Keeping Followers (e.g. Lydia) Alive : V - Skyrim

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:46 am

I like Lydia because she's pretty useless. Doesn't really do much damage and gets pwned by just a couple of common enemies.

Since the only reason I have a follower is for them to "carry my burdens", and not steal my kills, Lydia is perfect for the job :smile:

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:27 am

So the question is -- what are the best techniques for keeping Lydia alive when I'm fighting bad things, especially bosses.

If you are on PC that is easy - just open the console and make her essential (setessential 000A2C8E 1).

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:28 pm

Give her a weapon that absorbs health and has a high damage output.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:20 pm

Since the game can't kill my follower, only I can, I usually just Sneak and let my follower do all the dirty work.

But the game can kill your follower. Its happened to me on a few occasions. L ydia's down on on knee ,mage throwing firebolts at me, hits Lydia,,,,,bam shes dead.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:03 am

The best advice, avoid friendly fire, if you've played long enough and taken note, the followers will go down on one knee at which point the enemy ignores them, the reason they get killed is because they get caught in cross fire, when I see my followers start to have trouble I run and make the enemy follow because they are now focused on me, this gives the follower more time to regenerate.

This.

But the game can kill your follower. Its happened to me on a few occasions. L ydia's down on on knee ,mage throwing firebolts at me, hits Lydia,,,,,bam shes dead.

I was initially convinced of this as well. When I read otherwise in the guide book, it was very hard for me to accept that I was the one responsible for the deaths of my first 4 or 5 followers. I thought it had to have been that frost troll, or some bandit.

However, after playing close to 400 hours I've found it to be the case. When they are on one knee, they are immune to traps and every form of damage from enemies. AFAIK, the only way they can die is at the hands of the PC.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 4:12 am

The nice thing is, they never seem to use up Enchantment Charges on weapons you give them.

In my game, her enchanted weapons (a 2nd Dawnbreaker, some frost-damage staff etc.) do use charges...every once in a while, I have to refill them.
But there's a nice touch to this: equip her with a soul-trapping weapon, and some empty soulgems, and she will automatically fill the gems for you.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 8:15 am

But the game can kill your follower. Its happened to me on a few occasions. L ydia's down on on knee ,mage throwing firebolts at me, hits Lydia,,,,,bam shes dead.

It can kill her in very imaginative ways. We got separated while going around a giants' camp near the mountains, and to save time I decided to use the console to teleport to her current position. This turned out to be about 1000 feet up in the air. (No, I don't know how.)

I know this because I could see her directly below me. Neither of us survived, but it was quite impressive watching the ground coming up to meet us.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:13 am

Listen to what she says, and watch what she's doing...once she goes down on one knee or staggers, hit her with a healing spell or two (if you have them, if you don't then invest in a healing staff).

Give her at least the same armour you have yourself, and boost her hitpoint regen and magic resistance with enchanted armour and necklaces/rings. I gave her a range of enchanted necklaces and rings varying from magic resistance and health boost through to various combat enchants, such as +40 bow damage, +25 one handed etc. She will decide which ones to wear when, and she's not too bad in choosing them either (I've checked).

I avoid giving her two handed weapons, because she can't block for **** with them, so I gave her an ebony hand-axe and a steel shield with magic resistance...she actually copes rather well for a long time using the Shield of Solitude until you can get her a better magic resistance/block skill shield.

In my view it's the magic users who take her down most, apart from the occasional friendly fire kills (don't use Stormcall...she's a lighting conductor).

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 11:08 am

This.

I was initially convinced of this as well. When I read otherwise in the guide book, it was very hard for me to accept that I was the one responsible for the deaths of my first 4 or 5 followers. I thought it had to have been that frost troll, or some bandit.

However, after playing close to 400 hours I've found it to be the case. When they are on one knee, they are immune to traps and every form of damage from enemies. AFAIK, the only way they can die is at the hands of the PC.

