Who plays a temporary side character? /u/Biohacker_Ellie DnD: Roll for Initiative!

Hi all, I’m new at DMing and have a quick question about how I’m introducing an important character into the story. She is fairly important to the lore of my campaign and how the players interact with her can shape certain outcomes of the campaign as a whole. One option they have would be to travel with her to her home, which would be a fairly long journey across the map. I made a character sheet for her so she is fully fleshed out but also is weakend for story reasons. Are characters like this usually just controlled by the DM? I could use her weakness as an excuse to avoid combat to prevent buffing my party with an extra member, and just role play her like I would any other npc? Or do I treat her more like a companion that one of my players can control?

Hi all, I’m new at DMing and have a quick question about how I’m introducing an important character into the story. She is fairly important to the lore of my campaign and how the players interact with her can shape certain outcomes of the campaign as a whole. One option they have would be to travel with her to her home, which would be a fairly long journey across the map. I made a character sheet for her so she is fully fleshed out but also is weakend for story reasons. Are characters like this usually just controlled by the DM? I could use her weakness as an excuse to avoid combat to prevent buffing my party with an extra member, and just role play her like I would any other npc? Or do I treat her more like a companion that one of my players can control?