Lydia will not equip an ebony bow that i gave her, instead she uses her standard bow, the ebony bow is enchanted to do 12 points of frost damage and its been improved to Exquisite, any idea of how i can get her to equip the bow? also its not just the ebony bow its any bow that i give her.

Same happened to me with Jennassa, it's so stupid, just can't understand why the followers don't equip the best weapons but the best armor. Just don't get it

linda and Jennassa both have been pretty erm... picky... about what bow they use for me. I can get Faendal to equip the nightengale bow, but neither lyndia or Jennassa will. it reminds me of a real life senerio....

"Gawd these knives are horrible there soo dull! I can't get them to cut anything" ...
"So lets buy a new set." ...
"I love these knives im not going to replace them" ...
"ok, lets get a sharper for them" ...
"that will just ruin them, i dont want to do that" ...
"ok.. um... then... quit complaining?" ...
"do you want to eat tonight?"
*shuts up and walks away*

They do equip the best based damaged weapons ..however this issue is actually listed on the official bug thread .....in my case i gave her an ebony bow with enchantment to burn target for 25 pts ..and also she has an collar that increased archery by 20% more damage ...and still she uses the crapy bow she had and i cant even see it on her inventory ...funny ....

Do you know my wife?????? or you just copied-cat her.....jajajajajajajajaja

not always true, you give them one type of bow, they equipt it, you look at the damage, upgrade a different bow to match it or surpase it, give it to them (after removing the first) and they will sometimes just revert back to using there old wood bow, I've seen it happen many times with Jennassa (I like her as a follower), she does love the weapons I give her, just not the bows.


lol... I think they are all pretty much the same when it comes to their kitchens.

Holy s**t- my wife and I just had this conversation!!!!
She did let me sharpen the knives, though, because she kept launching potatoes and carrots all over the kitchen...

I got Lydia to wear a ring that enhances two-handed, but she won't wear anything archery-related.
She did equip an unmodified ebony, then daedric, bow.

Can't you just give her the bow and take the one she has equipped away?

Make sure she doesn't have any arrows. If you give her arrows, she picks them up or takes arrows that someone shot her with, she will use the default bow. The only way she will use the bow you gave her is with her default arrows, which you cannot see.

no i cant take her bow unless i have 100 pickpocket and unlock the perfect touch perk which im no were near getting.

even if you do that, she'll get her gear given back to her at some point, oddly enough (dismiss them and they get it back after they leave the cell). Far as the arrows, both cases with both characters, with and without any arrows given to them, they've switched back to their default bow.

Yeah, the followers always seem to have a problem equiping bows, especially the ones that can be manufactured at a blacksmith. Sometimes they can equip it, but I find that later on, they will unequip it and revert to the hunting bow (probably after changing weapons during a fight). However, there is a better bow that does work! I find that if I give a follower the 'Forsworn Bow', they always seem to equip it. It is more powerful than the standard 'hunting' bow followers always seem to default to. The Forsworn bow can also be upgraded and enchanted at workbenches/enchantment tables. With this bow, followers will also use the best arrows that you give them too. The only other bows that seems to work are those that you get from a draugr.

It is almost like the bug is, that followers can only (properly) equip bows that cannot be manufactured!

well, that doesn't work either, i.e. the nightengale bow, these two ladies wont use it at all for me, and it can't be manufactured. Other followers I haven't had a problem with bows, Weapons, well, that depends on their primary weapon they have and what category it falls under, but if you take the right categoric hand to hand, they dont seem to have any problem using it.

Faendal will always equip whatever bow i give him even after switching between hand to hand and ranged as long as its better then the original, but he's such a goodie goodie, he wont even help with dark brotherhood missions, he just stands there and watches as people attack you lol... the little jerk... and forget sneak attacks, 1/2 the time he screws those up for you as well... is why I prefer Sven over him. The whole bow thing seems to be more dominate with these two ladies then any of the other followers.

so the problem is the arrows

IT worked! so for some reason if i give her arrows she will use her default bow but if i give her no arrows she will use the bow i gave her, thanks for the help

I've had the same issue with Aela the Huntress, Faendal, Sven and Jordis the Swordmaiden.

I think it's a generic follower issue. They may initially, when given to them, stick the improved bow on their back. You can see it. But when they actually go to fight something they draw their default bow. It's a little annoying.

Ill try the arrow thingy today......

It's a known bug. I haven't checked into it recently (last two weeks?) on UESP, but as others have said, there's some conflict between their standard gear vs. better gear when it comes to bows and arrows. That is, if they have any arrows in their inventory (other than the hidden/standard arrows they're issued), they'll revert to their original bow. Sometimes this will happen even if you don't give them "non-standard" arrows because the arrows will enter their inventory via the game environment (e.g., they get shot w/ them or pick them up off the ground).

The best you can do, I think, in response to this bug is that if you notice that they've reverted back to their standard bow, check their inventory to see if any of those "strays" remain (if so, remove them), take away the "good bow", then give that bow back to them (to reset whatever compare function the AI is supposed to utilize in determining which gear to use). Keep in mind that if they've already got a melee weapon equipped, they won't necessarily switch to the good bow immediately, but should use it the next time they engage in archery.

The last I heard, it was supposed that this bug may only be relevant for those followers whose standard gear includes a bow and 15(?) arrows.

BTW, this bug can also be exploited in your favor for a reliable supply of arrows. If you equip followers who exhibit this behavior with two Elven arrows, e.g., then, yes, they'll use their old bow; however, they'll also have an unlimited supply of Elven (Ebony, whatever) arrows. This of course means that you can recover all the "spent" elven arrows that they leave in the game environment.