Playing an Artificer with a homunculus and steel defender. Can I assume since they both need the artificer's bonus action to attack that only one can attack or can he command them both at the same time?
While you can only comand one of them to attack, you can have one do another thing that halps like positioning (Homonculus can still deliver a cure wounds for you with it's reaction) .
So while it feels like "If I have both one will just stand around drooling" that isn't the case. There is still a lot of stuff the not attacking pet can do.
Playing an Artificer with a homunculus and steel defender. Can I assume since they both need the artificer's bonus action to attack that only one can attack or can he command them both at the same time?
Correct, by the rules, only one per turn / bonus action.
While you can only comand one of them to attack, you can have one do another thing that halps like positioning (Homonculus can still deliver a cure wounds for you with it's reaction) .
So while it feels like "If I have both one will just stand around drooling" that isn't the case. There is still a lot of stuff the not attacking pet can do.