I think it's just one, based on this wording: "You can use a bonus action to command how the creature moves and what action it takes on its next turn, or to give it general orders, such as to attack your enemies."

Quote from ShiKhali >>

having a huge disagreement with my DM about this item. its her first time DMing and she says i need to issue the attack order every turn for my summoned creature taking my bonus action each turn. even if the target is the same and a general order of "attack that target continuously" has been given. and despite the expressed written rule "You can use a bonus action to command how the creature moves and what action it takes on its next turn, OR to give it GENERAL orders, such as to attack your enemies."

i say that this isnt an animal companion. i dont have a connection to it, it just pops into being and disappears later. it is a summoned animal with its own turn that is taken on the summoners initiative. ie. will continue with whatever orders it been given unless unable to or given other orders.

the rules as stated for this item and how I'm understanding this is
"The creature is friendly to you and your companions, (knows friend from foe) and it acts on your turn. (using your initiative number) You can use a bonus action to command (overwrites action to command attack for animal companion already clearly making this different from an animal companion) how the creature moves and what action it takes on its next turn (clearly defining that the creature has ITS's own turn), or to give it general orders, such as to attack your enemies.(not "attack that enemy once") In the absence of such orders, the creature acts in a fashion appropriate to its nature." (would likely attack an active threat to known friendlies.)

she is stating that regardless what the rules of the item say the rules for a ranger's animal companion (despite me not being a ranger) supersede what is written for the item. and that im lucky shes letting it use a bonus action to attack each turn as if that isnt part of the items rules. despite it never being mentioned in item description of giving you an animal companion. but rather specifically labeled as summoning a creature.

she was willing to homebrew it to just roll the animals own initiative when it comes out so it has its own separate turn and that would in effect be the same thing as what i understand the rules say to do, except a little off time and harder to manage. but im curious what other DM's would rule. kinda wish this was like MTG where you could see official rulings of how items work. because I feel like word usage tends to be very specific about what they are saying. and given her ruling it turns the bag of tricks into a bag of goldfish with a 6 second memory that'll just stand there like idiots waiting  for me to say "ya thats still an enemy, didnt change in the last 6 seconds go ahead and bite again" taking away the opportunity to cast a  healing word

 First you are kind of pushing rules lawyer boundaries here. Whatever your DM says goes. Second I believe that you do have to use your bonus action every turn to command the animal to do something otherwise it will do what it's instincts say. Say your fighting enemy soldiers, an animals natural instinct would not be to attack said soldier. Instead it would run away. The only reason the animal would attack that soldier in the first place is because you told it to. This item isn't really here to give you free damage its here to give you something to use your bonus action on for a little extra damage. If you want to cast healing word then you don't get the extra damage from said animal.

I am the proud owner of two of these. Love them

I got a grey one that works pretty well even if its animals don't help a ton in combat anymore 

@Alirious does your DM allow the animals to recharge into the back at the end of the day? What if they die?

 Can you get doubles of a creature?

Example:

If I have a tan bag and I'm in battle, I roll a 5 and a black bear appears and fights alongside me and my party. The bear dies during the fight and I reach into the bag again and roll another 5. Does another black bear appear, or would I have to re-roll and be unable to potentially summon a black bear until the bag recharges at dawn?

wou

Quote from RaehgarShackleford >>

 Can you get doubles of a creature?

Example:

If I have a tan bag and I'm in battle, I roll a 5 and a black bear appears and fights alongside me and my party. The bear dies during the fight and I reach into the bag again and roll another 5. Does another black bear appear, or would I have to re-roll and be unable to potentially summon a black bear until the bag recharges at dawn?

 This question may have already been long resolved, but you would summon an entirely different black bear to fight for you.

Quote from HarryOranges >>

Quote from _Lily_Bear_ >>

do the balls regenerate at dawn?

