I've been doing some research, and after reading all of the discussion http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Followers it seems that Followers do NOT level with you, but in fact, their level is determined by the level your character is when you first discover the area they reside in.

I continued to read that discussion, and I came across this:


I picked up this game for Christmas, so I haven't been following the patches. I apologize if this is beating a dead horse but I figured this would be the best place to look.

If this hasn't been fixed, then Followers become absolutely obsolete after a short period of time (ie. I met Aela at lv17~, I'm now nearing 40~. If she hasn't scaled with me then she will get roflpwned.)

Edit: Also, where can I find a complete list of all the patch notes? Not just for individual patches, but a compilation. I have looked but I have not found.

Edit 2: Does anyone know if Aela will use the upgraded bows you give her? According to a few wiki's she'll continue using her "Hunting Bow".

BUMP. I'm continuing to search for an answer but can not find one.

Is your "met aela at lv 7, now lv 40" character still there? Have her tank some giants and the result should be pretty obvious

Yes, this is the character I play on. I have yet to have her as a Follower (almost finished the Companion quests, just started doing them) but as soon as I get her we'll see.

I'm using Lydia at the moment, I got her at a fairly low level (around 10 or so). I'm now at level 25 and she holds her own in most cases. Also, when I was around level 22 or 23 I used the console command to check her level - it was reported as 23.
So it seems to me that they do level up with you.

I hope that they do! On PC you can use a command to bring them up to your level, but unfortunately on Xbox you cannot, and there is no way for me to check. I guess I'll go find some Giants and see if she can hold her own.

Thanks for the response.

I suppose you could always use some exploits to give them some "uber-equipment", if they do not, to try and make up for the shortfall.

I'm not sure what exploits you are referring to. I smithed a full set of Dragonscale Armor as well as Daedric weapons (everything upgraded to Legendary), and she seems to get roflpwned by dragons (just came across one). If they don't scale, I'll just take the armor back and save it for an end-game follower.

Depends what the armour rating is, are there any resistances, what type of dragon. I can still get wtfpwned by an ancient dragon, and I'm lvl 71.

I didn't check, I don't have any points in Light Armor (for the % boost), but according to the wiki Aela does. It's all Legendary (100 Smithing + 40% boost potion) so I'd assume it's decent for Light Armor. As for enchantments, well... currently working on getting 100 (at around 50 right now). I don't want to enchant end-game gear until I can enchant it with great things.

They always leveled apparently, just those levels meant nothing to overall skill and health so they weren't actually improving, it was nothing more then one number. if you can check thier skill/hp think it's something simalar to getav "npc" skill/stats.

I'm still force leveling mine via the PC console until they reach their level cap (varies from companion to companion).

They levelup but they hp and other skills remain the same just target them and use console disable and enable oh and first dismiss them and take all items from them.

Yes, the level increases, but their stats apparently don't (like health, one-handed, block etc.).
Checked with getavinfo and their current value is lower than their Reference base value. For ex: Uthgerd at level 30 for health: Current value -> 108, Reference base value -> 388. Doing the disable/enable gets her current value to 388.

I think the wiki (the WIKIA not the UESP) says that the scaling got fixed in the new patch. I still use disable/enable.
Maybe some scale properly with the player.

If you are on PC, you can use getavinfo [actor value] to check their stats.