So Lydia's been following me around for the past 30-odd levels, around level 39-40 now. I've convinced her to wear some nicely crafted, upgraded, and enchanted Ebony armor and damned if this plate-wearing kamikaze doesn't go down on her knees in the first 10 seconds of a fight -- 2-4 seconds if the opponent wields a 2-hander. I tried applying health-boost enchants and health regen gear seems to get her back in the fight faster but even taking away her precious 2hander and making her use a nice ebony shield with blocking enchanted gear, she still goes down quick as hell. At this point I'm fearing I'm going to have to leave her at home sweep the floors as its only the easiest of opponents (the ones I can nearly kill with a single fire-bolt) that she stands up to for any length of time, and not much of that.

What in the world am I doing wrong?

Your followers are locked at the level that you first meet them. In your Lydia's case, she's probably around level 10 still, based on what you said. They don't level at all.

It's because the followers don't level up with you. If you got her at a low level she'll stay within that range for the rest of the game. Find another companion if she is too weak is my only advice.

Oh that's a level of bovine scatology only a moron would come up with. It's what I kinda expected but I thought no one could be that sadistic.

I wouldn't know. I sacrificed Lydia to the alter of Boethia as soon as I was given the opportunity.

You could try fortify heavy armor enchantment. If you can manage 4 pieces at Enchantment Skill of 100 you should be able boost her heavy armor skill to 100+. This should give her a liitle bit more tanking power at least. If you can double enchant boost her health as well.

Well, I did the console trick to disable/enable, which should fully reset them at the current level...but it didn't seem to help. Ran up against 3 bandits that I nuked from orbit, two of which ran at us: they didn't even slow down running toward me, each tossing a single blow at her and down she went.

Of all the poorly-thought-out design decisions they've come up with, this is the first that made me want to put the game up on the shelf and walk away for something else.

Yeah it is, but if they had done it right, you'd have complaints of the followers being OP.
Lydia's crap anyway, Annekka would have her for breakfast and spit her out at lunch.

According to some, they are.

Rule number one in these forums: don't take complaints seriously... They may be genuine, but they are just 99% whining. Like the one you quoted, who claimed he wanted to quit playing the game entirely because of some NPC isn't strong.

I've never even considered taking Lydia out on an adventure with me, but maybe that's because I'm sneaky and I don't want a companion.

She just sits at home, munching bread or drinking mead. Completely atrophied as far as my lvl 32 is concerned. It's a wonder she doesn't weigh 120 kilos by now.

And then there's the inevitable troll-post labeling a legitimate complaint regarding design as "whining," just like clockwork.

I guess if you're a really devoted fan, you can continue to love a game just 'cause, but the rest of us have a bit of a problem investing time and effort in a game when the confidence they have in the developers reaches a critical threshold. That follower-NPCs, especially housecarls, do not level while adventuring -- but your enemies can -- is antithetical to game logic and appears to be either a painfully stupid decision of the sort usually reserved for politicians or a bug/logic-problem they just decided to ignore. I'm familiar with shoddy product refinement from Bethesda (it wasn't until the UNofficial patches that I got Oblivion to work well enough to play through w/o console workarounds -- yes, that long) but this is a basic design element.

So the question "Do I want to keep playing this or put it on the shelf for a year or three until someone fixes Bethy's plethora of bad decisions?" comes to mind.

So sorry to have upset you, Pistolero.

There's at least one that seems as good at sneaking around, though he seems to eschew close-in work where possible.

Like others have said, currently Followers are bugged and do not level up with you. Supposedly was fixed, but not really. If your on PS3/360 your screwed til it's patched..

If your on PC, you can fix this quickly and easily, I had to.

1) Remove all given gear from follower (will be deleted if you don't)
2) Dismiss them (tell them to go home)
3) Open up the command console
4) click on your follower, so that there ID is displayed.
5) simply type "disable" and then "enable"
6) Enjoy your upgraded follower.

You'll know the "disable/enable" commands work properly when your follower disappears & then re-appears on screen.

As far as sneaking goes... I just give all my followers crafted gear, totaling 120% bonuses to sneaking (maxed enchanter skills), including the Muffle enchant on their boots. Works well enough.

I'd say "Just go get the Barbas the dog" but another design decision makes him contionously walk into you, pushing you around, over edges, blocking doorways etc.

Followers are just a headache not worth having...

I'm so glad I don't use companions.

IIRC you need to make them stop following you before the enable/disable trick will reset their level.

yeah, forgot about that.. edited it in.

I suppose the thing is that I am not a devoted fan. I came to this game as a newbie to the series, expecting little and having no burden of nostalgia dragging my objectivity. My point is that people point out the most trivial issues in the game and declare they are abandoning the whole game because of it. Every game Bethesda has released so far, those I've played, have been plagued with bugs that have mostly been fixed sooner or later. The game has been out for a month and people are already slitting their wrists.

So far I haven't had any game breaking bugs myself. My companions become weaker as I progress in the story, but then I just ditch them and get a new, up-to-date one. Live goes on

If you're using the disable/enable trick then - in addition to releasing them from service - you probably want to wait for them to return to their 'home' (wherever that happens to be) before doing it. (They'll respawn there anyway when you enable them.)

Is it when you meet them or when you accept them as a follower?

I like to keep Lydia, but I do make it a habit of re-leveling her every five levels. Keeping her with upgraded gear there really hasn't been a problem. I really need her as a pack mule as I horde loot.

Also wondering about this... Or is it when they're first loaded into the game? As in, I walk into a tavern, there's a person you can hire there, but I don't speak to them (I just leave), is that when it sets the level, or when they actually join you?

Their level is frozen when you first enter their cell. Not when you first hire them.

I wish more people shared your point of view. Why walk away from a game as deep and beautiful as Skyrim simply because X or Y isn't crafted to your specific game preferences?

You know, I want Destruction magic to get vastly more powerful as skill level and player level increase... even though it doesn't, I'm not putting the game away.

It's just the nature of the Internet these days. People are going to be petulant.

Thank you - so you're basically better of looking in places you haven't yet been for followers.

I'm wondering if there are any completely stationary ones though... As in, not moving around on daily schedules. Since, for a future play-through, min-maxing a follower would basically involve not visiting their cell until you're level 81.