A type of character who uses the assistance of an animal, force of nature, or just some sort of not-highly-sentient creature (with free will) to help them fight.
There are a few variations to this:
Type 1: The creature in question has befriended the Beastmaster with a lifelong bond, and is always by his/her side, constantly ready for combat and play.
Type 2: The Beastmaster can convince, cajole, or outright force a critter/creature to fight with them via some type of influence or power. Sometimes he is also a Nature Hero.
Type 3: The beast being used is actually mystical in nature, such as an elemental or spirit, typically requiring a pact; and is normally called with magic.
In video games, the Beastmaster either has complete control over their ally, an ally that follows the "Monkey-see, monkey-do" mentality and follows the master's actions, or the ally just does what it wants in range of its master. As the AI isn't always very good at doing actions that don't kill everyone, the playerbase may regard the job as unpopular. This will normally not be the case in other forms of fiction, as no computer is directing the ally's actions, as that's now the plot's job.
Due to the fact that the ally is, at best, another damage dealer/damage taker, Beastmasters are generally able to do things on their own in an MMORPG environment.
Named after the Beastmaster class in Final Fantasy XI.
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 a 90's show about a Nature Hero, very, very loosely adapted from a 1959 science fiction book series, or the Shōjo Genre manga Beast Master.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
The 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.
Kiba and the rest of the Inuzuka clan use one or more dogs.
As the living nest of a colony of bugs, Shino is an example of a Beastmaster with way more than just one ally.
Several ninja make pacts with summonable creatures. Kakashi can summon dogs, Temari can summon a weasel, Jiraiya and Naruto can summon toads, Tsunade can summon slugs, and Orochimaru can summon snakes.
Meiko Rokudo in Ghost Sweeper Mikami is able to control 12 powerful Shikigami (beast-like spirits or monsters), with different abilities. However, Meiko is very powerful but also ditzy, inexperienced and extremelyinsecure; she not only considers these spirits more like pets, but is easily scared by little things (little spiders, a balloon that bangs), and then she summons instinctively enormous quantities of energy causing massive destruction. On the other hand, Meiko's mother (as the Shikigami's former master) can control all of the twelve Shikigami perfectly.
In Read or Die the TV (and Read Or Dream), Maggie's paper specialty is to form various creatures out of paper (such as birds for flight, or lion-like creatures for fighting)
Zazie The Beast, one of the Gung-Ho Guns in Trigun. He controls enormous sandworms in the anime —his manga counterpart is... squickier.
Sei Arisaka can physically control animals via Mind Control but he can get them to do his binding, such as whistling to make a group of doves appear or merely telling them to "go to sleep" will make them instantly fall asleep.
Katherine McDonald of Kaze No Stigma is of the third type I believe. She has three separate 'beings' of summoning, of different power levels.
While it's supposedly a school of elemental use, she's the only one I think we see.
One Piece has... the Beast Master, the first-mate of the Buggy Pirates. He rides a giant lion and his hat (hair?) changes from season-to-season to different animals.
Said Lion Tamer however is rather poor example as he has not demonstrated any real ability controlling animals outside of his lion. Better examples would be Apis from an early filler arc and Chopper who can speak with animals, not to mention PrincessShirahoshi, who has the ability to telepathically summon gigantic Sea Kings.
Kimba the White Lion can summon other animals to help him fight or accomplish tasks he can't do on his own; he's the King of Beasts in his jungle after all.
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 combine and command animals.
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; 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. They seem to be a mixture of Type 1 and Type 3.
Avatar. All the Na'vi are beastmasters to an extent, thanks to the Bio-USB.
Dar in The Beastmaster. He can telepathically communicate with animals, first seen when he mind-controls a bear to leave him and his foster-father alone and can see through the eyes of his falcon scout. And don't forget the loveable ferret scouts/thieves and the black tiger.
Jennifer from Phenomena can telepathically communicate with insects and command them to attack people.
The Beast Master: An early literary version of this was in this science fiction novel and its sequel Lord of Thunder. The 1982 movie and 90's TV show are also examples.
Catseye: Troy gather some True Companions, of which he is the only human member. The Zero Stone features Eet, kinda a cat. Etc.
Fitz from Robin Hobb's "Fitzchivalry" and "Tawny Man" trilogies has type 1 of this, as do various other characters.
Tortall Universe: In Tamora Pierce's Immortal's Quartet Daine the Wildmage can communicate with animals and even shapeshift into them.
