I just did the Scroll for Anska quest. Upon encountering Draugr I cast one of J'Zargo's area spells. This resulted in Anska attacking and subsequently killing me. Later on she also attacked a Flame Atronauch I'd conjured even though it was obviously attacking Draugr and not us.

Will the same thing happen with future followers like Housecarls? Or will it damage and possibly kill them?

I hope this isn't the case; otherwise I may have my first major complaint about Skyrim. I've never done a pure mage character before. I've always created stealthy characters. So... any information is helpful. Thanks.

Anska is not a follower. she is an npc that follows you for her quest only.

and for someone with magic she doesn't seem to like magic at all.


you will find some mage or thief followers but most are warriors.

I understand that she's not a follower. So, from what you're saying I'm gathering that my followers will not attack me? But will they suffer damage or be killed by area spells? Will they attack my atronauchs?

You can accidentally kill a follower with an area spell but they should not attack you or your conjured daedra.
Many followers are marked essential so they cannot be killed at all.

The same happened to me with Lydia. These area spells hurt her if she comes close to you so she thinks you are attacking her and she will fight back until you die or she dies.

I guess I'll have to experiment. I didn't use followers once during my first run-through but I did on my second. So I'll have to save before using them and then if it goes really bad I'll send the follower home and not use them.

If you have one of the dogs plus a follower who uses area spells, you'll sometimes end fights with the dog and the follower going at it. It seems that the dogs have a certain amount of tolerance for friendly fire, and once that's exceeded they'll attack your other follower. Sometimes you can get them to calm down with the Animal Allegiance shout.