I read somewhere that if you get the right pickpocketing perks, you can pickpocket equipped items. I noticed that almost every character in the game has no clothing listed when you check their inventories. But when they die, the stuff appears in the inventory.

I see guys with steel battleaxes on their back but when you check the inventory, it isn't listed. I think once I get that perk, I'd be able to take Lydia's steel armor away and she'll have no choice but to wear what I give her. Until then, anything I want her to wear must be upgraded to be better than the steel.

We'll see what happens when I get that perk.

I read somewhere that if you get the right pickpocketing perks, you can pickpocket equipped items.

Followers have skill levels just like players do. You can make a piece of light armor with 100 armor rating and a piece of heavy armor with 50, but if your light armor skill is (for example) 10 and your heavy armor skill is 100, the 50 armor rating heavy armor is going to be better for you to wear. This is the same case with followers. Most of the housecarls cap out at around 20 light armor skill but go all the way to 100 heavy armor skill, depending on your level and if you wabbajack them.

In order to get a heavy-preferred follower to switch to light, you really have to upgrade the armor to a massive difference in armor rating. You can get them in Forsworn or Hide or whatever you want, just increase the armor rating enough to compensate for their low skill. Also keep in mind, they ignore all enchantments when factoring in what to wear. They utilize some enchantment effects, but do not give them any consideration when you offer them something to equip. Armor rating given their skill and the value of the item are the two things they factor in. When it comes to jewelry, whatever is worth the most is what gets worn.


As for clothes, by default they will not wear these because clothes have no armor rating. There are two ways to get around this. If you have the pickpocket perk "Perfect Touch", you are able to see their invisible/starting set of armor when pickpocketing them. Unfortunately, when you remove every piece of starting armor, the set respawns any time you enter a new area.

The way around this is to remove all starting armor pieces except one. I typically leave the boots, since the goal is to get them to wear a dress (or run around naked, if that's what you're going for). As long as one piece of their starting set remains, it will never respawn until you dismiss them.

The other way of doing this only works on your spouse shopkeeper/follower. Have your spouse follower join you while you are at the home you both live in, then give them better armor pieces than what they have on. All of their starting gear set will be moved to their shop inventory available for purchase. The same rule applies - do not buy the entire set or it respawns. Buy everything except one piece, like the boots. Then, trade with them again and remove the better armor. Now you can give them clothes or whatever you want and they will wear them until they are dismissed.