Still failed to recruit beasts thus far!
One more thing about recruiting, I believe the target unit's "loyalty level" is also crucial to the chance. I believe its checked via doing the "more info" thing over the unit's name in status screen. I was trying to recruit some golems but their loyalty report read like they were highly loyal, so my beast tamer was still seeing `0`s even when the other conditions were met
Next level is back at Quadriga fortress to recruit some wild-lookin bro. Enemies took a sudden level jump from 12 => 16, higher than my party which is the first time that happened. Generally I have rolled into battles at or above the enemy by 1 or 2 levels.
1. Woods are one of the optional "side dungeon" for recruiting, material farming
2. Story brranch does affect a) path thru the game, b) units available to recruit, c) ending (sort of, chapter 4 I believe will largely follow the same path regardless of main choices, but just that some dialog and the ending will differ)