mine are very strong i'm not on PC i'm on 360. but they level with me and almost never die anymore. and i have Faendal as my follower who i met at level like 1 or 2.

Jordis the Shield-Maiden. Got her around level 48, and have since provided her with a full set of (legendary) enchanted ebony armor/weapons. Nothing but very high level mages, overwhelming numbers, or boss enemies can touch her (playing on expert difficulty, master is a bit much for me). Dueling her is great fun, it seems like she has better A.I. than most other enemies for whatever reason (perhaps its just the incessant shield-bashing).

So far i have only tried Jenassa a Dark Elf u can find at Whiterun, in the Drunken Huntsman. She is an awesome helper in battles! And yes, she tells u she is happy to know u even after u have nearly died together. She thrives on the adventure and battle u bring to her. She makes a great friend and follower! She will use weapons u give her and is able to help u carry some stuff u loot too without getting worn down too easy from it either. She will switch from bow and back to heavy weapon as the situation may require all on her own. I put healing type potions in her inventory in case she needs them and we function like a great team. I went on foot up to meet the greybeards up the mountain so i could take her with me instead of buying a horse because i do not know yet if a follwer can ride your horse with u. And yes, u could marry her because she is on that marraigeable NPCs list as a marriagible female. I saw her on the list when i was checking it out for a Nord Male for my female Nord character. i thought if i knew who was on the list i could check some of them out during travels and quests to see if any were good along the way. So far i am enjoying being single and battling out out with my buddy Jnassa. She totally rocks!

Marcurio. shock mage... holy crap he goes to town.

Aranea Ienith. I turned her into a blade and combined with her mage powers, she is godly.

I have in the past used Faendal, Aella (strong), Jenassa (incredibly strong) and now I use Illia and I will never use anything else until I finally give in and sacrifice her to Boethia. Illia is just sick. She routinely blows up monsters before they even reach her with her ice powers of death, she frost shields, she uses her bow when low on magic and isn't afraid to wade in and slash stuff dead with Chillrend. She also wears the heavy dragon plate I make for her. I give her all the staves I find and she uses them to great effect too. These days if we spot enemies on the horizon it goes like this -- icicle icicle icicle fireball icicle icicle (one of my arrows) ad infinitem. She's also excellent at fighting dragons as her icicles have pinpoint accuracy. She's really a terror. At one point I accidentally hit her with an arrow and drew her aggro and before I realized it I was dead in a blast of cold and fire. Best of all since I am no mage I don't have much experience with magic but enemies go FLYING when hit by her icicles, it's awesome to watch.

I wish I could dismiss her and use someone else to sacrifice but with the bug I can't risk getting rid of her....

I'm currently using Jordis, but has anyone managed to get that executioner guy from Solitude to follow them? I can't remember his name (Athax????), but he's a Redguard and the wiki says he can become a follower after killing a bandit leader for him. Unfortunately he won't give me the quest.

That's a good question! I'm going to have to test and find out. I think it's when you meet them due to the way the game handles spawns. Monsters are always +X or -Y levels from you and that level is determined when you first encounter them in any given area. That is to say that if you visit a Falmer Crypt at level 5 and they are +5 they will be level 10, but if you don't clear it and come back they'll still be level 10. I have a feeling that followers and npc's follow the same path.

gotta remember this. I wouldn't mind J'zargo as a companian because I've grown to like him in the college, but since I (mostly) play mage anyway, maybe better to go for the warrior


I'm currently alone again after Lydia died in Mzulft and Erdugan from Dawnstar died by a dragon near Laborinthian.

Lydia lasted much longer than he did. He helped me with one dragon that was attacking a fort full of bandits but died already on his second quest.

This is epic.

Can't you increase their skills with the console as well?

Jzargo! I love putting funny looking armor on him.

I use Kharjo, he's a khajiit caravan guard you can get if you do a quest for him. He's a freakin' tank of a khajiit, and I like him because he is a warrior and me being a stealthy guy I need a tank to beat the **** out of things.

Illia that good ? She connected with mages guild at all ?
I plan on using the silver blood guy for the sacrifice

Marcurio was pretty badass, in fact he was a lot stronger than me for some time. He was a bit presumptuous though, but that seemed funny. I was really bummed out when I found him dead and to make matters worse it might be that my storm call that killed him. Lydia died pretty quickly, now I'm looking to hire a mage elf from guild, it seems that mages make better companions for me.

Barbas. He simply soloed a vampire lair!