I've continually used soul gems to recharge my follower's weapons but I've recently given him some filled gems to see if he'll use them himself. I haven't had chance to investigate further but does anyone know if he will use them or if I have to keep doing it?
Incidentally, to what extent are followers self-sufficient?I know similar questions have been asked before so apologies for this, but will they use potions and scrolls I give them for example?
Cheers

I don't think they recharge weapons, they might, but I don't think they do. I always give my follower a soul trap weapon and a bunch of empty soul gems and they actually do run out of charges sometimes and never used the filled ones they had.

I know they use health potions, maybe even magicka, but I haven't seen one use a poison or stamina one yet. I don't think they use fortify health though but I could be wrong.

The first time they used a summon staff was pretty cool. I heard they can use scrolls but I never noticed Lydia using one yet.


Edit: I am pretty sure they eat certain food also, maybe all. I gave Lydia a bunch of apples or something and I am almost positive she ate them when she ran out of health potions.

Cheers Shaun

In my experience, the charge on the weapons I give them never seems to go down. Whenever I take them back, it has the same charge as when I gave it to them. I also read somewhere that they use Shards, so maybe soul gems are not the right thing to give them.

What are Shards? Never heard of them before. Intrigued.

@2nd post, you mean to say I can offload all my soul gems to a follower, give them a soul trap weapon, and they will actively fill all the gems for me? If so, that's awesome.

The charge on a followers weapon doesn't drop as they use it.

I've definitely seen the charge go down. I tend to charge all their weapons up, leave them for a while and then check back later, and some of the weapons have usually lost charge (the ones they used of course). I'll wait and see if they appear to be using the gems. Interested to know about scroll etc too though. Can't find any definitive info about it anywhere.

@Dovah Krosis - Yes they will fill them all. Obviously be careful with your higher level ones though because they don't care what creature they kill. I usually give them a bunch of lesser and petty to make sure they don't fill the grand ones with a petty soul.

I read that the followers can fill stacks of gems with one kill sometimes. I noticed something like this a few times but it doesn't seem to happen all the time.


@Shagsbeard - They do for my followers.

In my exp it definitely does!

I could be wrong here but I THOUGHT I read that enchantments are directly related to your destruction. So if you have 0 cost spell gear maybe that is why your charge doesn't go down. I have no clue if that is possible only a guess though, I have never actually tested it.

I had Belrand following me around for a month using an enchanted Dwemer sword (frost damage) and I was having to recharge that thing pretty often.

Might be a difference in platform. I've got 20+ hours with my current Lydia and she's not used a charge yet. The heath steal proc goes off all the time. It alsom might be a function of the type of enchantment.

That's weird. Can you even store souls in shards?

Yep me too. I used to give Golldir a Staff Of Lightning Wall and he would use it all the time. When I noticed he wasn't pulling it out and used a bow, I took it off him and it had no charges. Filled it up, returned to him.

How did you recharge a staff???

Hover over it, so it's picture appears. Tap T (assuming you're on the PC), and if you have soul gems, just select one. It'll be used up and the silver bar will fill (indicating it has charges.)

Same as any enchanted weapon.