It starts with a rabbit. It ends with something enormous and scaled standing between you and everything that wants to eat you. The longest road on the newsstand, and the biggest prize at the end of it.
A tamer doesn't fight — a tamer commands. You walk up to a wild creature, you talk it down, and from then on it belongs to you. It fights for you, carries your shopping, and follows you around the world. At the top end that creature is a dragon, and a well-handled dragon will kill things that an entire party of fighters would run from.
Three skills make it work and all three are mandatory. Animal Taming is the taming itself. Animal Lore lets you inspect a creature to see what it is and how it's doing — and it also raises the ceiling on what you can tame at all. Veterinary is how you heal your pet, which matters enormously, because a dead pet is weeks of work gone.
This is the slowest profession here, and the guide won't pretend otherwise. Taming climbs by taming things at the edge of your ability, and the gap between "can tame a horse" and "can tame a dragon" is long. But a tamer is also the most self-sufficient character in Britannia once established — your pet is a permanent companion that never needs reagents, bandages or a party.
You get 700 skill points in total, which is seven skills at 100 (Grandmaster). Here is a sheet that works, and why each line is on it. You can load this exact spread on the hero sheet in the magazine and slide the numbers around.
| Skill | Points | Why it's here |
|---|---|---|
| Animal Taming | 100 | The core. Decides what you can tame and how often it works. |
| Animal Lore | 100 | Inspect creatures, and it raises what you can tame. Taming without Lore is a half-built character. |
| Veterinary | 100 | Heal and resurrect your pet with bandages. The skill that protects your investment. |
| Magery | 100 | Travel, heals for yourself, and Invisibility — a tamer's best escape when a tame goes wrong. |
| Meditation | 100 | Mana for the Magery half. No metal armour. |
| Resisting Spells | 100 | You spend taming attempts standing completely still, which is exactly when casters hit you. |
| Evaluating Intelligence | 100 | Spell damage, so you can contribute instead of only spectating. |
| Total | 700 | of 700 |
All three or none. Lore gates what you can tame, Vet keeps it alive, Taming does the work. Leaving one at 50 cripples the other two.
Because your pet does the damage and you need the utility. Recall to get around, heals for yourself, and Invisibility for the moment a failed tame leaves an angry dragon staring at you.
Skills go up by using them, and they go up fastest on a task that is just barely hard for you. Climb the rungs in order — each one stops paying off, and that's your cue to move up.
NPC animal trainers in Britain and Skara Brae get Taming, Lore and Vet to 30. Then tame the harmless things — rabbits, birds, cats, dogs. Say all follow me and build yourself an absurd parade. This stage is pure charm and costs nothing.
Horses and pack llamas — the llama is the point, because it carries loot and every other character in the family will want to borrow it. Use Animal Lore on everything you meet, tamed or not; Lore trains off inspection alone.
The middle stretch. Work through forest animals around Yew and Skara Brae. The rule throughout: tame things that just barely succeed. If it tames first try every time, it's too easy and you've stopped learning.
Now your pet is a real combatant. Start fighting with it, which trains Veterinary — your pet takes damage, you bandage it. Vet trains fastest on a pet that's genuinely getting hurt, so pick fights with it rather than avoiding them.
Nightmares, white wyrms, drakes, then dragons in Destard. Taming something that big takes several attempts, each one leaving you exposed — bring Invisibility and know your exit. The first dragon is the proudest moment on the shard.
Taming is cheap to start — the cost is time, not gold. What you spend money on is bandages for your pet and a runebook to get it around.
| What | Where | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| A shepherd's crook | Any animal trainer | Not strictly required for taming, but it's the classic tool and it helps with herding animals into place. |
| 500 bandages | Tailor | These are for your pet, through Veterinary. A tamer goes through more bandages than a knight does. |
| A spellbook and reagents | Mage shop | Recall, heals, and above all Invisibility. |
| A runebook | Mage shop or tinker | Taming grounds are scattered across the map. Mark Yew, Skara Brae, Destard and home. |
| Raw meat and fish steaks | Butcher or fisher | Pets need feeding, and a fed pet stays loyal. A hungry pet can turn wild and walk off with your two weeks of work. |
| Cloth and leather | Tailor | Meditation doesn't work in metal, and you're relying on Magery for travel and escapes. |
The right room makes training three times faster. These are the spots worth a rune.
The ranger and animal town. Trainers, farms, and gentle creatures in every direction. The best possible place to start.
Great harts, hinds and bears — exactly the 50-to-70 range, with plenty of trees to break line of sight when something objects.
Drakes and dragons. The tamer's endgame and the reason the whole ladder exists.
Where pets live when you're not using them. Stable your pets — an unstabled pet left in the world can be lost.
Logging out with a pet following you is how pets get lost. Put it in a stable at any animal trainer before you finish for the night. This is the single most expensive lesson a tamer can learn.
New tamers max Taming and wonder why dragons still refuse them. Lore is half the equation. Inspect every creature you pass — it's free progress and it directly raises what you can tame.
A neglected pet loses loyalty and can go wild — permanently. Keep raw meat in your pack and feed it regularly. Weeks of work, undone by forgetting lunch.
Each attempt roots you in place next to something large and annoyed. Have Invisibility ready, keep an escape route, and never start a big tame with your back to a wall.
Britannia runs on favours. These are the people you want in your party and on your friends list.