Because Lydia will not allow it. If there is a true charge in with a yell kinda girl it's her.

Me: Ok hon, I'm gonna sneak and take out the guard with an arrow. Wait! Come back! *sighs in resignation and pulls out sword and charges*

I'll say one thing for sure though. Having her has my companion has raised my sword and shield skills really fast!

Lydia does that.. she's kinda like the leeroy jenkins of companions. Sad she becomes cannon fodder So... often, almost to level of becomming greek tragedy

Simple fix...Kill Lydia.

There are better followers for a sneak character. Or just tell the Scanky old Hoochie Mama to wait in the car.

i use jzargo and he is surprisingly sneaky. I gave him a set of sneak armor and hes almost as good as me.

Good idea.. You can always stuff Lydia and put her on one of those nice stands in your Hearthfire home..

Sneak Armor? You mean Muffle boots?

What kills me, is that you are crouched to the ground and all but belly crawling into a camp, you tell them to wait....and they stand up!

Good job Catwoman! You are invisible to the world...

Otherwise, yea...snuff n' stuff...

Instead of killing Lydia, just hand her over to the Blades. Or dismiss her from service. The former's a nice way of turning your house into a nice quiet bachelor pad.

All three of my primary characters walk alone anyway. It gives me more control over which fights I do and which I avoid. Especially hardcoe sneakers like my Khajiit, but even fighters like my Imperial. If he walks into someone else's territory and is warned off, he will usually just go. But if he had a follower, and they engaged in combat, he would have to engage as well: lots of people would die who maybe didn't have to.

If tippy toe is the order of the day I get Jenassa.

For in-your-face tanking it's Lydia, Mjoll, Iona, Jordis or a myriad of other armored worthies.

To keep a follower at a distance when I'm flinging fireballs at villainous nasties, I give them a pair of staves. (not ones with fireball or chain lightning, though )

Will be trying one of the follower mods when I start my next character.

Use her as a stationary persistent living extension of the Aura Whisper shout. UF her ass into some nearby pit and watch how she draws all that attention to her.

With the Quick Draw perk, Most of the time I can drop a target before any of my 3 followers move.

Some of the time, my tank ends up with an arrow in her back.

I made the mistake of giving a follower a Fireball stave and an Ice Storm stave. Nothing like being caught in your own artillery fire. However, it's not too bad if you are outdoors and away from civilization. In a dungeon or near a town, forget about it.

Hence why I leave Lydia to her stewarding duties at Casa De Dragonborn.

You use followers? I almost never use them, they just fall behind and get in the way.

Things get abit better if you give followers boots with both the muffle enchantment and fortify sneak.