maybe it's a little too late to bring it up, but i don't care. everyone is making such a big deal out of lydia and the other followers found throughout skyrim, but what's the point in them? i NEVER use the followers. they'er useless. what's the point if they'er doing 50% of the work and you get only 50% xp for skills? tell me: why are you using followers if you only get a part of the xp?

I don't like/use companions either, but it's all about preference.

Pack mule.

Also as bait.

It's not that they're needed, at least for me. It's just cool for roleplay to have a companion there. It adds another element to the game.

I'm not worried about XP. I like followers on certain toons, because of the immersion part. I like that I don't have to do it all alone, but that I can bring a friend or husband along. That there's someone who got my back! Who will fight by my side. The world seems a little less lonely that way.

As a pure mage who uses only cloth, I find them almost necessary to keep the enemies off of me.

but the whole point is to advance and become stronger. i would understand it if you would have gotten their xp when they killed someone, but otherwise, it's useless in my opoinion

My frost atronarch does the tanking for me as for lydia she is in whiterun protecting my house like she is supposed to

That's why Talos made Alteration and paralyze

so am i. thanks for the tip. i'll use lydia even though i don't want to....

This is not an MMO, you don't need to build an uber character to run Raids LOL Plus, you don't get XP from kills here anyway. You level your skills by using your abilities. If you use a one handed weapon to strike an enemy, you will level that skill. Even with a follower, you will still find plenty opportunities to level your skills.

Skyrim is about using your imagination!





There are plenty of followers in Skyrim. You don't have to use Lydia! LOL

Playing mostly as a sneak archer and not being very strong in close combat I have to have a tank to aggro the enemy when I0m outnumbered. Also I need a mule to carry all the loot, and I like to have some company.
I've been using only Lydia for now (I'm lvl 27), and despite a lot of negative comments, I quite like her, I can still sneak on most opponents enough to take them down with my bow even when she follows me.
She doesn't get too much in my way and my character is quite attached to her after all the mess they've been through together

If I have a bad feeling I just tell her to wait behind, go exploring and decide what to do. I usually can take down a few guys by mayself, the just run back towards Lydia making a few ambush and let her kill the ones that are still alive.

To each their own, that's not the point of this game for me. If all you care about is levelling your character and getting better stuff, then yes companions are pretty pointless.

Depends on the character. Certainly not the "XP worry"...

but eventually the point of this game is combat. i don't know if you know the game runescape, but it is a game that has like 25 skills and only 7 of them are actually combat skills. even with all the crafting and cooking and woodcuting, it all leads to combat at the end, and so it is with skyrim. and some skills are progressed only through using them on other people and creatures: one hand, two hand, destruction, and so on, so you have to kill people.
as for lydia, i know she's not the only one but she's the easiest to get!

useless and too freaking slow.

I do not use them. Too much babysitting.

Not worried about XP, don't play RPGs to level up but to enjoy the exploration and adventure and carry home as much junk as possible (which is one reason to take followers along).

I play with Followers and I play without Followers. The game is fun either way, it is just a different kind of fun.

I'm using Anekke, she's incredibly stupid and keeps deciding to stop following me at random. I plan to unload all the kit I want to keep then slaughter her mercilessly.

I have a mage/thief I play on Master with 100 Health. Having a follower is like having a permanent summons. I wouldn't be able to beat most enemies without one. In my case, the game is pretty much a two-player co-op with one half controlled by AI. I don't find the AI to be all that bad. They get in the way sometimes, but for the most part I've figured out how to fight without us being in each other's way. The trickiest part is using shouts without killing them.

XP isn't a big deal, either. Even with a companion I'm working my ass off. I still end up doing about 60% of the damage + buffing + healing my companion + extra summons. My progression is going just fine.

Incidentally, if you RP a non-lockpicking character, you can bring along a follower that picks locks to do it for you. You don't need to lockpick with your mage/fighter if you don't want to.

In my opiniion, that's not "the whole point" at all. Yes, having your character grow throughout the game is a major part of an RPG, but it's not the only part. If that is what your focus is here, then you're missing out on the rest of what an RPg has to offer. And seriously, any hit you may or may not take to your XP count is negligible for having a companion, to the point, from what it appears to me, to bre non-existent. Are you really in that much of a hurry? All in all, though, if you don't want to use companions, that's your prerogative. I just find your reasons for not using them a bit specious.

Agree OP. Unless it's for RP, I never saw the point. Even on Master, companions make the game laughably easy.

I use companions always, they are very useful at soaking up damage and carrying items. The only downside is when my follower decides to step on the pressure plate from behind and kill me with those flinging spiked walls.

I've never take anyone with me in my travels in Skyrim. I hate, in Oblivion, when they die and you have to load.... -___-"