All,

I keep reading and/or hearing that some followers only scale to level 30 or to level this or that, and I was wondering if there is a list of which followers can go to the highest levels?

I have never used followers as I have made stealth characters so far. Are they robust/survivable when you get to levels over 50, against the various high level foes in the game?

Thanks!

I've always avoided using them because I'm babysitting most of the time. They get surrounded by enemies, trip over traps and ruin your stealth.
If I had one that was halfway powerful I might consider it... I hope some of them do scale higher.

Oh well. I guess I can just snag one and see for myself. I kinda want an archer (other than Aela, who I cant stand).

Faendal in Riverwood is awesome. He's also an archer. The only Bosmer follower in Skyrim, I believe.

I know J'zargo scales up to level 81 if I recall. I too was wanting an Archer, and since I always play an Argonian, Deerkethus was the perfect match. He's a very good archer. I removed his default weapon (pick axe) and gave him an ebony bow/arrows and bam, bad ass archer companion.

Also worth noting is he doesn't talk much, (except when approaching a cave/enemies in a cave/epic area like everyone else does) in fact the only idle talk he does is he briefly hums a tune to himself, so much less annoying than say Mjoll who's like "Durr me and Aerin did this one thing one time," or "I learned to use a sword from some random face ISN'T THAT CRAZY?"

i use the female followers,for the most part they can hold their own,..this is what i've noticed, if you wait till level 25 or so to recruit your favorite followers, they're fairly leveled up and on top of that you just give em all enchanted gear and they will be fine.

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated!

I prefer the random Dark Brotherhood followers. They follow in stealth decently well, and they are very good in a fight. I've given mine an unenchanted Daedric bow, and the same as a Dagger, and I haven't ever had one... expire on me. They're pretty good peoples.

LMAOOOOO this was the exact reason i never use followers anymore. i carefully went around the pressure plate and drew my bow to get the jump on some dragrs, then BAMMMM a swing-out spiked gate nails me from behind and sends me flying into a draugr nest. thanks follower.

Heh. Yeah. Even scripted "companions" do that stuff - Tolfdir, Farkas/Vilkas whichever, etc. Makes me want to just kill 'em - except of course if I do the quest line never advances.... /snarl

Personally I like Illia. She can solo dragons as long as she doesn't get backed up into a wall and chomped on. As to traps, yeah followers ought to have an automatic "light step" perk by default, but knowing how they follow, you need to make the effort to lead them around traps where ever possible. As to stealth, their pulling aggro doesn't affect my stealth and allows me to get a couple of extra free shots in.

If you're worried you're follower is stuck at the level you first hired them there's a way to fix it on the PC; "disable/enable" console commands.

Just did the "disable/enable" trick on my PC and Feandal is a surefire killing machine now (glass bow of shock/paralyze). Level 45 Bosmer hunter having your back makes things a bit easier.

If you're playing on a PC just search "skyrim level up follower" and there will be plenty of hits to follow.