So I was interested in rolling a Ranger / Cleric, or a Ranger dual classed into Cleric. The Beastmaster seems like it would be really interesting for these purposes. I was just wondering what experienced Icewind Dale players think of the combination, and the best way to pull it off. From what I can tell you need level 12 for all the Beastmaster bonuses (level 3 animal summons, more druid spells?) but I'm fairly certain that Clerics get the same animal summoning spells, so unless its an ability for the Beastmaster, I think a lower level Beastmaster might be better.

Would a Beastmaster / Fighter or Thief be a better combination? They also get summon familiar based on alignment, so what alignments would be interesting for a R/ C, R/ T or R/ F?

From what I can tell the Beastmaster is from the enhanced editions, so its annoying to find information on it. Thank you for any answers.

For ranger dualed to cleric level 7 is the highest level worth taking since you get an extra half attack. Additional ranger levels cost a lot of XP and will slow down the cleric progression, you loose far more than you get.

Apparently BM get their first summoning spell at level 6 (lvl 4 spell as lvl1). I'm not sure if its worth taking BM just for 1 spell, but they also get familiars.. Getting one of the dragons to cast some spells seems useful, but I don't think its worth taking BM if you're aren't going to invest more levels into it. Its really hard to decide since its hard to find any information on IWD EE's extras.

I made a 'sister' post to this in the Baldur's Gate forum's IWD general question's thread so the question is already answered. Its on page 11 if anyone is curious about the answer. Basically summons are not worth gving up what the BM loses out on, and familiars aren't really worth it either.