Anti- animal companion

I'm sure this has probably been discussed before, but I was just curious if anyone had an idea on how to make a NPC that was good at taking control of a players AC and using it against them. A friend of mine is using a Halfling cavalier with wolf mount and another player is using a dire tiger as his AC. And yes, this is homebrew. But considering we typically use the same characters for different campaigns and missions, when it is my turn to DM, I want to be able have a rival group of NPCs that can deal with a dire tiger. I was thinking of using a bard/ ranger build, with the ranger's handle animal and animal companion as well as using a bard performance of dominate animal with a ring of charm animal. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Unless the Cavalier and the other player selected the Exclusive trick for their pets, any schmoe with a good enough Handle Animal could command the pets. However, they would likely be restricted to things like down, stay, etc.

Charm Animal and Dominate Animal could be used as a more effective anti pet. Both target Will saves, a traditionally low save for pets.

They didn't pick the exclusive trick. The wolf mount knows the riding general purpose as well as attack, down, and track. As for the dire tiger, he has the "hunting" trick. The way I was going to RP the NPC was sorta like the pied piper and have them attack their respective owners. I just wasn't sure of penalties that would be involved.

Unless the Cavalier and the other player selected the Exclusive trick for their pets, any schmoe with a good enough Handle Animal could command the pets. However, they would likely be restricted to things like down, stay, etc.

I will point out that while TECHNICALLY i dont think anything prevents them from using handle animal to just say attack their owner, it feels heavily implied that, being a class feature, they would at the very least not attack the owner in question

True. And I don't want to get a RAW argument with them when it's my turn to GM. Though I could have them go after the other members of the party...

RAW you can command the animal to attack its owner (or anyone else) on a DC 10 handle animal check (as a standard action).

I would strongly argue that this is not the intent of the rules, and can think of a few different ways of ruling it. 1) The animal is trained to attack enemies that its owner points out so attacking anything else would require 'pushing' the animal (DC 25 Handle animal check -- akin to influencing a hostile NPC's attitude). 2) The druid/cavalier are bound by a link (and possibly devotion) while RAW these don't apply to enemy HA checks they might in spirit. 3) Last you could make it an opposed handle animal check.

Of those I'd go with the opposed check as it seems most fair.

I would avoid attacking the owners. Instead, I would have them attack other PCs, the mount could throw the rider (not an attack) or just run away from the fight and not contribute.

Stronger magic would be needed, imo, to have the animal turn on it's master. Course, that does depend on how the animal was treated in the past too.

Thanks for the advice. Opposed check prob would be the best route, though when they RP it, I may change it up a little bit. I don't want the animals to kill the players, just do some damage and such. Having a dire tiger pounce on a player and then rake while his handler is trying to stop him might make for a quick encounter.