I went to BlackReach yesterday for the first time. As soon as Lydia and Sonya stepped out of the lift Sonya walked to the left to look at the sights thinking Lydia was right behind her. All of a sudden the sounds of swords clashing fills her ears,Sonya turns to see 2 Falmer converging on her...with skill she dispatches both of them but cant find Lydia. Walks down a dark ramp,and over in a corner is Lydia dead as dead can be,not a single blow delivered by me. The guide is wrong. Two Falmer killed her.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:54 am

I'm crossing level 40 now and I've been using Lydia the whole way. I have two other housecarls (I'm working on buying all the houses eventually) but they don't seem to be better than Lydia fighting or skills. So Lydia dies now and then, but really no more often than I do (surprising considering what an idiot she is). Boy I could go on about tactics and weapon choice, but that's another post.

So the question is -- what are the best techniques for keeping Lydia alive when I'm fighting bad things, especially bosses. So far I have Lydia in dragonplate with about 30-40% anti frost, fire, and shock enchantment (different items) and her armor has a health enchantment. I give her potions (minor healing and stamina) but I'm not sure if they help or not. She has a big ebony battleaxe with a 40 point fire enchantment and my old bow with respectable damage. She seems to like two handed weapons despite the fact that the book says she is a one-handed specialist. Not sure why. I also give her staffs which I tend not to use (like the familiar staff) which she uses all the time which tends to distract the bad guys from her a bit. Charges go down slowly on her weapons but she burns the staffs dry pretty quickly.

Ok, so what else can I do that I'm not doing to maximize her life expectancy? Thanks.

and Bethesda, work on the AI for followers PLEASE.

I had the same setup minus the enchantments (Dragonplate + Ebony Battleaxe) and Lydia absolutely crushed everything. However, I always try to soften my enemies up a bit while stealthily knocking them off with a bow so by the time there is a big battle, there are fewer enemies to fight outright.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:50 pm

I am working my way through the excavation site above blackreach right now with Lydia. So far we have only met a few Falmer and some dwarven machines. Nothing dangerous so far but it will, of course, get worse. I feel sorry for the archeology team. We'll see how Lydia does against the denizens of the ancient Dwemer past.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:24 am

Are you on a PC? I have a mod that makes her essential, as I think she should have been in the first place, But yeah, make her improved armor/weapons, and she will actually be really useful, she has saved my ass countless times.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:09 am

I`ve changed my mind about Followers not dying unless you hit them. I`ve now seen them die due to traps and I`m sure one died of poison- He just fell dead for no reason.

Followers die, it just takes until you get to higher levels- and traps.

They will die if you hit them while on one knee.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:45 am

a Mage follower, those guys really die, if at all. I had Marcurio then now I have Illia. Equip them with staffs and some enchanted Light Armour and watch the firworks. Just becarfeul and don't get in the way, i've been killed more then once by Illia using Ice Storm and the Staff of Firballs -_-

'

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 7:32 am

I went to BlackReach yesterday for the first time. As soon as Lydia and Sonya stepped out of the lift Sonya walked to the left to look at the sights thinking Lydia was right behind her. All of a sudden the sounds of swords clashing fills her ears,Sonya turns to see 2 Falmer converging on her...with skill she dispatches both of them but cant find Lydia. Walks down a dark ramp,and over in a corner is Lydia dead as dead can be,not a single blow delivered by me. The guide is wrong. Two Falmer killed her.

2 falmer knocked her of the edge causing death by fall damg.
npc's can't kil followers. pc's and fall damg are not npc's so thats how they can die. which is why shouting them of a cliff works it's the fall damg not the shout that kills them.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:25 am

I think it's pretty clear that followers are always susceptible to all kinds of damage (pc, npc, splash, traps). The only difference is that when they take a knee, npc's won't actively target them. But any further damage will likely kill them. Splash damage from a fireball (yours or enemies), falling off a ledge, a flying tankard, etc.

Crouch behind your follower after they drop to a knee and watch as any enemy fire aimed at you that accidentally hits them will kill them. Arrows, spells, swords, etc. You can't use them as an invicible shield.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:12 am

2 falmer knocked her of the edge causing death by fall damg.
npc's can't kil followers. pc's and fall damg are not npc's so thats how they can die. which is why shouting them of a cliff works it's the fall damg not the shout that kills them.

