I'm an Altmer pure mage.

Am I going for:

A pure mage like myself?
A Battlemage?
A warrior?


I really have no idea

Go for Kharjo. Cause, c'mon, it's Kharjo.

You should get a melee fighter to intercept other melee fighters. At least at start. Your follower will run ahead, tank some of the damage and you can stay behind and shoot fireballs or whatever you prefer.

Erandur. He kicks ass with a mace, and can cast deadly destruction spells as well. Seriously, he cleared out a whole room of enemies on his own before, and it's fun watching him smash the back of enemy skulls with the mace of Molag Bal.

I have a mage/thief who is giving Marcurio (or whatever his name is) a test drive. He's great with his magic, and does well at a distance. My character tends to start with distance, then move in for the kill. So two ranged characters works out well. Just find this nasty little problem of getting lightining to the back if I get in his way. So used to hitting my followers with my bad aim, guess I get a taste of what it's like to be on the other side. But I'd suggest a warrior who uses a bow then switches off to a melee weapon. Keep your butt protected.

I don't do this because many of the dungeons are so narrow that you end up blasting your follower.

I leave my follower always at the entrance of a cave or ruin and use them as mule. Out in the open are they more useful.

That's great in theory, but in reality they use their crappy hunting bow (even if you have given them a better bow).

If you're going to be casting a lot of AOE spells and you don't want to murder them, you'll need an essential NPC.Mjoll the Lioness is a good choice, you can find her in Riften and you need to be at least level 14 to start the quest where you can acquire her as a follower.You'll never accidentally kill her because she's essential, but she will say annoying lines when you hit her like "I'm on your side!".Really though, your best companion is the Dremora Lord that you can summon when you reach Expert in Conjuration, he's easily the best summon in the game.He does just as much damage as a Storm Atronach, but can take more hits and he always engages in melee, and he doesn't crowd the whole room like the Frost Atronach.

There are now mods available that will fix the bow issue. Your follower will however switch to a melee weapon when other melee fighters come close.

Doesn't help me on Xbox though :/, I know but they won't actively pursue the enemy. They'll stay back with the bow, only switching if you lure the enemy close to the follower.