Yeah, I'm going along dungeons with aela. She's nice with bows and even better with a daedric arrow.

So I decided to upgrade her gear. Gave a full Dark Brotherhood set (She wear light armor), a daedric dagger with fire enchant, a glass shield(EPIC) with frost resistance... and a Daedric bow (epic) with a hellish health absorb enchant.

But I also gave a orcish shield and a glass dagger.

She wears the DB armour, equips the glass dagger and the ORCISH SHIELD. And she dares to use a hunting bow!! No matter what I do.. the items are still on her inventory but she does not equip the BEST.

Someone can tell me why this does happens at all?
I've been trying so much things but nothing happens. She did equip a war hammer.. but NOT the Daedric Dagger.

I have the same problem with Lydia. Sometimes she will use the ebony bow I gave her, sometimes she will use the hunting bow. Not sure why, but I would like to know how to fix this too...

Is the hunting bow available to pickpocket from her?

First off Aela is not wearing light armor (yes I know it looks like it is). If you want her to change give her the best UPGRADED heavy armor you can find.

EDIT: She may wear light armor, but her perks will all be in heavy armor. It's always best to keep a follower in the armor and weapon type you find them in as that's where their perks go also.

somewhere else there's a thread about the fact that our followers are picking up an extra bow every time we trade to them, making their carried weight go up and up until we can't trade to them at all... is this perhaps because she has so many bows she's not sure which to use?

also armor type is a big deal. Lydia and Aela have heavy armor, Faranor and our priestly friend both wear light. They're the only ones I've traded pieces to.

I won't quote everybody. I'll be hard but...

I just gave a dwarven set and the dark brotherhood gear to her. She used the BD, not the dwarven. So, I upgraded the dwarven to EPIC and she started to use the full set, but... No more orcish shield! She's using the glass shield. Don't know why she didn't it before.


And there's only one bow in her inventory. The Ebony Bow of sparks I made epic. (yeah, I gave the ebony now)

She SPAWNS a random hunting bow even if I pick it up from her inventory. She just DON'T WANT to use it.

Not even a little..

So I am really trying to figure out WHY it does not works as it should.

Actually, it works somehow.. But seems chaotic.

I can't say I've had any of these problems with Aela. I give her various light armor and she has always equipped it right away. Same with bows and she has never picked up a hunting bow after I took hers away. I gave her a two-handed weapon and she uses that in all close quarter fights. I've never seen her use her shield since I gave her that weapon.

One thing good about being a Master Pickpocket (the two highest level perks) is that you dismiss them, Pickpocket their default equipment, and then they'll be FORCED to wear what you give them when you re-hire them.

Or just have her run around naked...

ALWWAYS BACKUP SAVE FILES.

To make followers equip what you want. Do the following.
This is only for the PC.

1. Take all items from the follower
2. press ~
3. After pressing ~ use your mouse to click on your follower. The number that indicates the actor id should appear
4. Enter the command
removeallitems
5.Give them equipment

There seems to be a bug where the followers duplicate thier default gear everytime you fire and then rehire them. This causes reduction in carry capacity over a period of time. To remove the duplication follow the above steps.
removeallitems removes everything including default gear. Make sure you take all the times you gave them else they will disappear


To check the stats of your follower use the getav command. To use it
1. After pressing ~ use your mouse to click on your follower. The number that indicates the actor id should appear
2. Type "getav " withoput quotes where is to be replaced by health,stamina,onehanded,twohanded etc.

The above should help you decide what equipment to give.

If you are on a PC and your follower is bugged and not leveling up try
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1293732-do-followers-level-up-with-the-character/page__view__findpost__p__19529665