I have never really used them so I don't know much. I am looking for someone who is a very good sneak, and very good at either archery or even destruction magic. I want someone who can sneak with me and stay back and do ranged damage. I don't feel like going through trial and error. Suggestions please?

No follower is any good at sneaking around. Even when they have high sneak skills, they just don't know how to stay hidden and avoid attention.

Exactly. As a sneaky person, you're better off flying solo.

I always fly solo because those damn followers get in my way, I'm all "HEY! That was MY badguy!" and stuff.

J'zargo at the college of winterhold

dont pick J'zargo all he does is the lame novice shock attacks your better off with vilkas or lidya

Yeah, eff followers.

I would recommend "Eola" from the "The Taste of Death" quest at Markarth in the Hall of the Dead

If you want Destruction and ranged attacks, IMO Marcurio is your best bet.

Keep in mind that he uses Chain Lightning a lot, though, which may ricochet off enemies and hit other allies or temporary quest followers and hurt or kill them, at the very least they will go aggro on him and you will have to deal with that.

If you are on PC you can use console commands to remove that spell from his spell list, otherwise if you use him it is best to have him wait behind when you are going to be fighting or dungeon diving with other allies at your side.

He's no worse than any other follower at sneaking, and it is listed as part of his skillset so he's probably a bit better at it than some. I play mostly warrior types but use Sneak a great deal and he seems to do fine. OTOH I usually end up putting Muffle enchanted gear on myself and my followers at some point so I'm sure that makes a huge difference as well.

Have never had a problem with him getting in my way unless it's very tight quarters and he can't get any distance. He is very aggressive though and will attack anything in the vicinity that registers as hostile, oftentimes (especially out in the wilds or on the open road) before you even know it's there. Many a hapless frostbite spider or wolfpack has met its end at his hands before I could turn around and get my weapon drawn.

Get Derekeethus. It took me almost the entire game before I was fed up with him.

i wouldnt go as far as to pay money for a follower though

I like Faendal as an archer, but I'm on PC so I can level followers even though you'd normally meet him at low level. No followers are that great at sneaking, but sneaking everywhere is almost too easy anyways and they do sneak sometimes. Janessa is a good one too but I think she's a dual wielder and Maurico is a good Mage.

I had Janessa from the Drunken Huntsman in Whiterun as a follower for a time. If you keep her to light armors she does pretty well keeping quiet. She wasn't strong enough as a partner for my mage though and inevitably ended up dead in a charus nest (like all of my followers). My mage is evil so he doesn't really give a rat's ass about his followers... they are mules and meat shields so I've just been cycling through them... one dies, hire another one. I'm sure by the end of this build I'll have a pretty good idea who's good for what.

P.S. I won't hire J'zhargo. I hate cats and he's an ambitious bastard... only I'm worthy to be arch mage. Perhaps I'll hire him just to lead him to his death like I did Sven though... Hmm...

J'zargo is my favorite mage follower. He is a fellow Khajiit and levels up with the player up to 81 compared to 50 of other followers. Pretty useful with his Adept Shock Spells against enemy mage and dragon priest. I gave him the Arch-mage robes (it svcks compared to Master Robes anyway).

As for sneak I would recommend Cicero, just give him a strong Dagger and assign him to kill Lone enemies, but not grouped enemies.

There are no followers that are good in sneak and destruction, sorry.

^ this plus Khajiits are awesome