 Good question — meaning are they “consumable” or regenerate after use? If the regenerate it seems like throwing one makes less of an impact if you can just keep throwing them all everyday

 the description says 

"Once three fuzzy objects have been pulled from the bag, the bag can't be used again until the next dawn."

this gives me the impression that you can pull out more than three objects in total, and the description doesn't give a number of fuzzy balls, so I can only assume that they do regenerate

Description says gray but the table title says grey. Remember, in America it's gray, in England it's grey.

And in Canada it's Gr-eh, eh.

I want to give this as a reward found after a quest, but don't know when it's balanced enough to include. Any suggestions on what adventurer level the party should be at when someone gets this item? What if it was changed to be one fuzzy ball per day?

I'm awarding this to a Level 4 player as-is.  I don't think it will be overpowered at any level.  If you're concerned that one may be overpowered, go with the Gray bag instead of the others.  If your players use the animal in combat, the main benefit will be gaining a distraction so they're hit less (almost necessary at level 1-2) and it adds to their action economy, unless they already have a use for their bonus actions.  Really only helpful in the early game, then it turns to flavor IMO.

My players were awarded a grey bag a little while ago, and they start every single day by pulling one ball each from the bag to see what they get, and they roll ahead with the days adventuring from there. I don't exactly mind, but it makes combat a lot more annoying to set up, and the dire wolf and giant elk tends to make combat a lot easier for them than it would otherwise be.

The wording is a little bit open to interpretation as far as how they are used in combat, I find. On a bonus action players can order the creatures to attack a foe, but on the next round it's hard to say if they should need to use a bonus action again to repeat the command, or if 'the appropriate thing for its nature' to do is to continue to defend itself.

So...how's this work in places without a dawn, like Rime of the Frostmaiden?  

In Canada the colour is Græy!

I have a great idea for a quick mission board item. The bag of tricks is stuck on the interior wheel of a windmill and every time it turns or jostles a random animal pops out. Some of the larger creatures attack farmhands in the area. In my campaign currently, the city guard is busy fighting an underground rebellion, and adventurers are needed for matters like this. After fighting a few bears or lions the PCs have the opportunity to investigate the windmill where they find the bag of tricks. In this case a rust bag of tricks. (my PCs are pretty low level at this point) 

Quote from pawnman >>

So...how's this work in places without a dawn, like Rime of the Frostmaiden?  

Chapter 2 of Xanathar's Guide to Everything clarifies this:

RECHARGING WITHOUT A DAWN

Some magic items can be used a limited number of times but are recharged by the arrival of dawn. What if you’re on a plane of existence that lacks anything resembling dawn? The DM should choose a time every 24 hours when such magic items recharge on that plane of existence. 

Even on a world that experiences dawn each day, the DM is free to choose a different time — perhaps noon, sunset, or midnight — when certain magic items recharge.

Since they're such things as sentient magic items, I think it would be hilarious once the players find out that their bag of tricks is quite the chatterbox!

To me it is very clear. It acts naturally as an animal of its type on your turn UNLESS you use a bonus action on your turn to command it to do something (attack, do nothing, flee, roll over, sit, move here, etc). Then it will act on its turn, which is YOUR TURN after your actions are completed since it's on your initiative order, but you do have to spend your bonus action each round to do so. The creature does not have a real turn because it acts on YOUR INITIATIVE order. And even though it is friendly, you're right, it is not an animal companion. Therefore, it would not attack your attackers unless IT felt threatened DIRECTLY by the enemy, i.e. the enemy tries to attack the animal. Very likely, as an animal, it would flee to a safe distance if a lot of commotion was happening, i.e. a battle. Most wild animals avoid humans unless threatened, unless they're a predator and then they'd only attack a human that is alone and seems like prey to them. Also, even most animal companions such as a dog will not attack unless they're trained to attack. Studies have been done that show most dogs (over 90%) flee when their owner is attacked. The study showed that smaller dogs were more likely to come to their owner's aid (Google it, it's an interesting read).  Anyway, I hope that helps clarify the rule for you!