Quote Originally Posted by Bronk View Post
DMG, p103: "It’s your job to portray everyone in the world who isn’t a player character."
As a creature who is technically just a part of a PCs class feature, I'd argue that those words don't apply. That section is the chapter in the DMG that specifically deals with populating the world with NPCs, and I don't think it's fair to equate a druid's class feature with an NPC like a merchant, or an enemy, or other such NPCs. It's a different thing entirely. I'm also not seeing the words 'animal companion' anywhere in that NPC chapter. There's a subsection titled 'animals and other monsters' but it seems clear reading it that it isn't referring to animal companions, but rather animals as foes and set dressing. That idea is further backed up by the first line of the description in the druid's animal companion section: 'A druid’s animal companion is different from a normal animal of its kind in many ways.'

Aside from that, there's a whole section on 205 and 206 that, summed up, says that they're like cohorts, will desert you if you treat them poorly, and are still regular animals with their normal bestial instincts that can't follow complex orders.
That section lays out the circumstances in which an animal companion may not be happy and would leave, which would be DM territory, or at least joint territory. It also lats out what simple combat actions and animal companion can take, when not using the actions defined in the Handle Animal skill.


What I'm not seeing in that section, either, is wordage that would indicate the animal companion is a DM controlled NPC. It's even found in the chapter named 'Characters' rather than the one named 'Non Player Characters'

It is part of a PC's class feature, it belongs to the PC, and while the rules put some specific boundaries around its behavior, it is ultimately an extension of the the player's character.