I have a new campaign coming up set up as a horror mystery I'm looking to make a Doctor Doolittle/PI character with a lot of companions, good with a bow sneaks around to get the info he needs. Beastmaster ranger is a duh but I want to fit the dark mysteriousness as well.

Any ideas?

Forest Gnome gives you the free ability to communicate with Small or smaller beasts, but doesn't do much for your dark mysteriousness. Though frankly, Doctor Doolittle isn't the first character that comes to mind when I think of horror. Maybe if you leaned into/overplayed the British colonialism aspect (there were some extremely racist caricatures in the earliest editions of the books, I haven't read them recently so I'm not sure how much they've been amended). Are you looking for spells suggestions, RP suggestions, or something else?

Firbolg perhaps. They’re mysterious, and can talk to animals. They can’t necessarily understand animals, but they can talk to them.

Quote from TheCulprit >>

I have a new campaign coming up set up as a horror mystery I'm looking to make a Doctor Doolittle/PI character with a lot of companions, good with a bow sneaks around to get the info he needs. Beastmaster ranger is a duh but I want to fit the dark mysteriousness as well.

Any ideas?

 If you want numerous companions you need to plan to have access to Awaken.