Should you add taming to an existing character, or start a new one from scratch?

Starting A New Character:

Start with 50 taming, and 50 Magery. Animal Lore and Veterinary are two other possible choices instead of magery, but they will both raise easily on their own past the 50s if you use them.

For opening stats I recommend
Str 43
Int 11
Dex 11
You have a lot of strength, but also have the mana to cast recall and get around, you also have enough dex to "push through" something but not be "stuck" if/when you go to felucca

Adding taming to an existing character:

A lot of times Taming is an afterthought on a character, I know that must sound strange since its unquestionably such a POEWRFUL skill, but it happens.

I made my first taming character on Siege as an afterthought, It only takes 200 Points to be GM in the two biggest skills involved with taming, so why not? (Of course for most people those are 200 of the toughest points they will ever gain in UO, but that aside..)

In addition to Taming and Animal lore, Magery is a very important skill for tamers Its extremely convenient to be able to cast Gate with your tamer, use the invisibility spell without fail, and mana dump G-Heals on your tame (and you!) in heavy combat.

Adding taming to a character with a lot of magery is ideal.

If you think you might want to develop all the taming skills to their fullest, your character will probably look something like this:

The last 200 points would depend on your playstyle, these are just some suggestions.

Most tamers are mixes of taming and another powerful set of skills.

There are a lot of Tamer/Mage combos, and Tamer/Bard combos, there are even a few Tamer Archer combos (on Siege I'm a Tamer/Archer). The only limitation is your imagination, and each blend of skills will have its own blessings and curses.