Can followers' level only be raised wth the console? I admit, I'd rather not tinker with the console - it always seems like playing in God-mode.

But I had heard that you could level up followers by dismissing them, then re-hiring them, and they would be adjusted to match your current level. Is this incorrect?

I think the companions do level up with you, but I think for it to become effective you have to dismiss them from time to time, and then have them follow you again. I have been using Lydia protically since the begining and now I am lelvel 28 and she has pretty much kept up with the increases in difficulty. Though alot of the other issues listed are concerns of mine to, I don't knw how many times I have had to turn a shout towards the wall because she goes rushing in, what is worse is that I am sneaking still, though she doesn't charge in until we have been discovered.

i haven't tested it but my followers always seem to stay the same.

I don't know if this actually works, never really looked into it, but I train my followers, if we see wolves, mudcrabs and other low level enemies I stand back and let the follower fight alone, and to me they do seem to get better as time goes on, do their armor and weapons skills increase in the same way as the player character?

Beth pretty much said that the companions were going to svck and be shallow. They wanted to go the "quantity over quality" route for Skyrim, bad idea in an rpg.

Fixed that for you.

quantity may win wars, but it leaves you with a bad taste in the mouth at the end.

#6

GET OUT OF THE DAMN WAY LYDIA!!!!!

They catch up fairly quickly for me. Even if I scaled a mountain.

Yes they do level up, some cap at different points though.

Just give them better stuff then there default clothing. The only problem is they take off that equipment when dismissed. Which is only an issue if you want them to walk around town in the stuff.

It depends on what level you are. Followers are leveled to you up to there cap which varies depending on follower.

you know there is actually a simple solution to that, just sprint into your companion and they will stagger backwards and then walk a few steps backwards

that's not the point, the point is that some equipment may have a better enchantment but because it is weaker they won't wear it.

Hi everyone,

WHY OH WHY is it that when I put up a "problems with Skyrim programming" thread it gets taken down?

Hmmmmmm????!!!!!!

The companions are half baked Fallout 3/New Vegas wannabe's.
The producers of Skyrim thought "Hey, the player wants to be THE main focus........Give him what he wants" without consulting the player/customer!
Didn't Bethesda think that we would see how shallow the companion system is ESPECIALLY AFTER PLAYING FO & FO:New Vegas???

Revolutionary concept I say! Ask the customer what THEY want in a game.

Come on Bethesda......Time to release a BIG patch correcting the companion system
Confess that you gave us, in all actuality, a 3/4 baked product called Skyrim.

Forget ANY DLC until this huge chunk of programming/coding mess is resolved.

Community, you KNOW I'm right. Holla at your boy Stefnuts

Then put the enchantment on a higher qualty item. Are you trying to get them to wear an enchanted shrit over iron armor? Companions use very low quality gear its not hard to get them to wear better stuff.

lets say i don't want to use enchantments table in my character, i only want to use the things that i find, that would be like saying that i prefer to use one-hand over two-hand weapons, it is a matter of choice, then why should i be crippled by having to use the enchantment table to make my companion wear something.

I always have to make sure Lydia doesn't do something stupid when I load her down with loot.

(1) I don't hand her a two-handed weapon or she'll equip it and lose the use of her shield.
(2) I don't hand her helmets because I like having her face visible so I don't confuse her with an enemy in the heat of combat, and I gave her a circlet to boost her archery anyway.
(3) Many times (I have her in legendary steel plate) I'll hand her an un-upgraded suit of steel plate armor and she'll equip that instead of the legendary suit I've given her.
(4) She's very random with her choice of bows. She's got a legendary ebony bow now and I swear sometimes she's using the one built into her setup instead.
(5) Ditto with arrows. She will always use the weakest arrow she has available, so I have to make sure she never has anything weaker than steel arrows or ancient Nord arrows at a damage of 10.
(6) I swear to God that once she actually put on a Necromancer's robe that I had her carry as loot, even though she doesn't know a damn thing about magic.

You want to live with randomness then you should live with the decisions of characters who aren't you.

come on, this franchise is build upon letting the player make their own choices, the more choices that they make for us the worst the game is going to be, if i want to find random armor for my companion to wear then that's what i should be able to do, maybe it's a matter of how i want them to look or what enchantments i want, it doesn't matter, what matters is that the player should have more freedom to make their own choices.

Well, I suppose perhaps the answer to that might be "You get to make your own choices, but so does your companion." I'm actually torn about this myself. On the one hand, I think it makes sense to have companions choose their own equipment, but on the other hand, do they have to be so stupid about it? Lydia, quit wearing the Necromancer robes. You don't know magic, it's creeping out the locals and yes, it makes your butt look big.

The only reason I would want to be able to choose my companion's apparel would be to squeeze Lydia into one of those serving-wench "tavern clothing" outfits that are low-cut all the way down to Kalamazoo.

okay let say that they can choose their own apparel, but maybe by adding a new button to the menu were you could change what they wear too, i really don't think it would have been that difficult, but then again, it is a huge game and the more things that they add the more bugs that there is going to be.

It's really annoying when you are fighting something that is pretty challenging, takes you a while to beat it and when you finally do your companion decides to show up. It's like they just hide behind a rock hoping that you take out the enemy so that they don't scratch their brand new dragon armor I just gave them.

They don't have the wits to be cowards. They're probably walking straight into the rock wondering why they aren't moving forward. "Hmm...me feet are moving, why me no move forward? Oh well, me keep walking forward until something change."

Probably because they had [censored] writers and knew they'd be easily overshadowed by Obsidian. Judging from the game so far, I really don't doubt their quests and backstories would have svcked.

I agree their comments are boring and annoying... but its not just them. Its allll npcs. I actually started a poll about improving npcs its thaat bad. Repetitive. Oftenly irrelevant remarks. Lack of emotion