Several characters in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire qualify. At first, the Stark children all appear to be "Type I" beastmasters. Hints are dropped that all of them are actually Type 6, though only Bran actively develops the ability, while it remains a passive one with Jon and Arya. Such "skinchangers" are able to find new beasts by pulling a Type 2. Also, Varamyr Sixskins, a wildling
Live Action TV
The Legend Of Dick And Dom: A Type 2, 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.
Tabletop Games
This is an aspect of many Dungeons & Dragons classes, though the Druid is the king of it — it has both type 1 and type 3 pets.
Type 2 can also be performed either magically or nonmagically.
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 in a Type 1 situation. 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 Garruk Wildspeaker.
As does Turntimber Ranger, which brings along a wolf for every fellow adventurer you summon. (One hilarious combo uses 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.
The Mask of Rahi Control grants this power in BIONICLE.
All Makuta can do this as well.
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 controlled various creatures of the swamp, such as: Hydras, Basilisks, Wyverns and more.
Final Fantasy XI actually has a few of these classes. While the Beastmaster class is like variation 2, the Dragoon class is of variation 1 with their wyvern, the Summoner class is variation 3 with Spirits and Avatars, and the Puppetmaster class is variation 4, with a Robot Buddy puppet (with wireless controls!).
While the MMO is the Trope Namer, Final Fantasy V started the tradition. In addition to the Trainer class which used whips and could capture and control enemy monsters, the archery-focused Hunter could summon animals to achieve random effects.
The GBA remake retroactively named the class Beastmaster, just to drive it home.
Beastmaster is also a class in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for Nu Mou. They play instruments to control enemy monsters, making them good matches for blue mages and hunters.
Hilarity Ensues if you force a monster through a Beastmaster to break the law and watch the monster get sent to jail.
Final Fantasy VI has Shadow who's dog Interceptor will randomly counterattack for Shadow, Relm has a skill called Control which allows her to take control of an enemy monster.
Hunters in World of Warcraft can have animal companions that assist them in battle. The Beast Mastery talent tree works with the bond between Hunter and pet, and ultimately grants access to Exotic pets that other Hunters can't tame, such as Devilsaurs, Core Hounds, Silithids and Chimaeras.
World of Warcraft also gives the Warlock class pets, although they are more limited in nature than the hunter ones (Hunters can tame pretty much every animal and customize it, using it as a friend and companion; Warlocks have a set number of demons with fixed abilities and names, that are enslaved).
Frost Mages can summon a Water Elemental as a permanent pet/companion as a perk of the Frost talent tree.
Going into the realm of NPC's, there's the half-orc Rexxar, who is essentially a Hunter minus The Archer aspect and the Beastmastery taken up to eleven.
In Warcraft 3, the hero class that Rexxar belonged to is actually called the Beastmaster. All its abilities summon different kinds of animals (bear, hawk, boar, and STAMPEDING GIANT LIZARDS). Other hero types can also summon minions, but the Beastmaster's arsenal is entirely based around it, letting him summon a self-supporting army.
Diablo 2 Druids can summon wolves and ravens, among other things.
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.
Could be heroes, there is currently no mechanic for a true Heel Face Turn in-game.
And nearly all characters of the Controller or Dominator archetypes eventually get summoning powers also, except those pesky Mind Controllers.
And even a few Defender and Blaster powersets have a pet of some sort.
Warhammer Online has the Squig Herder (a goblin and his pet fungus creatures), and the White Lion (an elf and his pet . . . white lion).
Although in the tabletop game, the aforementioned elves are only called White Lions because they have to hunt, kill, and skin one as an initiation test. They then wear the skin as a cloak.
They do, however, now have a chariot in which two elves ride, pulled by actual lions. That's gotta be awkward...
You, and a very large number of the NPCs in the Pokémon games are essentially Beastmasters.
Most notably used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where the Pokémon trainer is the only character to stand in the background while his Mons are the ones who do the fighting.
Guild Wars contains a few different types of this. Rangers can charm certain animals that then follow them into combat, Necromancers animate undead minions from fallen enemies, and both Rangers and Ritualists can summon spirits to aid the party.
Alchemists in Ragnarok Online can create and program artificial life forms (Homunculi) to fight for them.
Just to make something a little clear, the programming bit is player side. That is, Homunculi run on a specially written coding language, which is stored in text files in the game folder. Players are encouraged to attempt to modify the AI files as they wish.
The player is Lost Magic can amass a small armada via careful use of the Dark Rune.
