The Beast Master

I already did one Compleat Adventurer-inspired class, the Witch Hunter. One of the reasons I never bought that Bard Games supplement back in the day was because there were only two classes I thought were interesting... and it's time to do the other one, the Beast Master. We all know where they got that idea...

There are actually two approaches to a character who can control animals: the mundane Beast Tamer and the truly supernatural Beast Master.

• Tamers can't communicate with animals except in a mundane way: paying attention to behaviors that indicate emotional state, and using gestures and tone of voice to communicate their own emotions to beasts. They are variant Charmers, with their abilities affecting animals instead of human(oid)s; optional Hybrid Fighter/Charmer (beasts) or other hybrids would work well, too.
• Beast Masters have the supernatural ability to communicate with animals, a variant of the Spirit-Worker's base ability. If the Beast Master only uses that ability to get animals to perform mundane actions, the character can be a Hybrid Spirit-Worker (beasts)/Fighter or Hybrid Spirit-Worker (beasts)/ Charmer (beasts); if the character can summon or command beasts magically from a distance or "borrow" beast powers as if from a totem animal, a pure Spirit-Worker (beasts) with a customized spell list would work.

Either form gets an unfamiliarity penalty (exactly like weapons) with animal types they've never worked with before. They get automatic familiarity with the kinds of animals native to their background homeland, plus animals native to any additional regions they have 6 or more years of experience in.