I'm playing on master and just got Lydia, so I decided to save the game and duel with her a couple times sword to sword. All I can say is ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ,,,

She has like 20x my hp and can cut me down in 3 or 4 clean shots. I want a companion but I'd rather not be her pansy boot-lick follower who can't take or dish out even a fraction of what she can. She may as well go out and save the world from dragons while I cook her dinner and polish her armor when she comes home.

Seriously lame; Bethesda needs to remember to scale companions and summons down on harder difficulties or it entirely defeats the purpose.

Wow, I have the exact opposite problem. My companion cannot stay alive in tight situations. I AM playing on Adept though. Perhaps that is the difference. I mean, I hardly encounter a difficult situation, but Lydia cannot say the same...

Even with magic resistance + 15% armor, etc.

It's weird that you want yours to be weaker, and while I want mine to be not as weak, I don't want her overpowered. I just don't want to have to baby them and worry about them all the time. Heck, I primarily use them as a minivan to carry my loot.

It's so they can take the damage you'll be doing to them on accident when they run in front of your weapon/bow/spell.

It probably is the difficulty then. I just don't see how master difficulty is actually master difficulty for summoners and people who use companions when your summons and companions are all scaled up to high-heaven. I can already see how every battle is going to play out: I attack, take a couple hits and have to retreat, then Lydia tanks the rest of the dungeon while I'm hiding behind her telling her how great she is. Sounds epic.

Edit: I'm sword and shield so I think I'd be able to avoid hitting her. She doesn't have to be THAT much stronger than me to avoid me hitting her with an occasional errant blow.

Overpowered? I pretty much solo'd a certain quest I had with Farkas..

They don't level with you, soon enough they'll be really underpowered.

I'm playing on default difficulty and my companions are always getting knocked down and killed in some cases. I just lost one last night, svcks I had to haul all her loot back to White Run in two trips.

Companions are really just a cleverly disguised hand-holding feature.

If they don't level with you that's at least a little better. I'll just level up a bit and take companions who are 5-10 levels lower than me.

I still don't get the point of giving people these god-mode companions, especially on master. Lydia was just handed to me after a quest and she's so much stronger than me it's embarrassing. Until I get more powerful she's literally going to be doing everything.

It sounds like you're just leaping in and wildly spamming the attack button.

Your companions aren't overpowered and they may even be killed.

You shouldn't really be getting beaten up by Lydia.

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

My companion is barely of any use at all.

Brelyne can barely scratch the enemy with her spells...

She's got ok'ish HP, but she barely dents those mobs!


Either something's wrong, or spellcasting companions scale horribly on Master.

I mentioned this issue on another thread, hopefully this is something that gets patched as I do see it as a bug. Hirelings should not scale in power and health along with other NPCs from a rise in difficulty ..but, unfortunately, they do.

purely optional tho

I can kill Lydia, it just takes about 20-30 clean hits as opposed to the 3-4 it takes her to kill me. I just don't get why she has to be THAT powerful. I just want a companion; I don't need her to solo the entire beginning of the game for me.

I'm playing on Adept difficulty and I definitely have to say that Lydia is not overpowered in my case either. She can usually handle herself against two foes of average difficulty, but if I don't back her up somewhat, she will fall or even die. (Although she's only died once on me so far.) My biggest issue with companions is that they're idiots when it comes to actually following me around the world.

On Expert at about level 25, it seems to be the opposite for me. I feel like I'm dragging around and babysitting someone because their output is so low.

Eh, hirelings should scale because otherwise a glance from a random bandit on Master would blow them away.

They just shouldn't scale as much as they do now.

Well, if they didn't, they'd be nigh useless as anything other than pack mules on Master...

The fact they're just as [censored] as the enemy AI evens it out.

Well, hearing some of your comments has me hopeful that this is a temporary problem in the early parts of the game. Hopefully as I get higher-level companions will just be marginal backup and support. Right now I'm pretty much Lydia's child.

You could try putting the game onto "Normal" difficulty and see if that balances things to a more "normal" state of play?

The sliders are there to adjust your game.

Normal really should be yoru starting point.

Don't worry about steamrolling through everything on "Normal" either.

There's plenty to kill you in "Skyrim".

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

I want the game to be a grating challenge, though.

If it were a normal enemy with 1000x my hp and damage I wouldn't care, but turning my companions into godless unstoppable killing machines is the opposite of what I wanted when I chose master difficulty. Having companions is fun and I want to use one, so just not playing with one isn't an option either. Maybe I'll take her sword and shield away and make her use her fists or something, but I don't get why bethesda would design companions to be so powerful they take all the challenge out of master.

To be fair it is even on "Normal".

The first actual Companion Faction Quest is impossible for a low level character even with a companion.

There are many creatures that will stomp you flat and others that will stomp you and your companion flat as well.

Remember Lydia is more powerful because you have already adjusted the game settings before even trying them on normal.

If you dismiss her she will wait for you in the Jarl's Hall or if you have your house in Winterun she will wait there.

I do understand your complaint but the question you need to answer is "What are you going to do about it"?

I reckon you are looking at:

- Change difficulty to normal.

- Dismiss your companion.

- Keep playing as you are.

Certainly it's not worth throwing in the towel over.

Bethesda have been making games for a very long time and before you discount something just because it wasn't the way you would have done it you may be pleasantly surprised if you actually stick with it and give it a go.

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

I haven't used a companion, but I have used summons, and am thinking about starting over yet again, because it's not exactly fun to have my mage hide around a corner while her Atronachs clear dungeons.

Or means to level Restoration.

Alright Lydia, here's an iron dagger, get to work!

It seems to me all my followers: housecarl/horse/dog are about useless. Charging in when they shouldn't, and if I am doing a ranged attack, more often than not, I loose and they step in front of my attack, DOH!! I have killed my horse(if the Dragon doesn't get 'em first) 3 or 4 times, grrrr. I also would be trying to set up a group for a nice skeet shoot, and stoopid follower charge in aggro entire group, spoiling hidden damage/LOS/etc....and then promptly dies. I have made myself some very good, double enchanted weps that hit HARD, so killing them is getting really easy to do. If the followers don't scale they should....if they do, it needs to be stronger. One thing that I have done to help a bit, is got rid of dog and horse, and slapped better armor on Lydia than even what I have. She now can take the errant shot now and then.

On a side note, if you want to have some fun, while I was escorting the thieves guild leader down into the crypt on that QL, he wanted me to go first and then he would charge in on the mobs! So what I did was just barrel through, pick up a handful of the undead boss types and then we would shout at each other! Hilarious!! He would go flying, and I would bang with 3 or 4 of em while he pulls himself together, and either they or me would blast away again. Endless fun seeing em all go shooting down the hallway! Best part is that since he is necessary for the quest he won't die! hehe