Noooooo. It was not a high ramp at all. I heard her fighting behind me and thought "she's in full ebony armor with enchantments and weapons she's cool". It wasn't until the Falmer rushed at me that I got the knot in my stomach that something was wrong. There was no high fall, my weapons were sheathed the dirty goblins killed her,at level 39 I might add.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:55 am

I am with Ronan on this one.

A follower takes so much damage that it drops him or her below a threshold and they go down on one knee and the bad guys leave them alone, we know that. However, NPCs do seem to be able to get the kill if there is more than one of them, not always but it does happen - I would guess that this caused by the killing blow being launched before the follower goes down on one knee and arriving after. I also suspect that a single NPC can get the kill if the followers health is sufficiently low that the final attack wipes out all there is left, but I can't be sure on this.

Once, running up the steps to talk to the Greybeards, I paused and turned around to admire the view and see where Lydia was. She was lying on the steps further back, stone dead. I went to her body and was attacked by an ice wraith as I reached it. She didn't fall, there were no traps, I hadn't even unsheathed my sword; she was killed by an NPC, probably an ice wraith, maybe two.

The book is wrong, followers can be killed by NPCs.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 1:26 am

Me and Lydia were running away from one of the most Fearsome/Gruesome opponent the Horker and she fell in the water and died.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 10:12 am

I quickly read through this thread so sorry if someone posted this and I missed it but one of the ways I keep my followers alive when the going gets tough and/or it's cramped with lots of enimies is to first tell them to "wait here". Of course followers in this game don't seem to understand this concept and unless you leave them far enough away they just immediatly run into combat to "help" you and end up getting killed by your weapon wailing or area effect spells , so I just do a simple "tai" in the console on them and disable their ai... Then I can run around and handle the dungeon myself wihtout having to worry about them coming to my "rescue" and getting themselves killed....

I realize this isn't exactly ideal if you're intending them to help you in battle and keep them alive but in my case I really only keep them around for the extra carrying capacity. I do enjoy their help in battle most of the time and can manage to not kill them but sometimes they do just get in the way and in those cases I find the best way to remedy this is to disable their ai.....I guess you really don't need to make them "wait here" first but I really wanted to work in there the point that they don't listen when you tell them to.

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 2:22 pm

I"ll say this about Lydia, if you are a sneaky archer type, with certain perks, remember to save game often! I can't count the number of times she ran in front of me when i was doing a sneak attack shot on an enemy and one hit killed her in the back with an arrow (granted it was an enchanted bow that was just recharged typically).

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:06 am

My simple solution: Slow Time shout + dual-wielding Swords to kill anything before they even have a chance to touch her
My simpler solution: have her stay at home and guard all my stuff while I pwn things solo

» Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:37 am

I'm crossing level 40 now and I've been using Lydia the whole way. I have two other housecarls (I'm working on buying all the houses eventually) but they don't seem to be better than Lydia fighting or skills. So Lydia dies now and then, but really no more often than I do (surprising considering what an idiot she is). Boy I could go on about tactics and weapon choice, but that's another post.

So the question is -- what are the best techniques for keeping Lydia alive when I'm fighting bad things, especially bosses. So far I have Lydia in dragonplate with about 30-40% anti frost, fire, and shock enchantment (different items) and her armor has a health enchantment. I give her potions (minor healing and stamina) but I'm not sure if they help or not. She has a big ebony battleaxe with a 40 point fire enchantment and my old bow with respectable damage. She seems to like two handed weapons despite the fact that the book says she is a one-handed specialist. Not sure why. I also give her staffs which I tend not to use (like the familiar staff) which she uses all the time which tends to distract the bad guys from her a bit. Charges go down slowly on her weapons but she burns the staffs dry pretty quickly.

Ok, so what else can I do that I'm not doing to maximize her life expectancy? Thanks.

and Bethesda, work on the AI for followers PLEASE.

Give her potions, she will use them accordingly. Health potions are a must.