Animals are people too. Its a fantasy world. Why not have semi-sentient animals? My dogs are intelligent. They cant talk human but they feel and convey exactly how they are feeling.
I am not against having intelligent animals, it's just that it leads to multiple logical conclusions:
1) Animals would have to intigrate into some forms of society, like all other intelligent species do.
2) It would not make sense to have any pets, you wouldn't have another intelligent species as a pet, having a pet dog would be like having a pet halfling for example.
3) Most people would have to be vegan, since eating intelligent species can lead to a lot of bad consequances and in general could be considered a form canibalism.
Etc.
As far as I know animals in D&D like IRL are not self-aware and don't possess enough intelligence to be considered people, and as such I think their intelligence in BG3 should be tuned down.
