Would anyone be interested in this? It would include things like Followers leveling up, maybe the first perk would be something like you don't have to pay mercenarys, and it moves up to having 2 followers. Other Perks could include training followers in different skills, or having increases to stats of followers like plus 100 health. Anyone else think this could be added alongside things like the unarmed perk tree?

I think it could be a fun little addition to the game, and it might give people like me a reason to actually have followers, just like horse combat gave me a reason to have a horse.

This would be good but the perks would have to be smaller because people would just sit back and watch Lydia destroy the world.
If your idea was put in place, they would probably also stop followers from only being able to die by your hands. So they would be able to die from hostiles.

New Vegas gave a buff based on charisma, why not just have a slight buff to followers based on speechcraft skill? Remember that new skills and perks can't be accessed by your existing characters if they are maxed out.

You can do the same for unarmed and athletics with no new perks or skills, one handed (and/or two handed) gives a bonus to unarmed stamina damage as the skill rises, and +1 to 2% run speed and jump height for each time stamina is taken at level up.

Sounds like it could be a part of speech craft, but I still like these ideas.

I had the same idea a while back: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1376681-making-leadership-a-skill/page__fromsearch__1

I like that idea OP

I'm not going to use followers if they don't fix the way they lock to your level when you enter the cell. Pretty much all the followers in my game are useless.

followers for console players need a complete change.

luckily i am playing on the pc and there are mods that fix them. like them lvling up with you and you can actually, now watch out, TAKE THE BOW OF THEM! magic i know, since usually you take their bow away and... they still use one!