Alright, that clears up a lot. Thank you again, Vermilion Sparrow. Restoration Dual Casting is ineffective, but at least it's not a total trash, lol. I can probably work this out. This one is a Go




Yes, that is what I meant. How do you do it? Are you on PC?

Ok, an interesting topic, but I'm still stuck on how your followers are leveling with you. I'm on the PC, all patched up, and my followers do not level. I know this because I can use the console to check their stats (like health), use the disable/enable command, and check again and everything goes up. I thought this was a known bug that is supposed to be fixed with the data patch (1.4) coming out this month. I just don't see how anyone's companions can be leveling unless it's just an assumption they are making.

As far as playing a healer. I am playing a pure mage now and while I can keep myself alive most the time by dual casting heal on myself while the dragon breaths and axes fall, keeping a companion alive at the same time would be impossible. Also the tougher creatures (like dragon priest) would be impossible. Heck they are hard enough to kill throwing everything at them. I can not see any way of taking them out with a companion doing all the damage.

I have used Wards, but to be honest the fact that you really can't do much else while casting them makes them pretty useless. It would have to be an ideal situation for one to really save the day.

You have to go into the menu and click the "right hand" button to map it to the right hand, though. If you have a shield+spell and just press a different spell's hotkey, it usually puts the new spell in the left hand, and not the right.

Yes I am. i have my favorite spells/items mapped to the number keys. Heal myself on #1, Firebolt on #2, etc. It's great how fast I can load something and use it. The first tap on the #2 key will put the spell in my right hand. A second tap puts it in my left hand too. I do 2 quick taps, charge the spell and fire! You'll want to test all of your chosen mapped items. I have the Sanguine Rose staff on #6 and if I tap that after the Firebolt, I have Sanguine Rose in my right hand and still have the Firebolt in my left. For my new build, I'll have a favorite shield mapped and no Destruction spells...Illusion spells instead.

Vermilion, I use dual-cast a lot but also bow and arrows. Those are mapped on a single key and always bow in R and arrows L. I'll have to play with assigning hands to what I've mapped too. Thanks.

What I want to do is switch between different Spells on Right Hand while holding a Shield on Left Hand at all time

A shield can only be in the left hand so that is a given. If mapping a specific hand to a spell works (I haven't tested that myself), then it sounds like you're good to go.

Edit: It's also possible to have a Ward spell and another spell at the same time...with the Ward spell being the shield....in either hand I believe. Lots of combinations to play with.

Oh.. that is Not Good. I thought Followers level with us.
I could be wrong, but I remember reading somewhere that Followers do level with us in Health, Stamina, & Magicka. The only thing that is bugged & do not level is the Skills, hence you do not see their level going up. You seem to have a solid proof on this though, so I'm gonna need confirmation from people here. Which Console Command do you use to check their Health & Skills?
Thank you for this headsup, LeBurns.


Thank you for reminding me about Dragon Priest, LeBurns. I met one on my Warrior at Shearpoint and it was a challenging and fun fight.. I was hoping if 1 of my Follower could keep his aggro, that will allow my 2nd Follower to do steady damage while I try to keep the tank up. You made a very good point though, I might not be able to out heal Dragon Priest attacks. Maybe I will need a really big Magicka pool. This will be interesting..

Thats a very boring character to play. I'll try it once I get sick of Skyrim, which isnt happening anytime soon.

By the way...yes. Wards are amazing. Thrilling to use fighting dragons I might add. Mages are very powerful in this game so if you want to use magic, use wards when fighting mages.

I believe the command is getAVinfo

So go into the console, click the followers that's been with you a while, type "getAVinfo health" (check the value), type "disabe", type "enable", type "getAVinfo health" (check value again).

First time I did this Lydia's health more than doubled. After that I level my followers at least every 5 levels so they can keep pace.

I actually played this exact type of character this past weekend. Restoration for healing and Alteration for defense (mostly pointless actually). I leveled Enchanting to 100 for 100% casting cost reduction in both schools. I have a ways to go in the main quest (just got to High Hrothgar) but I did manage to complete the entire Mage's College questline this way. Things of note:

- Alteration is super easy to level. Wear as much +mana and -cost gear as possible and cast detect life in Whiterun/Dragon's Reach/Riften. I got it to 100 without going out of my way.
- Having Alteration at all assumes you will be taking hits, however, which shouldn't happen if your follower is fighting. Still potentially useful for the magic resist perks and for the paralyze spell, though I've found my follower often won't attack paralyzed opponents.)
- Multi-enemy fights are pretty hard if the opponents are powerful (think multiple giants and mammoths). Your follower will go down in one hit and the enemies will target you!
- The Alteration spell "Equilibrium" has good synergy with Healing if you have decent enchanted armor, because you will gain more HP and mana faster than you lose it.
- The Restoration dual casting perk is useful with 100% reduction gear.
- I neglected Wards completely but they could be fun to try.

Yeh i think being a pure healer is cool but say for example your RP'ing your character or even if your not infact wouldn't it make sense to back up your follower when they get attacked or if someone directly attacks you? Your healing is limited whereas you could invest in a pacifist play style. I wouldn't want to run away from stuff if my follower gets knocked down just to heal. Especially if it makes sense to help the follower.

My 2 coppers on the whole "using a follower" bit.

As per the title, I think it could be a fun challenge. But saying you're a pacifist while fully intending to take along a buddy with a big honking sword who's proven they enjoy using it....meh. I don't think that fits.

So, I know I'm being pedantic, but this is my take on it. RPing someone who only knows healing/defensive magic is interesting. Saying you're RPing a pacifist while not taking illusion magic to keep things from being hostile to your companion (who you fully intend to help kill everything there)...isn't convincing at all. And yes, it really is all semantics, lol.

EDIT: If you really want to be a pacifist you'll either just calm people constantly or you'll just never adventure.