From what I understand, followers never level. Hopefully that's an oversight that will be remedied, but if it's not, and in the meantime, is it best to wait to get them?

I got Lydia as soon as available, not knowing about the level problem. I soon want to replace her, at least temporarily, but the follower I have in mind will be locked to my current level when I get him/her (I assume they'll be locked to my current level, from what I've read). If I wait, he/she will be that much more powerful and possibly have higher skills.

If the follower is a mage and is locked in at a fairly low level, are high level spells forever off limits to them? Or to put it another way, if you wait to get a mage follower, will they get high level spells? is it a waste to get a mage follower at lower levels?

They're also only locked in to a level when they become a follower, right? Not when you first meet them? Some followers are mere NPCs at first.

EDIT: console seems to be an option, but if that messes with achievements I'd rather not use it. Not that I care about achievements, but knowing I can't ever get them because I used the console to fix a bug would bother me.

I'm not sure about any of this except the achievement part. I've used the console to reset Lydia and she hardly ever dies now. Just a word to the wise: Take back all equips you've given your follower before resetting them because some of them may disappear. It's happened once with me but it's good that I saved before trying the reset.


Are there follower achievements? I just know that nothing will be messed up if you do this.