Hi,

I just started playing this game not long ago and gave a drawven bow which has drain 30 magicka to my follower to use. I also poisoned it with a potion to add paralysis (5 seconds) and poison health damage (16). I made sure to remove all his other weapons, leaving only the bow I gave him.

Then I tried to get into some fights with some stormcloak soldiers and watch the effect... seems like not much effect i.e. no one seems to get paralyzed (not sure is it because the effect I added was too weak... i never trained alchemy).

Anyway, my question is, does anyone know whether giving them the poisoned enchanted weapon actually works? I just want to confirm this before I go buying some expensive weapon for the follower. (I'm running very low on gold)

On another note: does paralysis work usually or is it a chance thing? (the potion didn't mention chance so I thought it would either work or don't work at all if they are immune)

Thanks.

i know enchants register. i gave faendal a bow with soul trap on it and an empty soul gem and after a fight it filled up.

Enchanted weapons will work so long as you periodically recharge them for your Follower.

Poison is a one-shot (two with a high-level Alchemy Perk) deal. They also do not stack - you can only have one poison effect on any weapon at any given time (only the latest effect remains, in your case the Damage Health potion overrode the Paralysis). You apply it to your weapon once and it is expended the next arrow you loose or the next time you hit something with your melee weapon. An item that is poisoned will have a green icon in the top left corner when you examine it. Poison the weapon and then give it to your Follower, if it doesn't have the icon when it's in his inventory then it isn't posioned. Followers do not use Poisons that you give them (but they will use Healing Potions).

Thanks for your reply.

The funny thing is that that weapon (bow) doesn't seem to lose it's charge and the green poisoned icon remains after the fight. That's also partially why I'm not sure whether he was using the weapon or not. Or is there any chance that weapons used by followers don't lose their charge and poison status?

For the potion effect, it was a single potion with multiple effects (something I mixed randomly) so I thought all the effects would occur together... anyone know whether this is true?

Thanks.

If it was a single potion then all the effects will work.

Some players, not all, have reported that some Followers refuse to equip the bows given to them and that no matter what kind of Bow they are given they will only use their default bow (seems to be usually a Hunter's Bow). It is most likely that you have run into this. Check to make sure, the next time your follower is in ranged combat, that they are using the bow you gave them (not only does a Dwarven Bow look very different to a Hunter's Bow, it will also have a glowing effect from the Drain Magicka). If they are not using that Bow then you've hit that bug, which may, or may not, right itself. If it is that Bow and the poison icon is still showing in the inventory then it is most likely a display bug (the icon shows but the effect is long gone). Another possibility is that your Follower has been using the bow in combat but is an awful shot and has yet to hit anything for you to see the paralysis effect work, in which case you have discovered an exploit because poison is supposed to be a one-shot deal.

Weapons used by Followers do lose their charges, so I think the most likely answer is that you have the "bow bug" and your Follower simply isn't using that bow in combat.