You will find yourself out-numbered many times, even when you are weak, so here are a few tips.

Try to start with quests where you join a group in combat; one such quest will earn you Lydia, your own personal follower appointed to you by the Jarl of Whiterun. It is a token of thanks for permanently slaying a dragon, and by "permanent" I mean absorbing its soul so that it can never be revived.
Yes, that is in fact what is happening-- dead dragons are being brought back to life. Lydia can carry your stuff too.

Necromancy is clearly no longer banned. Acquire the "raise zombie" spell-- very useful. Re-animate a bandit corpse while your companion distracts the others to level the playing field.

Edit: Sometimes different creatures attack each other. I just saw a pack of wolves attack some sort of ghost (it looked really bizarre, like part skeleton-- like a floating spinal cord with a ghostly aura).

And, you might run into random skooma/moonsugar dealers in the middle of nowhere.

Nice name. Is she a warrior or mage?

She's a warrior and I will not be using her it's too annoying.

I kinda like the idea of being swarmed.

Annoying? Like a... would be wife?

Sure

Of all the spoilers I've read, this is the only one I regret reading. That's a great twist, wish I discovered it myself. More on topic, I prefer a companion who isn't so...immortal.

Does the raise dead spell last forever(until the zombie is killed)?

Or does it have a timer?

MOONSUGAR?!?!?!?

My dream has finally come through! I didn't think we would see it until Elsweyr!

It's timed because it falls under Conjuration

I don't need no stinking companion! I'm an Orc! Solo all the way, due to a better fight.

Necromancy will not be tolerated in my games

it only illegal in morrowind ,in the other provinces it legal but hated by the maintream population.

Agreed. You can't just throw in a "btw Bruce Willis is dead the whole time" without a little bit of warning.

I HATED companions in Oblivion. Especially that stupid Bosmer from the fighter's guild. Ugh! "Wait here".

In Skyrim, from what I've heard, having a companion is too big an advantage. Immortal? Extra cargo space? Cheating, IMO.

Haha, The Adoring Fan is not the type of companion we are talking.

And...

SKOOOMMMMMAA

A game feature cannot be a cheat..

If they are handled like New Vegas companions, they should be relatively balanced. Companions in New Vegas, though flagged essential, would stay down if knocked out during a fight until you were out of combat. They would also often not prevent the enemy from focusing on *you*. Been killed plenty of times by Deathclaws or Legion Assassins even with Veronica or Cass following me. As long as Skyrim has no equivalent of the all destroying Boone / ED-E duo, things should be fine. I swear, these two, together, could've carved up the Mojave without me.

Are companions REALLY "immortal"?

I just can't fathom Bethesda putting in companions who can't be killed

I swear to Talos I saw Lydia get "killed" by Vampires and get back up a few seconds later.

If you saw her go to her knees and stop fighting, that is basically the first level of "death". I don't have the game, but I read somewhere that they can indeed die, but they usually just get into that injured state.

Until more people have the game..who knows?

I actually hope Lydia is immortal. I like having companions in these games (makes it feel less lonely) but I hate having to babysit them for fear they run into a trap or step in front of me when my axe is midswing and they die forever. I know not everyone you ask to come with you is immortal. A previewer said he invited a guy from Riverwood to follow him into a dungeon and he was perma-killed, so it's obviously specific companions.

So its just like jRPG where 'dead' companions pull out of the fight till its over? Or maybe she was just pretending to be dead

yes, i want to raise the dead.

Cool thanks for the info; I'll try to get her.

So after reading some of the comments is Lydia un-killable?