I'm at sneak 60, still trying to make an assassin playstyle work with a follower.

For all Jenassa's big talk about being a 'shadow behind my back,' she really blows at sneaking. I did the disable/enable trick to force her to level up, then checked her skills. Sneak 25, I'm at 60.

Off to find Sven, maybe he'll be better, but I doubt it.

Where can I get a companion with a decent sneak level?

Dark brotherhood. Cicero is my favorite. Probably the thieves guild also. Check the wikis for info on followers, good info there.

I can't stand Cicero's Voice at all! But he seems to be a great companion.

But by saying I can't stand his voice I mean the Voice Actor did a GREAT work. Indeed annyoingness is what they meant to the character.

How do you see your companion's skills? I haven't seen that option...

The only way to see a companion's skills is to open the console, click on them, and then use the getav command to view them (e.g. "getav sneak" will tell you their sneak skill.)

Note that companions' skills are set when they are first instantiated -- i.e. when you first enter a game cell they are found in. And they're set to make the companion the same level you are. Thus, people you meet at very low levels tend to have horrible skills -- and they never go up. The best skills are thus usually found on housecarls (who do not exist until you get them) or faction-based followers (e.g. Cicero at the Dark Brotherhood) who you meet later in the game, when you're higher level.

If you really like a follower and want him to have skills commensurate with your current level, rather than the level you first met him at, you can "reset" a character with the console:

1.) Talk to them and dismiss them. This doesn't work if they're currently your follower.
2.) Open the console, click on them, and type "disable". They will disappear.
3.) Without clicking anything else, type "enable". They will reappear, either right in front of you or at their starting location -- but now with their skills set based on your current level.
4.) Ask them to follow you again.

You can use getav commands to check their new, much higher skills. Is this cheating? Well, I think the fact that followers never level up or have any skills increase is a bug, so I'd say no, but it's kind of a matter of opinion.

Riften, Bee and Barb. Marcurio can do forward roll.

Marcurio gets my vote.

Jenessa

Really, what do you need the companion for, other than to be a caddy and carry your stuff? They're apallingly stupid, and the instant hostilities begin, they go barging into combat, instead of doing the sensible thing and re-stealthing. I use Farkas as my follower, and tell him to wait outside of the dungeon, and guard my horse. He also gets a full set of armor with fortify carry weight, and totes around all my loot, while I patrol forward and eliminate opposition solo.

Lol. Farkas probably didn't realize when you asked him to go adventuring that you really meant, "Come be my personal squire."

Great guide, just remember people to remove all the items you give them before you do this as their equipped items, specifically armor, resets!

Squire would be a promotion. He's a porter. I'd replace him with a mule if it would carry more loot.

lawl, I just give them a ring & necklace of Peerless sneaking, and boots with Muffle on them... Works decently enough.

Dont bother.

Companions are stupid in this game.

The ones you get last would have the highest sneak skill. There is a bug that the Companions are stuck at the skill level you first meet them at.

You can use the disable/enable trick to set their skills to the correct level.

Howdy,

This works on the PC (took me a minute to figure it out). Open the command window, then target your follower (click on them with the mouse) & then use the getav sneak command.


Megis

I don't know, in this game the hostile NPCs have a costume of attack frist the companion and only then they turn on me (maybe because i'm an assassin with a very light foot and with a constant use of shadow warrior ^^), but i can't make a solid opinion, i avoid the use of companions as an assassin, it destroy the shadow warrior ability, cos unfortunality the engine of the game don't allow a person to be backstab if he know u're there and has another target to attack. Only alone i can get the backstabs, by using the shadow warrior alone i make the enemies turn to search mode, what allows me to backstab agin.

I've used Jenessa, though she does svck at sneaking. So i just use "tai" on her (toggle AI processing, effectively freezes/unfreezes the NPC) and sneak ahead, and enable her if i need back up

I've had Aela, who according to the official guide, is supposed to be good at sneak but I don't think that's actually the case. She always seems to get seen even when I gave her glass boots with muffle.

I keep hearing about the leveling up of companions by making them leave and then re-recruiting them through the PC console. My question is, since I play on Xbox, has anyone tried this on a console to see if it might work (telling them to part ways and then re-recruit)? I guess I'll try enchanting a "fortify sneak" item next and see if that helps at all.

Farkas is a jerk. Not only does he summarily dismiss your assistant on his second quest without warning (Hope you didn't stash any good loot in the NPC inventory), he won't carry anything on that quest either.

I have seen Lydia of all people do a forward roll. Of course she has the sneakiness as expected of someone in full heavy armor and gets detected a mile away.

My question now is, does armor enchantments work for them? Ie muffle and fortify sneak.

Farkas is a jerk because the quest demands he be a temporary follower? Okay, whatever...

The way I use a companion in sneak is that when they run ahead, I stay stealthed and that way they take the heat while I still get my stealth attack bonus.

this worked for me,until i got my 1 shot kill daedric bow,and then my "companion" was spending a lot of time dead with an arrow stuck in the back of thier head.

the AI is truly atrocious in this game.[hope its just broken,if it was intentional then sack the one responsible]

ps..have you noticed theres no shooting over a companions head or even close to them,as its hitting a huge square block of collision detection instead of the sprites actual form/shape.

I do sometimes hit them and have killed them off and on, but if you have a one-shot kill bow you don't need a companion anyway. Except to carry in which case you could do what the other poster does and leave them behind.