As I got Torso Maker from Santa, I decided to try it in a shortish nomad reinc.

I am not interested in collecting barb reputation and crimson doesn’t get any decent regen skills, so ranger as the primary guild was reasonable choice. For the secondary (or well third) guild, I selected beastmaster as it seemed somewhat exotic newish guild.

For the race, I selected ogre as I was able to get leadership for it and it didn’t have any water or other limitations (like troll, for example).

There doesn’t seem to be any comprehensive beastmaster guild guides around, so I had to do the reinc somewhat blindly. Luckily, there were no major problems.

Although, I noticed that

• You need to tame several monsters before you can advance guild levels
• You need to kill and butcher several (20k..50k exp worth) animals and give their skulls to the guildmaster before you can train calm animal

In addition, as a ranger, you need to train Mastery of savage beatings very high (84% at least) before you can use a poker or a whip in the left hand with your primary weapon (axe/longsword) in your right hand.

I also noticed that Herding from Squires seem to affect the amount of animals you can lead. With 99% Herding you can lead 5 animals and if you get 100% Herding, the amount goes to 6.

Damage with Torso Maker

As ogre with 213 str, 148 dex, 88 size, full +dam boon, and Torso Maker wielded in a right hand, I seem to hit mostly horribly shred and slash hits. Normal critical hits go up to BRUTALLY TEAR.