have access to a similar ability with the Taming skill. Like Control of Darkness, it allows only very basic control over the creature.
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* Matsu from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' has the unique ability to summon animals to aid in her attacks, including boars, hawks, moles, bears and a white wolf.
* The summoning tree of magic in ''[[Arcanum]]'' begins this way. Unfortunately it doesn't make for a very powerful build in and of itself.
* The Ranger specialization in ''[[Dragon Age
* Greyback from ''[[Battle Realms]]'' has animal magnetism is so strong that wild wolves will never attack him, and will instead automatically attach themselves to him as bodyguards and fight with him to the death.
* ''[[ADOM]]'' has a villain employing such methods: the last level of the dungeon of Keethrax the Black Druid is populated with animals, including kinds more dangerous than usual at that character level.
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* Arguably, you are one of these in ''[[Pikmin]]''.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'''s Menagerie can not only [[Shapeshifting|can assume the shapes of animals]], she can communicate with them and command them. Brazilian hero Junglemaster controls both plants and animals. Archdruid adds weather control to Junglemaster's power set.
* ''[[DC Nation]]'''s Fauna has this ability, bribing local raccoons to watch Dr. Thompson's clinic, gathering information from stray dogs, and so forth. She tried to use it when [[Strawman Political|a right-wing militia was attacking her hometown]], recruiting everything from flocks of birds to the local livestock, only to get ''soundly'' scolded by Nightwing for reckless behavior. She hadn't used it since, even though she will still talk to animals.
* ''[[Whateley Universe]]'': [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]] student Dragonrider has a dragon she can command. She ''created'' it and gave it life. Other students like Aquerna and Arachne have command over one type of creature: squirrels and spiders, respectively.
* In ''[[Cracked.com]]''{{'}}s Photoplasty contest [http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_553_28-inspirational-image-memes-revised-honesty/ 28 Inspirational Image Memes (Revised for Honesty)], #5 is "If at first you don't succeed, command an army of birds."
==
* Tavros of ''[[Homestuck]]'' can psychically control pretty much any kind of animal or creature, including the trolls' guardian lusii. This control ''also'' extends to the enemies they fight in the Medium, ironically making [[Wheelchair Woobie|him]] one of the most powerful players in their session (although he [[Actual Pacifist|refuses to actually hurt any of them]]). Then it turns out that this power extends to '''''[[Physical God|Becquerel]]''''', and that he's successfully controlled said reality-warping god-dog before.
** [[It Got Worse]]. It turns out that the former [[Evil Overlord|Troll Empress]]-turned-[[God Save Us From the Queen|Black Queen]] has similar control over the equally powerful GCat.
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' got Dimitri Vapnoople, "the greatest monster wielder of the century", [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20181116 as summarized by one of his creations]. These don't seem "hard" controlled by him, but instinctively ''[[Charm Person|attached]]''.
** [[The Hunter|The Vespers]] use wasp-eaters — many-legged weasel constructs, more dangerous than they look like (they can "swarm" Wasp Warriors, constructs whom even [[Super Soldier]]s find troublesome in large numbers). So they naturally have designated weasel handlers; the job qualification seems to be "whoever weasels like rather than merely tolerate". Of those, at least Ruxala have [[Mauve Shirt|survived the massacre]] and seems to be set up as a secondary cast member.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* The youngest prince in ''[[Conan the Adventurer (animation)|Conan the Adventurer]]'' has this as his ability, though mostly he's only good enough to command his loyal ferret.
* Jar Jar [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch|kriffing]] Binks, of all people, in ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]''.
* Fluttershy in ''[[My Little Pony:
* Ma'ti of ''[[Captain Planet]]'' can communicate and guide any creature on Earth.
* Beast-Man's power in both versions of ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]''; he can command animal life via a combination of empathy and training. His ally Mer-Man can do the same with sea life.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Elemental Powers]]
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