Samurai Shodown has a few of these. Galford (with Poppy the dog), Nakoruru (with Mamahaha the falcon or Shikuru the wolf), Rimururu (with Konru (or is it Konril?), an ice Nature Spirit), Cham Cham (with her brother (Tam Tam) as Paku Paku the monkey), Mina (with Champuru, an annoyingly cute man-eating monster in disguise) and even SNK Boss Mizuki (with Maju, some sort of dog-shaped demon) all feature. Oddly, of the ones listed, only Mina's is completely useless in combat. Pets in attack mode are subject to attacks, too, just in case you try sending the dog to rush through a tornado.
Arietta the Wild from Tales of the Abyss usually brings in her beasts whenever she fights, except when there are other God Generals around. It also helps that those beasts actually raised her.
In Age of Empires III, European explorers can get a canine companion that follows them around and helps them fight.
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.
Alice Margatroid of Touhou Project is of variation 4. She is a puppeteer who controls a veritable army of dolls armed with swords, lances, magical bullets, laser beams, etc.
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 loli princess and is brutally killed and eaten by said kitty. Mukkur is generally a pretty amiable fellow though. Later, she also makes a pet of Gacatar, some sort of small ferrety creature with special powers that allows her to perform her ultimate technique. She can talk to both and is essentially Mukkur's mother.
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 essence until they die or you "absorb" them.
Free Korean MMORPGMabinogi includes a Type 1 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 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 AIs 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 a Type 2 ability with 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 Type 2 ability with the Taming skill. Like Control of Darkness, it allows only very basic control over the creature.
The new Elven Warden from Runes Of Magic has the ability to summon a pet to help him do his fighting.
Disgaea 2 added such a class (female, if you must know), purely for additional support for monster-types, since the first game lacks such a class. They were added into Disgaea 3 as well, showing off new monster-supporting evilities.
The Turtle Tamers in Kingdom of Loathing can be considered beastmasters. One strategy used is to increase their familiar's weight (i.e. level) with buffs and equipment.
One of the bosses in Albion is called The Beastmaster. He's more of a beast tender, really, since his job is to raise the various beasts the Kenget Kamulos use for training. Although when encountered, he does sic a number of predators on the player before finally deciding to fight.
Borderlands includes one in Mordecai, the Hunter class avatar. He uses his pet bird-of-prey Bloodwing to aid in attacking enemies.
Lieza of Arc The Lad II an a gifted ability to communicate with beasts and allow them to join the party.
The player character from Adventure Quest can become a beastmaster as a class.
The Beast Master kit in Baldur's Gate II. It gets the special abilities of Summon Animals (a low-level druid spell) in return for the inability to use metal weapons and armour. It is generally considered to be the worst or second-worst kit in the game, its only main competitor being the Wizard Slayer.
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: Origins allows characters to summon wolves and bears to help out in combat.
The Engineer class in Mass Effect 2 can spawn a combat drone. So can Tali and Legion.
Greyback from Battle Realms is a mixture of type 2 and type 5. His 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.
The Nu Mou-exclusive Beastmaster class in Final Fantasy Tactics A2:Grimoire Of The Rift is a Type 2 who can force monsters to attack other enemies or heal allies. However, they're usually used to help the Blue Mage learn spells rather than actually fighting.
Web Original
Menagerie can not only 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.
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 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 example: 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.
Web Comics
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 him one of the most powerful players in their session (although he refuses to actually hurt any of them). Then it turns out that this power extends to Becquerel, and that he's successfully controlled said reality-warping god-dog before.
Western Animation
Although it was not an ability held by his original comic book incarnation, several versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Rat King possess the ability to control rats, and use them to attack. It becomes especially troublesome when fighting against Splinter, since he can control him as well.
Mechanical example: Soundwave from Transformers. One of his most distinguishing traits is the menagerie of loyal animal (and two humanoid) robots that he can release from the tape compartment that makes up his chest.
Occasionally his Autobot counterpart, Blaster, has his own set of tape-bots as well.
The youngest prince in Conan The Adventurer has this as his ability, though mostly he's only good enough to command his loyal ferret.
Fluttershy in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic can win over and command anything from a herd of rabbits to a full grown dragon and a cockatrice. Unfortunately, on the rare occasion that her creature-charming fails, she suffers a fair amount of Sanity Slippage and resorts to physically chasing and trapping the animals so that they may love her!
Ma'ti of Captain Planet can communicate and guide any creature on Earth.
