Hi all, Why does Lydia always lag behine, get stuck behind something? How can I give her upgraded equipment to wear or use, such as armor and weapons.

dying is easy, it's living that I'm scared of....today...:>)

if you open dialogue with her there should be an option to trade some stuff with her. give her better gear than she already has and she should use it (if it matches her combat style). might have to scroll down to see the conversation topic.

as for lagging behind i'm normally glad they aren't riding up my backside when i'm sneaking along. i like the gap between us, makes less of a target and then she doesn't rush in before i can get in a good sneak shot.

thqanks for the info..:>)

I find that Lydia refuses to wear any better equipment I give her except for an iron helm & a falmer shield. I can give her better armour, brfacers, gauntlets etc and she just plain refuses to put it on!
Bug?

I haven't used Lydia in awhile, but I seem to remember I could never get her to wear light armor, even if it was better than her default steel set. She insisted on heavy armor, though she doesn't seem to be quite so picky about her melee weapons (will use a two-hander if you give her one, even though her stats for two handed aren't as good as her one handed/block). I also could never get her to use any bow I gave her, even with all the console tricks I could find... She always pulls out her Hunting Bow (or is it an Imperial Bow? I forget), even when she has another one with triple the damage rating in her bag.

UPGRADES:
lots of the followers wear a particular armor type only, regardless of upgrade. Lydia is heavy armor, and I found upgrading Lydia required taking the old pieces to guarantee she'd put it on. I also found she wouldn't equip it until I told her I needed her for something.

I still have a glitch though, I found a post out here that said every time we trade to them they get an invisible item that adds to their weight, so that eventually they are "full" and cannot equip or accept new gear. Was supposed to be fixed and I'm waiting until I don't have to use the console commands to do it for myself. My Lydia is still incapable of accepting a new ring, it's too heavy.

LAGS BEHIND:
Try taking a Fire Thrall with you anywhere. LOL... she's up around a corner and a mile behind me and will also pick fights and get herself killed when I can't even see what's going on. I literally have to run back sometimes and FIND her. I've found they always catch up when you go through the next instance gate of the dungeon, and that if you go find them they stay closer for awhile. Tedious and still manages to work.

It's nice they're not right there in combat getting hammered by me because they aren't sure how to stay out of the way, is a pain in the neck to have to remind our companions and followers that there's a reason they're with us and it's not so they can meander about lost in the dark a mile behind us in a cave.

Also be aware of an issue I encountered with her (xbox 360):

I had her carrying several (6) pieces of armor that are the same as her starting armor and now I can't take them from her because they are the same as her starting armor. Her starting armor can't be taken from her even though she has six copies. She is carrying too much for me to give her anything else and she walks around Breezehome in her underwear. I think I'm going to have to get another companion.

Cizor you got a bug on yours hands. I've given her steel armor and not run into that problem. sorry buddy that stinks.

Yeah Lydia will wear whatever is better fo sure her base armor tho is steel heavy armor. If you want her to wear another armor set it must be better defense stats than that I have prancing around in forworn gear (Legendary) smithing ftw lol. The system has a bug that she will default back to her old gear if you dismiss her just have to trade her a piece of armor and viola she reequips her good stuff. She will take potions use staffs and such so I keep her stocked. The best enchant by far is give her boots enchanted with MUFFLE. She carries tons of crap for me with never an issue so far and looks great in the full falmer set and forworn sets. The only thing that has been constant bug is the stupid bow and basically getting her to equip it correctly if she has a better melee weapon she seems to revert back to her default bow and not the better one. I found if I take her other weapon she uses the better bow oh well just give her 1 of the best arrows you can and check her periodically for any other arrows she picks up remove them and you have a heck of a dd, and tank companion for sure.

Lydia has straight tanked Dragons and draugr overlords easily for me without issue on master just setting her up right...

Oh and people reported that you can get your pickpocket up and with the perks remove her default gear. I had zero luck with that to be honest I also haven't seen her perform like she was under leveled when it came to fight guess maybe constant interaction maybe keeps her corrected I don't know....